Excellent Research: Prizes and Funded Projects of TRA Life and Health
We regularly award innovative and transdisciplinary projects in the field of “Life and Health” with our Transdisciplinary Research Prizes. At the same time, projects are selected and funded according to thematic calls for proposals, which sharpen the research profile and can serve as preparation for larger third-party funded projects.
Project grants "Intercellular Communication and Functional Cellular Ensembles in the Tissue" 2025
TRA Life and Health has awarded funding to three interdisciplinary projects around this topic. The awarded projects are:
- D. Baumjohann (Medical Clinic III)/F. Hansen (Pharmaceutical and Cell Biological Chemistry)/E. Kostenis (Pharmaceutical Biology): "Dissection of intercellular communication in human tonsil-based immune organoids with novel CXCR5 inhibitors"
- F. Schmidt (Inst. of Innate Immunity)/J. Wenzel (Dermatology): "Paracrine Antiviral Signaling in the Skin"
- A. Schlitzer/A.I. Vazquez-Armendariz (both LIMES): "Bridging immune-competent lung organoids and spatial profiling to model alveolar macrophage-driven epithelial remodeling after urban particle matter exposure"
Transdisciplinary Research Prize "Modelling for Life and Health" 2025
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz and Prof. Dr. Jan Hasenauer (both LIMES-Institute) receive the "Modelling for Life and Health" Prize 2025. They have been awarded for their research project "Random walks or directed paths? - Harvesting the potential of 3D-modeling to uncover the impact of ontogeny on alveolar macrophage dynamics".
The prize of the TRAs “Modelling” and “Life and Health” is endowed with a grant of EUR 100,000 and promotes highly innovative research projects at the interface between mathematics or computer science and biomedical research topics.
Life and Health Research Prize 2024
The TRA Life and Health aims to promote innovative research and transdisciplinary collaboration with the “Life and Health Research Prize”. The project “Systematic analysis of regulators that confer translation specification across species” by Junior Professor Dr. Kathrin Leppek (Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology) and Junior Professor Maximilian Billmann (Institute of Human Genetics) has now been awarded the prize for 2024. The two scientists are working together on the combination of experimental data sets with computer models. This joint work should help to understand huge amounts of data derived from analyses of biological processes with the aim of finding new cellular mechanisms. There are good reasons to believe that these very specific and at the same time very large data sets contain relevant information for the new joint research question on mRNA translation by ribosomes.
In addition to the quality of the planned project, an important funding criterion was that scientists from two different fields are working together.
Ein Video von Gunar Peters GPM, Bonn, im Auftrag der Uni Bonn.
Bild © Universität Bonn / YouTube
TRA2 prize takes interfaculty cooperation to a new level
The ‘TRA² - Transdisciplinary Research Prize’ of the University of Bonn honours highly innovative projects in which at least two different TRAs of the University of Bonn work together on relevant questions about future issues. For the first time, the six Transdisciplinary Research Areas have jointly announced the TRA² Prize in 2024. The successful applications will receive funding of up to 50,000 euros as start-up funding for joint research.
The transdisciplinary research projects are dedicated to the following topics and questions:
What happens when you pursue an important goal but lose sight of other important aspects in the process? For example, when companies optimise their profits but forget about sustainability goals?
How do microorganisms in the human mouth adapt to changes in diet and lifestyle?
And what do we do when tumours in breast or prostate cancer become resistant to common drugs such as mitoxantrone?
Would you like to find out more? Read the abstracts of the award-winning projects!
Transdisciplinary Research Prize "Modelling for Life and Health" 2023
Prof. Dr. Thomas Schultz (Institute of Computer Science II, University of Bonn) and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Theodor Rüber (Clinic and Polyclinic for Epileptology, UKB Bonn) receive the “Modelling for Life and Health” prize for their project on improved diagnostic strategies in the run-up to epilepsy surgery.
The prize of the TRAs “Modeling” and “Life and Health” is endowed with a grant of EUR 120,000 and promotes highly innovative research projects at the interface between mathematics or computer science and biomedical research topics.
"Method Development" Grants 2023
- Ulrike Endesfelder (Institut für Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie) - Revolutionizing Fluorescence Microscopy with Event-based sensors for High Temporal Resolution and Dynamic Range Imaging
- Sebastián Dupraz/Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar/Dagmar Wachten (Institute for Neurovascular Cell Biology/Institute of Innate Immunity) - Rabid-Seq: a single cell methodology to examine true local intercellular interactions within the Neurovascular Unit
- Thomas Becker/Dominic Winter (Institut für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie) - Systematic Mapping and Characterization of Protein Complexes by Complexome Profiling
Life and Health Research Prize 2022
TRA Life and Health wants to promote innovative research and transdisciplinary collaborations with the "Life and Health Research Prize" and has now awarded two projects, each involving scientists from different departments of the University of Bonn. Prof. Dr. Volker Busskamp (Eye Clinic, University Hospital Bonn) and Prof. Dr. Elvira Mass (LIMES Institute) want to establish organoid models of the retina in their project in order to be able to study diseases such as age-related macular degeneration in the laboratory.
The second award-winning project will investigate the relationship between the composition of the nasal microbiome and Alzheimer's disease. Junior Professor Dr. Marie-Christine Simon (Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences) and Prof. Dr. Anja Schneider and Prof. Dr. Michael Wagner (Clinic for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry, University Hospital Bonn) were awarded for this.
Current funding opportunities
We regularly award research prizes and promote innovative projects by our members. Be part of it!
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About TRA Life and Health
Learn more about the goals, members and organization of the transdisciplinary research area.
Research
Lesen Sie hier über das Forschungsprofil, Themen und geförderte Projekte der TRA Life and Health.
Six TRAs at the University of Bonn
There are five other TRAs at the University of Bonn: