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Life Sciences - 26.07.2019

Biologists want new rules for plant breeding
One year ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a ruling on genetic methods in plant breeding: on 25 July 2018, the judges ruled that plants bred using modern molecular biological methods (genome editing) fall into the category of genetically modified organisms. According to current EU legislation, these plants are to be strictly regulated - in contrast to plants that have been genetically modified using conventional methods, called mutagenesis.

Life Sciences - Environment - 25.07.2019

Poisonous grasses: new study provides reassurance
07/25/2019 Stories of mass poisoning incidents of livestock due to toxic grasses made headlines especially overseas. Animal ecologists from Würzburg have studied whether this hazard is also lurking on German pastures. "Dangerous Pastures: Deadly Grass Puts Horses at Risk" - Such dire warnings on the websites of horse owners and horse lovers may cause people to see their environment in a whole new light.

Health - Life Sciences - 24.07.2019

New marker for atrial damage discovered
Atrial fibrillation leads to a persistent irregular - often accelerated - heartbeat. While the condition is not life-threatening, if left untreated it can lead to serious complications such as stroke or heart failure. It is caused by areas of the heart that hinder the normal conduction of electrical impulses so that the atrium no longer contracts rhythmically," explains Rüdiger Lange from the German Heart Center Munich.

Life Sciences - Health - 19.07.2019

Bouncers in the Bone Marrow
07/19/2019 Würzburg Scientists found that megakaryocytes act as "bouncers" and thus modulate bone marrow niche properties and cell migration dynamics. The study was published in the Journal "Haematologica". Hematopoiesis is the process of forming blood cells, which occurs predominantly in the bone marrow.

Environment - Life Sciences - 18.07.2019

How climate change disrupts relationships
07/18/2019 Plants rely on bees for pollination; bees need plants to supply nectar and pollen. Scientists from the University of Würzburg have studied how climate change affects these mutualistic interactions.

Life Sciences - 16.07.2019

The physiology of survival
The survival and growth of cells are central factors in biological systems. Scientists such as Ulrich Gerland, Professor for Physics of Complex Biosystems at the TUM, are therefore trying to understand how the molecular components interact to maintain the viability of a group of cells in stress situations.

Life Sciences - Health - 10.07.2019

The battle between virus and host cell
Würzburg Scientists have precisely followed the activity of thousands of genes in individual cells for hours. For the first time, they were able to show why some cells are successfully infected by viruses, whereas others are not. When viruses enter our bodies - such as during an influenza or a gastrointestinal infection - the processes within the infected cells change: In the worst case, the virus takes the helm and reprograms the cell to its advantage.

Life Sciences - 09.07.2019

Social Networks of Protein Pieces
Computer scientists at Freie Universität Berlin design a method for computer-aided modeling and simulation of large proteins and other biomolecules No 210/2019 from Jul 09, 2019 Two computational scientists at Freie Universität Berlin are changing the way large proteins modeled inside computers by combining machine learning, an area of artificial intelligence, with statistical physics.

Life Sciences - 05.07.2019

Neuroplasticity: Why is the visual cortex involved in language processing in blind individuals?
A study by neuroscientists of the Brain Language Laboratory at Freie Universität Berlin No 204/2019 from Jul 05, 2019 People who are blind use part of their visual cortex for language and semantic processing. The visual cortex is the paradigm case of a "modality-specific" brain region, being devoted exclusively to visual perceptual processes in healthy and undeprived sighted individuals.

Environment - Life Sciences - 01.07.2019

Scientists alarmed by bark beetle boom
Bark beetles are currently responsible for killing an unprecedented number of trees in forests across Europe and North America. Researchers are therefore urging to step up research into bark beetles - also in view of climate change. "Bark beetles lay waste to forests" - "Climate change sends beetles into overdrive" - "Bark beetles: can the spruce be saved?": These newspaper headlines of the past weeks covered the explosive growth of bark beetle populations and its devastating impact on timberlands.

Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 28.06.2019

One at a time
It is becoming much more common for patients to be treated with several different medications. It is often necessary for the patient to take them at fixed intervals - a limitation that makes everyday life difficult and increases the risk of doses being skipped or forgotten.

Life Sciences - 24.06.2019

(Not only) the wind shows the way
06/24/2019 When the South African dung beetle rolls its dung ball through the savannah, it must know the way as precisely as possible. Scientists have now discovered that it does not orient itself solely on the position of the sun. The South African dung beetle Scarabaeus lamarcki has - to put it mildly - an interesting technique to ensure its offspring a good start in life.

Life Sciences - Health - 19.06.2019

Cell Division at High Speed
06/19/2019 When two proteins work together, this worsens the prognosis for lung cancer patients: their chances of survival are particularly poor in this case. In malignant tumours, the cells usually proliferate quickly and uncontrollably. A research team from the Biocenter of Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, has discovered that two important regulators of cell division can interact in this process.

Health - Life Sciences - 18.06.2019

Tox "exhausts" immune cells
Normally, the immune system goes into a state of maximum alert following a viral infection. It triggers the activation of a variety of immune cells such as T and B cells. These procreate in large numbers, and aggressively combat the infected cells. However, if the immune system does not manage to defeat the virus, then immune cells appear with highly inhibited functions.

Life Sciences - Chemistry - 14.06.2019

Why does dandelion never fall ill?
Researchers at Münster University find out that dandelion possesses enzymes that have untypical abilities for plants / Study in "Angewandte Chemie' Plants possess enzymes called polyphenoloxidases, which can oxidize certain chemical compounds and thus produce the typical brown colour that we know, for example, from freshly cut apples.

Life Sciences - Social Sciences - 23.05.2019

German Research Foundation Extends Funding for Two Collaborative Research Centers at Freie Universität Berlin
Researchers study the dynamics of living together and the scaffolding of membranes No 146/2019 from May 23, 2019 The German Research Foundation (DFG) has extended the funding for two Collaborative Research Centers (CRC) at Freie Universität. One is CRC 958, where scientists study the molecular mechanisms by which dynamically organized protein-protein assemblies scaffold cellular membranes.

Life Sciences - Environment - 21.05.2019

Microbial Systems Open a New Chapter in Biosphere Research
A New Study from Freie Universität Berlin in Cooperation with the University of Virginia No 139/2019 from May 21, 2019 In a recent study, biologists from Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Virginia (USA) examine ideas about closed ecological systems and how to further develop them. The goal of the study is to establish concepts that will make it possible to conduct experiments with self-sustaining ecosystems.

Life Sciences - Pharmacology - 14.05.2019

Second grant to bring research to market
05/14/2019 Getting an accurate picture of the real-time transcriptional activity of a cell: This is the goal of a new research project at the University of Würzburg which is funded by the European Research Council. If you paid attention during biology lessons, you may remember that genetic information in human cells is contained in the cell nucleus as a DNA double helix.

Life Sciences - Computer Science / Telecom - 08.05.2019

Researchers take a step towards light-based, brain-like computing chip
New light-based hardware which can store and process information in a similar way to the human brain / Study published in "Nature" journal A technology that functions like a brain? In these times of artificial intelligence, this no longer seems so far-fetched - for example, when a mobile phone can recognise faces or languages.

Life Sciences - Physics - 07.05.2019

Trigger for directed cell motion
When an individual cell is placed on a level surface, it does not keep still, but starts moving. This phenomenon was observed by the British cell biologist Michael Abercrombie as long ago as 1967. Since then, researchers have been thriving to understand how cells accomplish this feat. This much is known: cells form so-called lamellipodia - cellular protrusions that continuously grow and contract - to propel themselves towards signalling cues such as chemical attractants produced and secreted by other cells.