The liver is our central metabolic organ. It controls the nutrients that enter the blood via the intestine, stores glucose and vitamins, breaks down toxins and is also the central production area for the proteins and messengers that are vital to life. If the liver is severely ill, the sole option available thus far has been a liver transplant. The Cell and Gene Therapy clinical research group of Prof. Dr. Michael Ott is now searching for alternatives to organ transplantation at TWINCORE. One focus of their work is the development of cell and gene therapies for newborn infants and children with severe congenital liver defects, as this was formerly only capable of being treated in the form of a liver transplant. Initial treatment with adult liver cells has already been conducted at the clinic. Although the cell therapy represents an advance, so far it does not result in healing, merely respite until a suitable donor organ can be found. One major obstacle to the spread of the therapy is the supply of high-quality liver cells, which still need to be isolated from donor organs. The creation of liver cells from stem cells is therefore a further major focus of the research group led by Michael Ott.

 
In future, experimental approaches with test tubes and animal experimentation will be sufficient to treat congenital liver defects via gene therapy. This will involve viruses being altered in a manner that enables them to function as gene transporters to smuggle a healthy copy of the defective gene into the cells.

 
A further focus of the research of the group is that of liver infections: infections with the hepatitis C virus are the most common worldwide cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cell cancer. The hepatitis C virus is very difficult to investigate in the laboratory, as it can only be reproduced in specific human cells   scientists are unable to examine this infection on mice or other laboratory animals. The Ott research group is now attempting to transfer human liver cells to mouse livers. The goal: to understand hepatitis C and develop therapies to combat the virus.