With the Schlegel Professorships, named after the Bonn philologist August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), the University of Bonn is establishing high-caliber chairs as part of its excellence funding. The "Schlegel Chairs" are filled by the faculties in subjects that belong to the strong research focus areas or the development areas.
"Attracting internationally recognized researchers to enhance our scientific performance is a core element of our excellence strategy," emphasizes Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch. "With the biochemist Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar and the theologian Martin Keßler, we have once again succeeded in recruiting outstanding personalities to the University of Bonn. I am convinced that they will not only make valuable contributions in their disciplines, but at the same time will excellently develop our faculties and transdisciplinary research areas."
The relationship of the vascular and nervous systems
The human brain consumes about 20 percent of the body's oxygen and glucose needs to maintain its highly precise and sophisticated functions. As a result, the organ is heavily infused with blood vessels that reach every corner of the brain and mix with all the nerve cell types located there. Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar, a new Schlegel Professor at the School of Medicine, wants to understand how the vascular and nervous systems interact in different parts of the central nervous system. How does the brain become equipped with vessels during development? What molecular signals do neurons and vessels use to communicate with each other? How does this communication change in pathological conditions such as neurological and neurodegenerative disorders? To answer these and other questions, Ruiz de Almodóvar and her interdisciplinary team are bringing together knowledge and expertise from neuroscience and vascular science.
"The University of Bonn offers me and my research group a unique environment for excellent research and teaching and a great focus on interdisciplinary research in the life sciences," says Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar. "I am impressed by the great vision for the future to which I am eager to contribute. We look forward to working with scientists and clinicians from different fields to advance the Transdisciplinary Research Area 'Life and Health'."
"We are very pleased to have recruited Professor Ruiz de Almodóvar to Bonn. With her, we have been able to recruit an excellent researcher who ideally links our main research areas of neuroscience, cardiovascular research and immunology," says Prof. Dr. Bernd Weber, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. "As a result, she will also explore new approaches to understand and therapeutically target various diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, at the University Hospital."
About the person: biochemist Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar
Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar studied biochemistry at the University of Granada (Spain), where she obtained her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2004. She then moved to Leuven (Belgium) to complete her postdoctoral training at the Flanders Center for Biotechnology (VIB). Prior to her appointment in Bonn, she was a junior group leader at the Biochemistry Center of the University of Heidelberg from 2011 to 2018 and then a professor of vascular dysfunction at the European Center for Angioscience (Mannheim Medical School) of the University of Heidelberg. She has received an ERC Starting Research Grant and is currently a recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant. Her work has received international recognition through various awards and high-level scientific publications.
