Events & Opportunities

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News

Beamline for Schools: winners selected

The winning teams of the 13th edition of the Beamline for Schools (BL4S) physics competition have been chosen. BL4S, initiated by CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, is open to secondary school pupils from all around the world. Participants are invited to submit a proposal for a physics experiment to be undertaken at the beamline of a particle accelerator, either at CERN or at one of the partner institutes DESY and ELSA at the University of Bonn. In 2026, five winning teams have been chosen, based on the scientific merit of their proposals.

Immune cells in the liver help pigeons navigate

How do pigeons find their way home safely over distances of many kilometers? A research team from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology has now discovered a previously unknown mechanism: specific immune cells in the liver may help the birds detect the Earth’s magnetic field. The findings have now been published in the journal Science.

Less Fertilizer Through Smart Alliances

Over the course of evolution, plants have developed an elegant strategy to counteract a lack of phosphate in the soil — they form symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. These mycorrhizal fungi efficiently supply their plant partners with phosphate and other essential minerals. Recently, scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB) in Halle, in collaboration with partners at the University of Bonn, discovered a molecular switch that detects the plant's phosphate content and signals whether to initiate or inhibit the symbiosis. This signaling pathway could enable plants to form partnerships with soil fungi even when sufficient phosphate is available. The study, published in the renowned journal Science Advances, offers a potential solution to a long-standing agricultural problem and opens new avenues for reducing fertilizer use.

ELLIS Approves New AI Unit in NRW

North Rhine-Westphalia will become home to a new unit within the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), one of Europe’s leading networks for artificial intelligence research. The newly approved ELLIS Unit NRW brings together leading AI researchers and large-scale computing infrastructure across the region to advance open-source foundation models, trustworthy machine learning and AI applications for real-world environments.

Smart Monitoring for People with Epilepsy

The PearNet project is developing special wearables—body-worn electronic devices—that give epilepsy patients advance warning of seizures and monitor and record them when they happen. The brainchild of researchers from the University Hospital Bonn and University of Bonn, it has now secured some €2.7 million in funding over three years via the GO-Bio next program run by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The money will go toward making further preparations for spinning off the project so that its set of wearables can be launched on the biotechnology market.

Depression dampens anticipation, not enjoyment

The loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities, which is experienced in everyday life and can be very distressing, is a core symptom of major depression. However, it has remained unclear exactly how anhedonia, also known as a pleasure deficit, manifests itself. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the University Hospital Tübingen have found that people with depression do not perceive food as less rewarding when they actually consume it. The differences compared to people without depression emerge during anticipation: how much they want something before they receive it. This reduced desire is also linked to the clinical severity of anhedonia. The study’s findings have now been published in the journal “Cell Reports Medicine.”

Driver of inflammation after mild head injury

Mild brain injuries, such as those often sustained in accidents, sports or violence can lead to persistent memory problems and an increased risk of dementia. However, there are currently no therapies available to treat these consequences. A research team led by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn has now discovered that the protein ASC – a component of cellular emergency buttons – causes long-lasting inflammation in the brains of mice for up to 21 days after injury. By elucidating the inflammatory mechanisms underlying traumatic brain injury, the research team hopes to identify starting points for future therapeutic strategies. The work published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation lays the foundation for future clinical studies.