Standort Tirol Special Edition Wellness

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STANDORT

0416

t is not so easy to say how many

cells a human being consists of.

What can safely be said, though,

is that each cell is a marvel, taking care

of its own energy supply. Often de-

scribed as the cell’s powerhouse, the

mitochondria control cell breathing,

a biochemical process in the course

of which nutrients, especially carbo-

hydrates and fatty acids, are burned

for producing energy and for sustain-

ing life processes, and chemical en-

ergy stored in the form of adenosine

triphosphate (ATP). Biologist Erich

Gnaiger has specialized in the meas-

urement of this process of cell breath-

ing. At the beginning of the nineties,

he brought his first measuring device

on the market, today the instruments

produced by his company Oroboros,

based in Innsbruck, are used at some

800 laboratories around the world.

“With the help of small samples of

muscle tissue or blood we can meas-

ure the intensity of cell breathing –

and we can do so with a resolution

that is unequaled,” says Gnaiger. An

auxiliary module in his Oxygraph-2k

enables optical fluorescence meas-

urements, so that it is also possible to

determine, among other things, the

production of oxygen radicals and

ATP, calcium concentration or the

mitochondrial membrane potential.

These are values that play an impor-

tant role in the diagnosis e.g. of type

2 diabetes or dementia. Yet Gnaiger

wants more, he wants to use the meas-

urement of cell breathing for the

purposes of preventive medicine and

lifestyle diagnostics.

Part one of this research project

deals with the question of whether

mitochondrial functions “are show-

ing a measurable alteration at such

an early stage that they can be used

for an early warning system.” If they

are, Gnaiger is convinced, the meas-

urements can be done with the help

of his Oxygraph-2k, which is why he

and his team, in a project supported

by the State of Tyrol, are working to-

wards a globally harmonized measur-

ing standard, in order for study out-

comes from all over the world then

to be collected in a data bank. The

data (Gnaiger: “We’re thinking of

data from 400,000 people.”) would

form the basis for getting to the bot-

tom of questions as to the link be-

tween the measurable mitochondrial

fitness and lethargy, nutritional be-

havior, exercise, or obesity. A vision,

as Gnaiger points out, that has also

found a sympathetic ear in Brussels.

In September, a four-year EU project

called MITOEAGLE, led by Gnaiger,

has got underway that involves some

300 to 400 partners and deals with the

subject of “Mitochondrial Mapping:

Evolution – Age – Gender – Lifestyle

– Environment.” For more informa-

tion go to

wiki.oroboros.at

]

Questions of Cell Breathing

Oroboros is the world’s number one when it comes to measuring cell breathing.

In future, the know-how shall also be used to support lifestyle diagnostics.

Gnaiger:“A measuring of cell breathing for the purposes of preventive medicine.”

Picture:Andreas Friedle

HEALTH

Having been founded in 1668, the University of Innsbruck is among the oldest universities in Austria. Some 350

years later, it no longer has a monopoly, though.Together with the Medical University of Innsbruck, the private health

& life sciences university UMIT, the three universities of applied sciences (FH Gesundheit, MCI, FH Kufstein), as well as

two teacher training colleges the University of Innsbruck forms a strong Tyrolean research cluster.The latter in num-

bers: almost 35,000 students, 6,300 staff, and an annual budget of 400 million euro.

Research at the heart of the Alps

FACTS. NEWS.

[ Subject: Research ]

Tyrolean research projects in the

fields of medicine and health are globally

recognized and linked up, and many large

international projects coordinated from

Innsbruck.Thus, for example, Erich Gnaiger

with his company Oroboros leads the

EU project MITOEAGLE (see article

bottom left), Hermann Stuppner (article

left) coordinates the project medihealth,

in which partners from ten countries

explore edible plants and their influence

on healthy aging.

The gynecologist Nicole

Concin (picture left) leads

the EU-wide consorti-

um GANNET53, which

researches an innovative

new therapy for ovarian

cancer. In the APERIM project, meanwhile,

coordinated by the Innsbruck bioinifor-

maticist Zlatko Trajanoski, new bioinfor-

matic solution approaches are developed

for data editing in personalized immune

therapies. In the context of the Human

Brain Project, a flagship project of the Eu-

ropean Commission, training programs are

worked out, under the leadership of Alois

Saria (Medical University of Innsbruck),

that shall meet the future requirements

of neuroscientific research. And Michaela

Kress, physiologist at the

Medical University of

Innsbruck (picture left),

together with international

partners works towards

the development of new

perspectives in palliative care in the con-

text of ncRNAPain.

