What is happening in the brain during an epileptic seizure? How do nerve cells function after a stroke-induced paralysis? What happens in the heads of those suffering from Parkinson’s disease? Investigating these types of questions has been difficult up to now because patients had to keep still. However, Optical Pumped Magnetoencephalography (OPMEG) is making it possible to also scan the brain while the patient is moving. Prof. Dr. Dominik Bach, Hertz Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience at the University of Bonn, is currently setting up this type of research infrastructure on the campus of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and will receive funding of almost four million euros over the next three years from the EFRE/JTF program run by the European Union and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia.

When we are hungry, our mood often drops – a phenomenon colloquially known as “hangry.” A new study by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the University Hospital Center Tübingen now shows that this connection is not caused by unconscious metabolic processes. Rather, the decisive factor is that the lack of energy is consciously perceived as hunger – it is this conscious feeling of hunger that leads to a worse mood. The results have now been published in the journal eBioMedicine.

The University of Bonn has again succeeded in garnering funding under the GO-Bio initial grant program this year, with as many as six innovative projects attracting 100,000 euros of funding for their conceptual phase. During the one-year funding term, project teams from the University of Bonn and University Hospital Bonn (UKB) will be applying their research findings to develop practical medical and health care solutions. GO-Bio initial is a program launched by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

At the end of November, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bonn welcomed a delegation from Bogotá. The high-ranking representatives of the Colombian healthcare sector were in Germany for the MEDICA trade fair in Düsseldorf and took the opportunity to gain insights into innovative developments at University Hospital Bonn. The visit was arranged by the German-Colombian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Colombia).

The human P2X4 receptor plays an important role in chronic pain, inflammation and some types of cancer. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) have now discovered a mechanism that can inhibit this receptor. The results were recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications and open up a pathway for the development of new drugs.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is setting up a new Research Training Group (RTG) at the University of Bonn. Entitled “Entwicklung und Epileptogenese von Dysplasien im Zusammenspiel distinkter ZNS-Zelltypen” (“Development and Epileptogenesis of Dysplasias in the Interplay of Distinct CNS Cell Types”), the program for doctoral students will see early-career researchers investigate experimental approaches for treating forms of epilepsy that do not respond to existing treatments. The DFG is to fund the RTG to the tune of some €6.1 million over the next five years.

The Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for 2025 was published yesterday and puts the University in the top 10 in Germany for 12—over half—of the subjects assessed. In five of these subjects, it has even made it into the top five.

Dr. Varun Venkataramani of the Faculty of Medicine at Heidelberg University and Dr. Niklas Klümper of the University Hospital Bonn have been awarded the Lisec Artz Prize for their outstanding cancer research. The University of Bonn Foundation and the University of Bonn Faculty of Medicine presented the awards to the two researchers on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) as part of the Cluster Science Days event held by the ImmunoSensation² Cluster of Excellence. The prize is worth a total of 15,000 euros.