Some sequences in the genome cause genes to be switched on or off. Until now, each of these gene switches, or so-called enhancers, was thought to have its own place on the DNA. Different enhancers are therefore separated from each other, even if they control the same gene, and switch it on in different parts of the body. A recent study from the University of Bonn and the LMU Munich challenges this idea. The findings are also important because gene switches are thought to play a central role in evolution. The study has been published in the journal Science Advances.

The Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM) at the University of Bonn is letting schoolchildren get their first glimpse of the world of research. It recently began inviting young people with an interest in and gift for mathematics to meet there every Monday afternoon under the expert eye of Regula Krapf and Henning Heller to spend time researching together, focusing on questions of elementary mathematics and mathematics education. The group’s findings are expected to feed into academic publications and show the schoolchildren first-hand how mathematical research works in real life. 

The ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reported the first observation of top quarks in collisions between lead ions in a talk held at CERN last week. Members of the research group of Prof. Dr. Matthias Schott from the Physikalisches Institut at the University of Bonn have been contributing to this new study. The observation of top-quark pairs represents a significant step forward in heavy-ion collision physics, paving the way for new measurements of the quark–gluon plasma that is created in these collisions and delivering fresh insights into the nature of the strong force that binds protons, neutrons and other composite particles together. 

Rainforest protection is not only good for biodiversity and the climate – it also noticeably improves the health of humans who live in the corresponding regions. This is the conclusion drawn by a current study by the University of Bonn and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. In this, the researchers show that measures to combat slash-and-burn techniques significantly reduce the concentration of particulate matter in the air. The number of hospital stays and deaths due to respiratory diseases thus also decreases. The results have been published now in the journal Nature Communications, Earth & Environment.

The University of Bonn has once again demonstrated its excellence as a research institution in the latest Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2024—part of the high-profile Shanghai Ranking. Mathematics and Economics held on to their respective first-place rankings in Germany, enjoyed for several years now. Agricultural Sciences now ranks third nationally.

SMEs and research institutions have increasing need for expertise and computing capacity for their AI research. Prominent academic institutions of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, led by the University of Bonn, have jointly formed the AI service center WestAI to provide AI services and proprietary AI research in support of business and research. The state-of-the-art computing infrastructures of RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich are utilized for the services. As of now, interested outside parties can request computing time for AI projects via the WestAI website. At present the services are provided free of charge thanks to funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The University of Bonn has recruited a pioneer in astrochemistry in the shape of Professor Serena Viti, who has been appointed designated Hertz Professor in the Matter Transdisciplinary Research Area. The aim of her Hertz Professorship, which she intends to take up in 2026, will be to establish astrochemistry at the University of Excellence in order to build a structural bridge between astrophysics and chemistry. Professor Viti is currently working at Leiden University but will already be spending time researching and teaching at the University of Bonn over the next two years in order to establish the research field for her Hertz Professorship.

Immune cells are capable of detecting infections just like a sniffer dog, using special sensors known as Toll-like receptors, or TLRs for short. But what signals activate TLRs, and what is the relationship between the scale and nature of this activation and the substance being detected? In a recent study, researchers from the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) used an innovative method to answer these questions. The approach that they took might help to speed up the search for drugs to combat infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes or dementia. Their findings have been published in the journal “Nature Communications.”