Ceremonial burial of 19 skulls in New Orleans, USA
On May 31, 2025, 19 skulls from an anthropological collection from the Institute of Anatomy at Leipzig University were buried in New Orleans, USA, as part of a solemn ceremony. These human remains, all from African-American individuals, came from the collection of Emil Ludwig Schmidt, who had created an extensive archive for racially motivated research over 150 years ago. In the 1880s, he was given the skulls by a doctor from New Orleans.
"Transfers of human remains, so-called repatriations, are very time-consuming and complex processes. It took almost two years from the first contact to the transfer," reports Prof. Martin Gericke, Deputy Director of the Institute of Anatomy. The Institute houses Emil Schmidt’s collection of around 1,200 skulls. This skull collection is to be returned to the various countries of origin. In 2023, his institute therefore wrote to archaeologists from the city of New Orleans, where the 19 individuals lived before they died. "Taking the needs of the communities of origin into consideration is our top priority so as not to cause further harm," says Gericke. The work on the skull collection was initiated in 2021 by two students who came across the skulls, which have now been repatriated to New Orleans, at the institute by chance.
The long-term goal of provenance research at the Institute of Anatomy at Leipzig University is to completely dissolve the anthropological collection. This research project is being funded by the German Lost Art Foundation for two years.
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Leipzig scientist is the new Vice President of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology and receives the highest honor of this professional society
Ana Zenclussen, Professor of Pediatric Environmental Immunology at Leipzig University and Head of the Department of Environmental Immunology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), was elected Vice President at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI). She was also awarded the highest prize, the Senior Award, at this meeting.
Prof. Ana Zenclussen is considered a pioneer in her work on adaptive immune responses of the mother, which support pregnancy and the growth of the fetus. She was able to demonstrate for the first time how the mother’s regulatory T cells protect paternal antigens in the foetus. In addition, the scientist identified pregnancy hormones as potent modulators of the mother’s immune response. In the course of her scientific career, Ana Zenclussen has successfully acquired national and international funding. She is involved in major projects at Leipzig University such as the Cluster of Excellence "Leipzig Center of Metabolism" (LeiCeM) and the Leipzig Reproductive Health Research (LE-REP) Center. Last month, the LeiCeM research project received top funding for the coming years as part of the German government’s Excellence Strategy.
The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology Award is the highest honor bestowed by the ASRI for outstanding and lasting contributions to the field of reproductive immunology.
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