The University of Bonn has once again received excellent reinforcement: Dominik Bach now fills a so-called Hertz Chair, which is designed to combine disciplines in a unique way. The internationally renowned psychologist, physician and mathematician will establish a new focus at the interface between neuroscience, psychiatry and computer science in the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Life and Health". He and his team want to use mathematical methods to decipher how the brain works. To this end, they analyze human behavior in extreme situations.
In patients with metabolic diseases, elevated fat levels in the blood create stress in muscle cells - a reaction to changes outside the cell which damage their structure and function. An international research team led by the University of Leeds and with participation of the University of Bonn has discovered that these stressed-out cells give off a signal which can be passed on to other cells. The signals, known as ceramides, may have a protective benefit in the short-term, because they are part of a mechanism designed to reduce stress in the cell. But in metabolic diseases, which are long term conditions, the signals can kill the cells, make symptoms more severe, and worsen the illness. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Cichlids and stingrays can perform simple addition and subtraction in the number range of one to five. This has been shown in a recent study by the University of Bonn, which has now been published in the journal Scientific Reports. It is not known what the animals need their mathematical abilities for.
The North Rhine-Westphalian state government is supporting five outstanding research networks in pioneering research fields with a total of 81.2 million euros. Among them is "iBehave" under the leadership of the University of Bonn, which is being funded with around 20 million euros. The University of Excellence is involved in two other collaborative projects: NRW-FAIR and NRW-CANTAR.
Professor Dr. Thomas Puhl, Rector of the University of Mannheim, has received the "Rector of the Year" award, presented by the German University Association (DHV) for the fourteenth time. This was announced at the "Gala of German Science" of the DHV and the German University Foundation, which took place online due to the pandemic. The Rector of the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch, the "Rector of the Year" of the two previous years, came in 2nd place.
Dumbo octopuses have large fins on the left and right sides of their head, reminiscent of the flying elephant in the Walt Disney film of the same name. In the summer of 2016, evolutionary biologist Dr. Alexander Ziegler from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology at the University of Bonn collected a specimen of about 30 centimeter length from a water depth of about 4,000 meters during a cruise aboard the research vessel “Sonne” in the North Pacific. As it turned out, it was a previously unknown species (https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/096-2021). The description of the new dumbo octopus Grimpoteuthis imperator was published in 2021 in the journal BMC Biology (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01000-9). Recently, the deep-sea creature colloquially known as the “Emperor dumbo” was included in the World Register of Marine Species' “Ten remarkable new marine species from 2021” hit list (https://lifewatch.be/en/2022.03.19-WoRMS-LifeWatch-press-release).
The A2A receptor regulates how vigorously the innate immune system attacks diseased cells. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time how an important inhibitor binds to the receptor. In the future, the results will facilitate the targeted search for molecules that give the innate immune system more punch. These could for instance be used in the fight against cancer, but also against brain diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. The final version of the study has been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces. The study is published in the journal Science.