Picture:MUI/Heidegger

Airflow in a Pipe

The sensor system developed by the Tyrolean

company CubileHealth measures data as we sleep.

n fact, it is just a packet of foam

sealed air-tight, around fifty by

ten centimeters in size, and just

under a centimeter thick, no metal

and no electronics. When you press

the pad, however, air will escape

through a thin pipe. “A flow sen-

sor at the end of the pipe measures

the speed of this air flow,“ Johannes

Hilbe explains the system, which in

the truest sense of the word detects

a whisper. Placed underneath a mat-

tress, it reacts to restlessness during

sleep, but also to simple breathing

movements, and sends air into the

pipe. To deal with the data thus

gained, Hilbe needs his partner Karl

Fritscher. The bioinformaticist has

developed an algorithm that calcu-

lates breathing and heart rate from

the flow data, which moreover are

processed for display on a monitor,

and sent via app to Smartphone or

PC. “Besides simple questions, such

as, When and how does someone

sleep?, or, When does someone get

up?, we can also measure more com-

plex things like heart and lung activ-

ity,” Hilbe describes their joint inven-

tion Cubile. The fields of application

primarily envisaged are nursing and

hospital care, in order to make work

easier for the nursing staff. However,

the potentials of Cubile, Hilbe says,

are practically endless. “Cubile can

also be used as a simple life check

during a wellness stint, in order, for

example, to demonstrate to guests

the recreational value they receive

by way of sleep-related data,” Hilbe

looks into the future of Cubile, which

is expected to be ready for the mar-

ket in the spring of 2017. For more

info go to

www.cubilehealth.com

]

Picture:Andreas Friedle

Johannes Hilbe (left) and Karl Fritscher want to put Cubile on the market in 2017.

lthough he works at the Uni-

versity of Innsbruck and his

specialty are botanical agents,

the edelweiss, as Hermann Stuppner

admits, for a long had not been on

his radar. This changed when some

guy from Innsbruck got in touch

and asked if Stuppner didn’t fancy

examining the edelweiss more close-

ly at the laboratory. The man was

an edelweiss grower and had some

to spare right then. Why not, the

scientist told himself, especially when

some initial research showed that the

edelweiss had been used in popular

medicine for treating stomach pains

in the past. First phytochemical and

pharmacological examinations fol-

lowed, which proved that both the

above- and the below-ground parts of

the edelweiss had “interesting anti-in-

flammatory properties.” The team at

the department of pharmacognosy

only really could get going, though,

through a contact in Switzerland

where the protected plant is being

grown on a large scale.

“We now know some sixty com-

ponents, which we have isolated,

characterized and for the most part

examined pharmacologically,“ Stup-

pner says. Especially two substances,

described for the first time, are caus-

ing excitement among the research-

ers – edelweiss acid and leoligin. The

former, as scientific analyses have

shown, is a highly antioxidant com-

pound and a radical quencher, there-

fore, among other things, seemingly

protecting the edelweiss from the

intense UV radiation in high alpine

altitudes. “There’s already a lot of

interest from the cosmetic industry,

of course,“ says Stuppner. “Whether

edelweiss acid could be able to halt

the aging process of the skin, at least

for a certain time, we will find out

in a project together with the Inns-

bruck Institute for Biomedical Aging

Research.”

The leoligin gained from the roots

has been looked at together with

the University Hospital for Thoracic

Surgery. “We found out that leoligin

protects us from the arteriosclerotic

change of vessels,” the professor of

pharmacognosy reports. As there is

also a risk of artery-walls thickening

after bypass operations, a leoligin de-

pot was built up around implanted

vessels in the mouse model. “We de-

tected a significant difference to the

group without leoligin,” Stuppner

says.

Two patent applications have been

filed by the Innsbruck researchers

for their edelweiss discoveries. In a

large research network the active in-

gredients have been examined more

closely and synthesized, as well as

numerous derivatives gained, with

in parts even better results. While no

toxicological effects of leoligin have

been proven so far, Stuppner says,

the overall toxicological examina-

tion of the substance – a complex,

and above all a very expensive proce-

dure – was still pending, in order for

it to become interesting for a poten-

tial drug development. ]

Phytopharmacy:

The Healing Powers of Edelweiss

The edelweiss is the star among the Alpine flora. Hermann Stuppner coaxed two substances from it, which could be interesting both for cosmetic and medical uses.

Pictures:Marian Kröll,Andreas Friedle

Subject: [ BUSINESS LOCATIONTYROL

]