Three days of scientific exchange, workshops, and new impulses: Until July 2, 2025, members of the Bonn-Cumming Host-Directed Pandemic Therapeutics Program are gathered at University Hospital Bonn (UKB) for a symposium to reflect on the current state of their research and discuss further steps. The joint program of the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics at the University of Melbourne and of the University of Bonn aims to combat future pandemics with novel therapeutics.

What was life like some 8,000–9,000 years ago for the people on the East Mound at Çatalhöyük, an important Neolithic settlement in central Anatolia? And what role did women hold in their society? An international team led by Turkish, Danish, Swedish and US researchers has investigated the genetic material of a total of 131 individuals who are buried there. What is striking is the preference afforded to female lineages. Their findings have now been published in the journal “Science.” Dr. Eva Rosenstock from the Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences at the University is involved in the paper. 

On Saturday, July 5, the University of Bonn will celebrate this year's Universitätsfest – and at the same time a special anniversary: For 20 years, it has been holding a ceremony as part of this festival to bid farewell to its graduates from the current year. Around 2,000 of them have registered for this year's event. For the first time, the celebration will take place in an expanded public format in the Hofgarten park. After the internal graduation ceremony, the event will be open to the public at around 3:30 p.m. The celebrations will include a performance by the Kölsch rock group Cat Ballou. The media are cordially invited to report on the event.

The University of Bonn has improved its position in the 2025 CEWS rankings, which rate universities for aspects of gender equality. It has climbed from Group 6 to Group 3 in the overall rankings, putting it in the top 25 percent of all universities in Germany. The University is now among the leading pack in five out of six categories. The rankings are drawn up every two years by the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) based on the official statistics for higher education.

There is currently no way to stop calcification of the aortic valve. If all else fails, the valve must be replaced. To better understand the development of this common disease, researchers from Bochum and Bonn have taken a close look at defective valves. They were able to show that endothelial cells that line the tissue play a major role, as is the case with other vascular diseases. In addition, they were able to see that what happens varies greatly depending on whether someone’s aortic valve has three leaflets – as is usually the case – or just two. The team reports its findings in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The air is full of particles of all kinds. Most are harmless to human beings—but some are hazardous to our health. To remove the latter from the air we breathe, innovative filtration systems are required. Dr. Leandra Hamann and Professor Alexander Blanke of the Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology look to nature for inspiration in their work to develop bio-inspired filters at the University of Bonn. In an interview, Leandra Hamann talked about the technological potential and the challenges researchers in this area have identified.  

The Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking 2025 has recognized the University of Bonn’s strong commitment to sustainability. The study highlights the impact that universities are having on each of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An international team of astronomers led by Leiden University and with involvement from the University of Bonn has investigated a large filament made of hot gas that connects four galaxy clusters and contains what is known as warm–hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). The strand of hot gas stretches for 23 million light-years, is over 10 million degrees Celsius and could be some of the “missing” ordinary matter that has been predicted by the cosmological standard model but not yet shown to actually exist. The team’s findings have now been published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics.”