Livestock farming produces large quantities of greenhouse gases, especially methane, which is particularly harmful to the climate. Among other things, it escapes during the storage of animal excrement, the slurry. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that methane emissions can be reduced by 99 percent through simple and inexpensive means. The method could make an important contribution to the fight against climate change. The results have now been published in the journal Waste Management.

The success of cancer treatment depends not only on the type of tumor, but also on the surrounding tissue. Tumors influence it to their advantage, promoting the growth of blood vessels or fooling incoming immune cells. Developing methods to predict the nature of the resulting tumor microenvironment is the goal of researchers from the Clusters of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM) led by Prof. Kevin Thurley at the University of Bonn. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the "InterpretTME" project with around 800,000 euros over the next three years.

A number of visiting researchers from the Cologne/Bonn Academy in Exile, which was founded in 2022, were chosen to participate. They came together with their academic mentors at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn to consider what the future holds for Eastern Europe. As well as providing an opportunity to introduce the research projects being pursued by the academy’s Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian fellows, this interdisciplinary winter school also served as a platform for dialogue with other leading academics.

In epilepsy research, it has long been assumed that a leaky blood-brain barrier is a cause of inflammation in the brain. Using a novel method, researchers from the University of Bonn an the Bonn University Hospital (UKB) have demonstrated that the barrier between the blood and the central nervous system remains largely intact. The approach of their study provides important insights into the development of epilepsy and could significantly optimize drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. The study results have recently been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Aetosaurs had a small head and a crocodile-like body. The land dwellers were up to six meters long and widely distributed geographically. They died out about 204 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic. In Kaltental near Stuttgart, Germany, an assemblage of 24 Aetosaurus ferratus individuals, only between 20 and 82 centimeters long, was discovered in 1877. Since then, scientists have been puzzling over whether they were juveniles or small adults. A team led by Elżbieta M. Teschner from the University of Bonn has now solved the mystery: Bone examination of two specimens shows that they are juveniles. The results have now been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Excellent reinforcement for the University of Bonn: Mathematician Angkana Rüland has accepted the call to a Hausdorff Chair. These are professorships for outstanding scientists at the Cluster of Excellence Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM). The 35-year-old is the second woman to hold this position and is herself an alumna of the University of Bonn. She will take up her position in March of this year.

Viruses use the molecular repertoire of the host cell to replicate. Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn, together with Japanese researchers, want to exploit this for the treatment of influenza. The team led by Prof. Hiroki Kato from the Institute of Cardiovascular Immunology at the University Hospital Bonn has identified a compound that inhibits the body's own methyltransferase MTr1, thereby limiting the replication of influenza viruses. The compound proved effective in lung tissue preparations and mouse studies and showed synergistic effects with already approved influenza drugs. The study is now published in the journal Science. 

After a long unplanned pandemic break, a delegation from the University of Bonn’s Rectorate and International Office visited four partner universities and several research organizations in Japan and formed new cooperation agreements. The goal of the visit was to reinvigorate the University’s existing partnerships and to prepare the ground for further collaborations in research and teaching. Topics of the exchanges were current developments in the German and Japanese higher education and research landscapes as well as university initiatives for more sustainable futures.