Chemists have modified the enzyme levansucrase using a new method. The enzyme can now produce sugar polymers that are exciting for applications in the food industry and medicine.

"From the basics of biofabrication to functional tissue models" – hence the title of a new Transregio Collaborative Research Centre headed by the University of Würzburg.

Scientists from Würzburg have synthesized a complex sugar molecule which specifically binds to the tumor protein Galectin-1. This could help to recognize tumors at an early stage and to combat them in a targeted manner.

A newly discovered protein from a fungus is able to suppress the innate immune system of plants. This has been reported by research teams from Cologne and Würzburg in the journal "Nature Communications".