Research and Study at the University of Excellence in Bonn

A lot has happened in research since the University of Bonn achieved excellence status in 2019. The Scientific Advisory Board - a body of external scientists from all over the world - has now informed itself about the progress in the Excellence Strategy. Over the past three days, the eight experts met in Bonn with representatives of the university management, the transdisciplinary research areas, the clusters of excellence and the faculties to exchange ideas and make recommendations to the rectorate. In addition, they participated in the opening of the Academic Year, where, among other things, excellence in science was discussed. 

A leap into the future: the goal of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition is to develop robotic systems that can transmit a human's senses, actions and presence to a remote location in real time. Through these avatars they can perform a variety of handling tasks and can interact with humans – from audio and video transmission to direct physical contact. Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn has now qualified for the finals in Miami (USA) and is to receive 100,000 US dollars. The prize purse for the finals is eight million US dollars.

The skin bacterium Staphylococcus aureus often develops antibiotic resistance. It can then cause infections that are difficult to treat. Researchers at the University of Bonn have uncovered an ingenious way in which a certain strain of Staphylococcus aureus protects itself against the important antibiotic vancomycin. The results have now been published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

In an Ethiopian-German research collaboration, researchers of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the LMU University Hospital with participation of the University of Bonn investigated blood samples of frontline healthcare workers and residents from urban and rural communities for antibodies. The results suggest that the true COVID-19 prevalence is much higher than previously reported official figures. Therefore, the research team recommends a realignment of the vaccination strategy for Africa. The study is published in the journal “The Lancet Global Health”.