The University of Bonn is supporting the “Molecular Quantum Information” project, the brainchild of a group of experimental researchers, with the €50,000 Synergy Prize. The award was presented recently by the Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA Matter) as part of the “Matter Connects” networking event. The winning group is one of five Synergy Bubbles, agile interdisciplinary teams that are pursuing innovative research and teaching ideas straddling subject boundaries.

Wastewater from washing machines is considered a major source of microplastics – tiny plastic particles that are suspected of harming human and animal health. Researchers at the University of Bonn now have developed a filter to curb this problem. Their filter was inspired by the gill arch system in fish. In initial tests, the now patent-pending filter was able to remove over 99 percent of plastic fibers from washing machine wastewater. The results now have been published in the journal npj Emerging Contaminants.

New guidelines formulated by the University of Bonn and the Wissenschaftsladen Bonn explain how the academic and scientific community can work successfully with city authorities and civil society to bring about a sustainable transformation and how students can become change agents for this process.

The human P2X4 receptor plays an important role in chronic pain, inflammation and some types of cancer. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) have now discovered a mechanism that can inhibit this receptor. The results were recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications and open up a pathway for the development of new drugs.

In what had long been merely the stuff of dreams for archaeologists, a “smart robot” has now put shattered ancient murals from Pompeii back together, piece by tiny piece. A team of researchers led by Professor Maren Bennewitz from the University of Bonn taught the robot how to solve its jigsaw puzzle as part of “Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Meet Cultural Heritage” (RePAIR), an EU collaborative project that has recently concluded.

The University of Bonn has again succeeded in garnering funding under the GO-Bio initial grant program this year, with as many as six innovative projects attracting 100,000 euros of funding for their conceptual phase. During the one-year funding term, project teams from the University of Bonn and University Hospital Bonn (UKB) will be applying their research findings to develop practical medical and health care solutions. GO-Bio initial is a program launched by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

The EU’s Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall visited Bonn on December 1 to find out about the research being done in the University of Bonn’s PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence. Discussions focused on three main topics: digital agriculture, sustainable food systems and preserving biodiversity.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is setting up a new Research Training Group (RTG) at the University of Bonn. Entitled “Entwicklung und Epileptogenese von Dysplasien im Zusammenspiel distinkter ZNS-Zelltypen” (“Development and Epileptogenesis of Dysplasias in the Interplay of Distinct CNS Cell Types”), the program for doctoral students will see early-career researchers investigate experimental approaches for treating forms of epilepsy that do not respond to existing treatments. The DFG is to fund the RTG to the tune of some €6.1 million over the next five years.