Mobile robots enabling chronically ill schoolchildren to participate in lessons: this is the objective of a new joint development project by the universities of Bonn, Göttingen (coordinator) and Duisburg-Essen, in collaboration with chilli mind GmbH. Protecting the privacy of all parties involved poses a particular project challenge.

The economist Professor Christian Bayer from the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics at the University of Bonn has been awarded a Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This program hands researchers €150,000 in funding for up to 18 months to help them commercialize their ideas from previous ERC projects through excellent basic research.

Professor Carla Jaimes Betancourt from the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn and Heiko Prümers from the German Archaeological Institute have been presented with a prestigious Field Discovery Award by the Shanghai Archaeology Forum in recognition of their studies of extensive pre-Hispanic settlements in the Bolivian Amazon. 

For its second winter school, the Cologne/Bonn Academy in Exile (CBA) will be joined by researchers from various departments to examine the situation facing researchers in exile in the past and present. The academy’s fellows—all refugee researchers from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus—will present their research projects, while a number of experts have been invited to give lectures. The speakers will include Jürgen Warmbrunn from the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg and Irina Shcherbakova, co-founder of the human rights organization Memorial, which was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

After someone has suffered a stroke or brain hemorrhage, it is a race against time to prevent their brain cells from dying. Admittedly, it still sounds like science fiction: physicians are using a digital twin to test out the most promising potential treatments for precisely this scenario. However, if all goes to plan for the researchers in the European consortium christened “Gemini” (“twin” in Latin), this could be a reality in as little as six years. The 19 partners led by Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC) have received a Horizon grant worth €10 million from the European Commission to tackle the project. The Department of (Social) Ethics in the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Bonn is also involved in the work. 

Being able to observe micro-organisms and their cellular components is key to understanding fundamental processes that go on inside cells—and thus potentially developing new medical treatments. Microbiologists and biophysicists from the University of Bonn and the Wageningen University & Research have now developed a method that makes the high-throughput process for observing molecules five times faster, enabling insights to be gained into hitherto unknown cellular functions. The results were published in Nature Methods.

Brown fat cells convert energy into heat – a key to eliminating unwanted fat deposits. In addition, they also protect against cardiovascular diseases. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn have now identified the protein EPAC1 as a new pharmacological target to increase brown fat mass and activity. The long-term aim is to find medicines that support weight loss. The results of the study have now been published in the renowned journal "Nature Cell Biology".

Researchers at the University of Bonn can receive up to € 50,000 to further develop science-based and innovative start-up ideas. For this purpose, the Transfer Center enaCom invites applications for prototyping grants to prepare start-up projects from research for commercialization. The application deadline for the current call is February 25, 2024.