Development of three biofuel CRMs for the quality parameters in biodiesel and wood pellet via a joint research project.

Biomass is a key element in biofuels which can be defined as a fuel produced through contemporary biological processes, and its increased use can support the EU's aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Information on the nature and the quality of the biomass or biofuel is important in order to support the optimization of their combustion with respect to realizing higher efficiencies and lower emissions during energy production. Three reference materials were produced by a collaborative approach among national metrology institutes and designated institutes within the scope of the EMPIR project: BIOFMET.

Germline variants of homology-directed repair or mismatch repair genes in cervical cancer.

While cervical cancer is associated with a persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the progression to cancer is influenced by genomic risk factors that have remained largely obscure. Pathogenic variants in genes of the homology-directed repair (HDR) or mismatch repair (MMR) are known to predispose to diverse tumour entities including breast and ovarian cancer (HDR) or colon and endometrial cancer (MMR). We here investigate the spectrum of HDR and MMR germline variants in cervical cancer, with particular focus on the HPV status and histological subgroups.

Microscale δS and δO variations of barite as an archive for fluid mixing and microbial sulphur metabolisms in igneous rock aquifers.

The stable isotope compositions of sulphur (δS) and oxygen (δO) in barite are frequently used as proxies for microbial sulphate reduction (MSR) in diverse environments, such as in relation to anaerobic oxidation of methane in marine cold seeps. There, isotopically heavy barite is used as a marker for MSR from a sulphate pool that has undergone semi-closed system conditions. Closed-system MSR is also a commonly observed feature in igneous rock hosted fracture aquifers, as shown by extremely S-enriched pyrite.

Validation and functional follow-up of cervical cancer risk variants at the HLA locus.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in females. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have proposed cervical cancer susceptibility variants at the HLA locus on chromosome 6p21. To corroborate these findings and investigate their functional impact in cervical tissues and cell lines, we genotyped nine variants from cervical cancer GWASs (rs17190106, rs535777, rs1056429, rs2763979, rs143954678, rs113937848, rs3117027, rs3130214, and rs9477610) in a German hospital-based series of 1122 invasive cervical cancers, 1408 dysplasias, and 1196 healthy controls.