Researchers at Med Uni Graz work to improve patient health and wellbeing, using ample resources such as Biobank Graz, one of the largest biobanks in Europe.Credit: Med Uni Graz
If all microbial life disappeared, the world would change dramatically. Microbes are the motors of all ecosystems on Earth, control all nutrient cycles, and their activity is closely interwoven with human health and disease.
Microbiome researcher, Christine Moissl-Eichinger, and her research group at Medical University of Graz, Austria, are working to understand the molecular, physiological, and ecological mechanisms behind the microbial ecosystems across the planet, linking environmental and human health, from the deep sea and soils to the human gut. The group’s research is part of the Cluster of Excellence, ‘Microbiomes Drive Planetary Health’, which was established in 2023. The cluster aims to break down the barriers between environmental and medical microbiome research in Austria. Research focuses on microbiome interactions, responses to environment, and interventions for planetary health.
Moissl-Eichinger and colleagues analysed microbial communities aboard the International Space Station. The immune systems of astronauts living in microgravity weaken over time: this prompted researchers to ask whether the same was happening to microbiomes, or the organisms found in a particular environment, and whether they resist treatment, becoming ‘super bugs.’ Results showed that microbes are no more able to survive in uninhabitable environments in the weightless and radiative ecosystem of space. Though there was no observed impact on human health, the research will influence planning for long-term spaceflights and for other restricted environments such as clean rooms and intensive care units1.
Microbiome research at Med Uni Graz is also informing efforts to manage acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a condition that can occur after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Donor cells (the graft) recognize the recipient's body (the host) as foreign and attack it. This can affect up to half of stem cell transplants and mean that additional treatment is required. One in ten patients may die as a result2. In an ongoing clinical trial, researchers at Med Uni Graz are exploring the potential role of faecal microbiota transplant to treat or prevent acute intestinal GvHD after stem cell transplant.
Medical University of Graz campus.Credit: Med Uni Graz (David Schreyer)
Other key areas of research at the university include cancer, neuroscience, sustainable health research, and metabolic, and cardiovascular research. Molecular biologist at Med Uni Graz, Wolfgang Graier, works on mitochondrial metabolism and ion signalling.
“Mitochondria are important in energy metabolism, but also play a major role in human disease and ageing,” said Graier.
Graier's lab is looking at drugs that selectively clear senescent cells, known as senolytics. By promoting inflammation, insulin resistance and other metabolic disturbances, senescent cells can contribute to the development and progression of aging-associated neurodegenerative, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases. Senolytic drugs therefore have potential in managing age-related diseases. In preclinical studies of senolytic compounds, mice lived longer and were active for more of their lifespan3. Graier's lab is working with an Austrian life science company, using artificial intelligence to find important structural elements of the compounds and design better candidates.
“I have collaborated with pharma and biotech companies for 25 years,” says Graier. “It's very exciting, as industry researchers can suggest things that academic scientists don't think of. However, academics do have more freedom.”
The next step for the senolytics research will be moving the bench research to the bedside. The proximity of the university hospital and the networks between basic and clinical sciences, will make translation simpler and quicker.
Supportive research networks
“The benefit of being a small and relatively new university means that we can get to know each other across the campus,” says Graier. “Our teams are young, and they understand that good science can't be done in a closed lab. It's about keeping the doors open, and sharing skills, findings and equipment.”
Biobank Graz is an important part of Med Uni Graz's research ecosystem and is another example of where preclinical and clinical sciences interact. Created in 2007, it collects specimens from patients at the University Hospital Graz. By 2022, the biobank held 1.6 million liquid samples, 38,000 frozen samples and 20 million formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples as blocks and slides, from 70 defined cohorts and collections across all medical fields, all available to support research at Graz universities and beyond. These samples support research in COVID-19, fertility, osteoporosis and more.
“The region’s universities are large enough to have critical mass collectively, but small and flexible enough to seek collaboration and work together,” says Med Uni Graz vice-rector, Caroline Schober.
Co-operation even goes beyond academia and medical partners. For example, researchers at Med Uni Graz have created links with the local automotive industry, working on lights that can be operated using gestures — useful for both surgeons and drivers.
A home for start-ups
Med Uni Graz's research management team helps staff, students and graduates to find the funding and networks they need to create a startup, and the technology transfer team connects academia and industry for collaborative projects. Med Uni Graz runs the Centre for Knowledge and Tech Transfer in Medicine — offering start-up companies and larger industry projects ample lab and office space right on campus. Med Uni Graz is also a shareholder of Science Park Graz: a high-tech academic incubator, created jointly with the University of Graz and Graz University of Technology and having supported the creation of more than 150 companies since 2002.
“We have a very active startup scene, including medtech and telemed solutions, and needed to open a second startup facility here on campus as the first is full,” says Schober. “The Med Uni Graz, the startup centres and the university hospital together comprise a unique ecosystem — the Medical Science City Graz.”
An example of a successful startup is decide Clinical Software, a spinoff from Med Uni Graz and the Graz research and technology organization, Joanneum Research. When people with diabetes are in hospital for other reasons, such as surgery, their diabetes is harder to manage. In turn, their healing can be slower, and their hospital stays longer. Providing healthcare professionals with more information helps keep patients stable. Med Uni Graz research supported the development of GlucoTab: a software-driven clinical decision support system that helps clinicians to manage patient blood sugar, document results, and reduce medication errors.
“Med Uni Graz is innovative and agile, with a spotlight on patient health and wellbeing — from basic research to patient care,” says Schober. “It's rare to have a university dedicated to medicine, focused on both research and clinical care. This benefits our students, researchers and clinicians, and of course our patients.”