German Scientist Awards

Study results open door to heart failure treatment with 'heart patch’           The BioVAT-HF-DZHK20 clinical trial is currently investigating a unique approach to address the unmet medical need in patients with advanced heart failure. Implantation of a tissue engineered heart patch, called engineered heart muscle (EHM), is developed to repair the failing heart. The EHM patch is a lab-grown heart muscle made up of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived heart cells embedded in a collagen hydrogel . The foundation for the translation into clinical testing was established by simulation of the clinical treatment in rhesus macaques. The EHM patch is currently the only technology that allows safe and efficacious delivery with long-term retention of cardiomyocytes in the heart.      An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, director of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Medical Center (UM...

Global Biodiversity Goals: Researchers Call for Systematic Conservation Planning      Bremerhaven (29 January 2025). Activists around the world are striving to stop the loss of biodiversity and restore ecosystems, as agreed by the international community in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of Kunming and Montreal. A study by the Horizon Europe project MarinePlan, which is coordinated by the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Bremerhaven, which has now been published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, shows that in order to achieve the goals agreed in the GBF, such as the protection of 30 percent of the earth's surface and the restoration of 30 percent of the degraded ecosystems, decision-makers should implement Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP).      For their study, the researchers led by Dr. Sylvaine Giakoumi from the Sicily Marine Center in Palermo took a closer look at the application of the planning tool, compiled and evaluated quali...

 Researchers at Trier University decode mysterious spiders      The genetic material of some spiders is similar in size to that of humans. Bioscientists at Trier University have now succeeded in revealing the complete blueprint of three unusual spiders: the yellow sac spider (the only venomous spider in Germany ), the feather-legged lace weaver (one of the few spiders without venom glands) and a mesothela (lived before the dinosaurs). The research results from Trier could help to find out more about the composition of spider venom or the production of spider silk, for example.      ‘There are still many unresolved questions about spiders. However, science often pays less attention to spiders than other animals,’ says Yannis Schöneberg. The Biogeography researcher at Trier University is fascinated by the eight-legged creatures that many people are afraid of. ‘There are more than 52,000 spider species worldwide. But the genome, i.e. the genetic materi...

 Super Enzyme Helps Regulate Testosterone in Male Birds      Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, together with a team of international researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence , the University of Vienna, Helmholtz Munich, and Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, have discovered how this gene produces a “super enzyme” that efficiently breaks down testosterone and influences the bird’s behavior. The team, led by Clemens Küpper (Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence), has now published its findings in the journal Science. Their article, “A Single Gene Orchestrates Androgen Variation Underlying Male Mating Morphs in Ruffs,”      There are three types of male ruffs, known as morphs , that differ with regard to their appearance and behavior. “Independents,” which account for the vast majority, have darker plumage and aggressively defend a small territory in mating arenas called leks to impress females. The sligh...

 Fighting Chemical Pollution Water: Purification using Algae      Researchers have identified more than 500 chemicals in Europe's rivers, originating from industrial and agricultural sources, threatening aquatic habitats. The team led by Junior Professor Dr Anzhela Galstyan aims to remove these chemicals using algae. "Diatoms are microscopic single-celled organisms that live in water and possess a cell wall made of silica (silicon dioxide). Thanks to its porous structure, it can absorb a wide variety of pollutants," Galstyan explains.      In their study, the researchers tested diatom shells on two exemplary pollutants commonly found in rivers and groundwater due to the textile industry: methylene blue and methyl orange. To enhance the adsorption capacity, the diatomaceous earth was chemically modified by adding specific functional groups to its surface. “This could easily be implemented on an industrial scale,” emphasises the junior professor for ...

 Terahertz pulses induce chirality in a non-chiral crystal      Chirality is a fundamental property of matter that determines many biological , chemical and physical phenomena. Chiral solids, for example, offer exciting opportunities for catalysis, sensing and optical devices by enabling unique interactions with chiral molecules and polarized light. These properties are however established when the material is grown, that is, the left- and right-handed enantiomers cannot be converted into one another without melting and recrystallization. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter ( MPSD ) and the University of Oxford have shown that terahertz light can induce chirality in a non-chiral crystal, allowing either left- or right-handed enantiomers to emerge on demand. The finding, reported in Science, opens up exciting possibilities for exploring novel non-equilibrium phenomena in complex materials.      Chirality re...

 Artificial Photosynthesis Decoded: How Carbon Nitride Splits Water (and Enables Green Hydrogen)      Plants use light to generate fuels through photosynthesis —converting energy from the sun into sugar molecules. With artificial photosynthesis, scientists mimic nature and convert light into high-energy chemicals, in pursuit of sustainable fuels. Carbon nitrides have long been identified as effective catalysts in this ongoing quest. These compounds of carbon and nitrogen use light to break water into its constituent parts, oxygen and hydrogen—with hydrogen representing a promising renewable energy source.      But how exactly does water splitting work? For the first time, researchers have captured every step of one of the most studied yet least understood reactions of the past decade. “This goes beyond answering a longstanding question in fundamental science” argues principal investigator Dr. Paolo Giusto of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and...

Fossil discovery in the Geiseltal Collection: researchers identify unique bird skull      The Geiseltal Saxony-Anhalt is located south-west of Halle and was a lignite mining area until 1993. Numerous exceptionally well-preserved animal fossils have been unearthed here. The Geiseltal Collection at MLU comprises 50,000 fossils and is considered a national heritage asset. These fossils offer unique insights into the evolution of animals and the Eocene Epoch around 45 million years ago. At that time, the Geiseltal was a warm, tropical swamp. Ancient horses, early tapirs, large land crocodiles as well as giant tortoises, lizards and numerous birds lived here. Some of the latter were flightless and the largest of these was Diatryma , a herbivore with a gigantic beak which stood around 4.6 feet high.      For many years no one knew that an almost completely preserved skull of Diatryma was part of the collection. "The find was initially misidentified as a crocodi...