If the immune system is weakened, harmless yeast fungi can become a deadly threat: With the aid of various proteins they can penetrate human tissue. In his university thesis Xin Xiong examined how one of these proteins behaves in fungus cells.

In his thesis, which has been awarded the first Hugo-Geiger Prize, Xin Xiong for the first time ascertained the conditions in which the protein Tsa1p, which is important for hyphal growth, is expressed and occurs on the cell surface.

During her research placement at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Silke Kersen built a three-dimensional skin model with capillary-like structures. “Up to now the problem has been to stimulate endothelial cells to form capillary structures in their new artificial environment,” explains the winner of the second Hugo-Geiger Prize. “But in the correct mixture with growth factors and two further cell types that form tissue-supporting substances, a 3D network simply grows – without any additional aids.”