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Psychology - Health - 27.01.2022

National identification promotes compliance with Corona rules
Nearly every country in the world has been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. In response, governments around the world have initiated far-reaching measures that have required-and continue to require-profound collective changes in citizen behavior. Especially in the first year of the pandemic, when vaccines were not yet available, it was parti­cularly important that people followed instructions, such as limiting physical contact, refraining from travel, and wearing masks.

Health - Career - 24.01.2022

Corona-driven Stress in Healthcare Professionals
Stress levels experienced by those working in outpatient care were relatively high during the early phase of the Corona pandemic - higher than in medical personnel working in the two other sectors of the healthcare system, i.e. hospital care and prehospital emergency medicine. This was the conclusion of a study led by Associate Professor Dr Marie Ottilie Frenkel at the Institute of Sports and Sports Sciences of Heidelberg University.

Health - Life Sciences - 20.01.2022

Attack on the malaria parasite cytoskeleton
Researchers succeeded in the purification of Plasmodium "tubulin", the molecular building block of cytoskeletal filaments - an important step in the search for novel anti-malarials Despite all efforts, malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases with an estimated 240.000.000 cases and more than 600.000 fatalities in 2020 alone.

Health - Pharmacology - 14.01.2022

New dual benefit mode of action for a drug candidate to fight Covid-19
A research team led by Prof. Stephan Ludwig, a virologist at the Institute of Virology at the University of Münster, has found a new dual attack mode of action while working on the development of a drug candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infections. This could constitute the basis for a broadly effective drug to fight Covid 19.

Health - 12.01.2022

People with hearing prostheses use timbre of voice to recognise emotions
Cochlear implants can help people with hearing loss to perceive acoustic stimuli. Unlike hearing aids, which usually only amplify the volume of sounds, the electronic prostheses directly stimulate the auditory nerve. But can these implants also register "nuances" in communication? After all, when we perceive spoken content, for example when talking to someone, it is often not just a question of what is said, but how it is said.

Life Sciences - Health - 12.01.2022

Unmuting the genome
Hereditary diseases as well as cancers and cardiovascular diseases may be associated with a phenomenon known as genomic imprinting, in which only the maternally or paternally inherited gene is active. An international research team involving scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG) in Berlin and Harvard University in Cambridge (USA) has now investigated the mechanisms responsible for the deactivation of the genes.

Health - Pharmacology - 04.01.2022

Why Sentinel Cells are so Important
The presence of sentinel immune cells is vital to maintain and regulate the balance of the body's immune response. Researchers have discovered an essential role of these cells in the treatment of cancer and severe viral infections. Chronic viral infections and cancers can cause a permanent impairment to the immune system, reducing the ability of immune killer T cells to remove tumour cells, or those infected by a virus - this is referred to as 'immune exhaustion'.

Health - 21.12.2021

Innovative X-ray imaging shows Covid-19 can cause vascular damage to the heart
Interdisciplinary research team from Göttingen University and Hannover Medical School are first to prove this directly An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Göttingen and Hannover Medical School (MHH) has detected significant changes in the heart muscle tissue of people who died from Covid-19.

Life Sciences - Health - 21.12.2021

’The balance is extremely important’
When you enter the Institute of Neuroand Behavioural Biology at Badestraße 9 and go up the stairs on the left... what you immediately see are the rows of pictures in the stairwell and the corridors. They look fascinating, in bright vibrant colours - but what they actually show is not apparent to the non-specialist at first glance.

Life Sciences - Health - 15.12.2021

Molecular Switch for Addiction Behaviour
A molecular switch influences addiction behaviour and determines how strong the response to addictive drugs is. A research team at Heidelberg University and the Sorbonne University in Paris (France) made the discovery in mice treated with cocaine. The researchers led by Hilmar Bading (Heidelberg) and Peter Vanhoutte (Paris) demonstrated that the protein Npas4 regulates the structure and function of nerve cells that control addiction behaviour in mice.

