Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) are awarded to outstanding researchers and are worth millions of euros in funding. Assistant Professor Yongguo Li from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn has now obtained a much-sought-after ERC Starting Grant. The researcher is investigating how the lipid metabolism can be influenced so as to “burn” as many calories as possible, thus opening up potential new ways to treat obesity and diabetes.

Two new assistant professors at the University of Bonn are setting out to develop “mini-organs” in order to study metabolic and disease mechanisms. Elena Reckzeh is using these so-called organoids to identify new drug candidates, while Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz hopes that they can give her a better understanding of lung disease. As Argelander Professors in the Life and Health Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA), the two researchers are working at the interface between various disciplines—and bridging the gap between chemistry, biology and medicine in the process.

“NeurotechEU - the European University of Brain and Technology” held its fifth Board of Rectors meeting at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. This semiannual meeting of university rectors, organized by an Alliance member institution, was for the first time attended by other staff members involved in the project.
 
 

Is there a healthy alternative to sugar? How can I measure changes to my mental acuity? And how can cancer prevention be made more reliable? These questions are at the heart of three innovative validation projects— “Sweeternative,” “Trackognize,” and “HPV & Cervix all-in-one Test”— that are receiving funding from the prototyping grant’s application round #2 of the Transfer Center enaCom. The teams from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) are each receiving a prototyping grant to develop their innovative research findings to market readiness. Calls for the grants with up to 50,000 euros in funding are regularly posted by the Transfer Center.
 
 

The three young scientists Dr. Maike Effern, Dr. Susanna Ng from the Institute of Experimental Oncology and Dr. Andreas Zietzer from the Heart Centre of the University Hospital Bonn were selected to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. The annual conference in Lindau will take place this time from the 25th to the 30th June.

Two researchers from the University of Bonn have been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of a program designed to help researchers translate their ideas from previous ERC projects into commercial applications. Biologist Prof. Dr. Bernardo S. Franklin from the University Hospital Bonn and physicist Prof. Dr. Simon Stellmer will thus each receive €150,000 over a period of around one year.

An international research team, including ImmunoSensation2 member Prof. Kathrin Leppek of the University Hospital Bonn and scientists from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Netherlands, and the US has been awarded a US$ 1.3 million grant by the “Human Frontier Science Program” to investigate brain immune cells and manipulate them via light irradiation. This will involve using gene transcripts (mRNAs) as molecular mediators. From these laboratory studies, the scientists aim to gain new insights into how these cells change their shape in response to hazards and the role they play in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

To mark World Day for Laboratory Animals, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bonn ran a fact-finding event on animal testing for its students.