Environment - Health - 10.12.2021

Real-time, interactive monitoring of forest health
Interactive online platform uses satellite images to display status of European forests. The output is based on the greenness of trees. With the latest functionality, users can also view and download data for individual countries and selected time ranges to learn more about the condition of forests.

Health - Life Sciences - 10.12.2021

Surviving ’butterfly disease’
The skin is the largest organ of the human body. But what if the skin "disintegrates" at just the slightest touch? This is exactly what happens with Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), sometimes also known by the name 'butterfly disease'. This skin disease is based on genetic defects and, because there is no cure, it can be fatal, often even in young patients.

Life Sciences - Health - 10.12.2021

Learning and protecting itself: how the brain adapts
Göttingen researchers investigate the effect of certain enzymes in the healthy and diseased brain The brain is a remarkably complex and adaptable organ. However, adaptability decreases with age: as new connections between nerve cells in the brain form less easily, the brain's plasticity decreases. If there is an injury to the central nervous system such as after a stroke, the brain needs to compensate for this by reorganising itself.

Health - Life Sciences - 09.12.2021

New Research Project in Mathematical Oncology
Researchers aim at decoding tumour development in hereditary colon cancer using mathematical modelling of medical data A new interdisciplinary research project aims to uncover information that can help decode hereditary colon cancer with the aid of mathematical models. Mathematicians and tumour biologists of Heidelberg University, the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg University Hospital, and the German Cancer Research Center are collaborating on the project.

Health - Life Sciences - 08.12.2021

Defense or repair: How immune cells are controlled during wound healing
A Cologne-based research team has discovered that the metabolism of mitochondria, the energy suppliers of cells, in macrophages coordinate wound healing to a significant degree. Macrophages belong to the white blood cells and are also known as scavenger cells.Sabine Eming and her collaborators and colleagues at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research at the University of Cologne showed that wound macrophages undergo different metabolic programs during tissue repair, which are required to support the successive phases for skin reconstruction after injury.

Health - 08.12.2021

Making childbirth safer in Indonesia
Study led by Göttingen and Syiah Kuala Universities finds Safe Childbirth Checklist contributes to improved maternal and neonatal healthcare Every year, 295,000 maternal deaths, 2 million stillbirths, and 2.5 million neonatal deaths occur worldwide. Improved quality of care could prevent the majority of those deaths.

Health - Physics - 06.12.2021

Visualising Cell Structures in Three Dimensions in Mere Minutes
Heidelberg researchers are working on a rapid process for 3D imaging of cells Viral pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus change the interior structure of the cells they infect. These changes occur at the level of individual cell components - the organelles - and can provide information on how viral diseases develop.

Life Sciences - Health - 02.12.2021

Plant pathogen evades immune system by targeting the microbiome
A team of biologists has identified that the pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae , responsible for wilt disease in many crops, secretes an 'effector' molecule to target the microbiome of plants to promote infection. The research was performed by the team of Alexander von Humboldt Professor Dr Bart Thomma at the University of Cologne (UoC) within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) in collaboration with the team of Dr Michael Seidl at the Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics group of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Pharmacology - Health - 30.11.2021

’Discussions with manufacturers often get nowhere’
Food supplements are available in a lot of places - in drugstores, health food shops, pharmacies and on the Internet - and the market is booming. Many of these products contain plant extracts whose ingredients are supposed to have healthy benefits - provided they do actually contain what they claim. Because nowhere near all of these so-called botanicals deliver what they promise.

Life Sciences - Health - 29.11.2021

Critical conflict in cancer cells
11/29/2021 The cells of a certain tumour type, called neuroblastoma, divide very rapidly. This rapid division can have potentially fatal consequences for them. A new study shows how neuroblastoma cells deal with this dilemma. Neuroblastomas occur predominantly in children. A specific subset of these tumours is very aggressive and difficult to treat.