Institute for Bioinformatics Infrastructure founded by Faculty of Technology

“The quantities of data that we in the life sciences work with are constantly growing. This has made analyzing and storing data a big challenge,” says Professor Dr. Jens Stoye, member of the Genominformatik (“Genome Informatics”) research group in Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Technology. Dr. Stoye is the acting director of the new institute.[Weiterlesen]

University researchers publish study on new telescope

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is set to become the largest radio telescope on Earth. Bielefeld University researchers together with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) and international partners have now examined the SKA-MPG telescope—a prototype for the part of the SKA that receives signals in the mid-frequency range. The study, published today (24 July) in the journal ‘Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society’, shows that the telescope is not only a prototype to test the SKA design, but can also be used on its own to provide insights into the origin of the Universe. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the work on the SKA-MPG through a joint research project coordinated by Bielefeld University.[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld University participates in Helmholtz Association project

How will the climate change, how certain is our energy supply, and what are the potentials of molecular medicine? Through statistical analyses, large amounts of data on the greatest variety of issues can be processed in ways that permit new knowledge and predictions. Nonetheless, predictions are always accompanied by uncertainty. The new project ‘Uncertainty Quantification’ is applying methods from probability theory to integrate uncertainty into analyses appropriately in order to calculate the reliability of predictions. The project is headed by Professor Dr Christiane Fuchs from Bielefeld University and Professor Dr Martin Frank from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. A total of four million euros is being invested in this research, and it is receiving funding from the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.[Weiterlesen]

Funding for new research group at Bielefeld University

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing a research group at Bielefeld University with around three million euros in funding to investigate health inequalities as exemplified by the health of refugees. Their findings should help to improve the health system for other disadvantaged groups as well. The group’s spokesperson is Professor Dr Oliver Razum, his deputy is Professor Dr Kayvan Bozorgmehr; both are from the School of Public Health.[Weiterlesen]

Rector Gerhard Sagerer: ‘A highlight in our anniversary year’

Bielefeld University is one of the world’s 20 best young universities. This is the result of the new Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings, published yesterday (26/6/2019). The British academic magazine THE compares 350 universities worldwide that are not older than 50 years. Bielefeld ranks third among the German universities evaluat-ed, and second in North Rhine-Westphalia.[Weiterlesen]

Study by researchers at Bielefeld University, University of Hamburg, and New York University

Without being aware of it, people sometimes wrongly perceive tactile sensations. A new study in the scientific journal “Current Biology” shows how healthy people can sometimes misattribute touch to the wrong side of their body, or even to a completely wrong part of the body. The study was conducted by researchers at Bielefeld University’s Cluster of Excellence CITEC, the University of Hamburg, and New York University.

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University encourages strategic cooperations

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Bielefeld University sent out invitations to important international partners. Last week, representatives of international strategic partner universities visited the university and the city. The guests met their cooperation partners and held talks on the topic of ‘international networking’. On Friday, they attended an evening event at the Rudolf Oetker Hall.
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Analysis of the alpine marmot’s genome

Historic climate change events can have a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of a species, reveals a new study published in Current Biology. This unexpected finding emerged from an analysis of the alpine marmot’s genome. An iconic animal known to tourists and mountaineers, the alpine marmot is a large rodent exquisitely adapted to cold climates. Since the disappearance of its ice-age habitat, the alpine marmot has resided in high-altitude meadows in the Alps. In this new study co-led by the Francis Crick Institute, an international team of scientists sequenced the genomes of alpine marmots living in three sites in the French and Italian Alps, and found that the animal’s genetic diversity is among the lowest of wild mammals. By reconstructing the marmot’s genetic past with the help of fossil records, they discovered that it lost its genetic diversity during the last ice age as a consequence of multiple climate related adaptations. Toni Gossmann is first-author of the paper and researcher at the University of Sheffield and Bielefeld University in Germany.[Weiterlesen]

Particle physicists install 5th generation special purpose computer

The department of physics at Bielefeld University receives a new high-performance compute cluster equipped with state-of-the-art graphics processors. The new facility will be used for research on properties of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density. Such conditions existed in the early universe for only a fraction of the first second after the big bang but may still exist today in the interior of compact stars. The new high-performance compute-cluster is financed through a 1.9 million Euro grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The new facility will allow to significantly advance research projects which the particle physics group at Bielefeld University currently conducts within the Collaborative Research Center „Matter under extreme conditions“ (CRC-TR 211) – a research program of physicists at Bielefeld University, Technical University Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt which also is funded by DFG. The inauguration of the new compute-cluster will take place on May 20, 2019, at 4pm in lecture hall 6 of the main building of Bielefeld University.[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld researchers publish study on the flexibility of sensory perception

Hearing, sight, touch – our brain captures a wide range of distinct sensory stimuli and links them together. The brain has a kind of built-in filter function for this: sensory impressions are only integrated if it is necessary and useful for the task at hand. Researchers from Bielefeld University, Oxford University (Great Britain), and Aix-Marseille University (France) investigated this phenomenon of flexibility in perception, and have now published a study on their findings that appears in the scientific journal “Neuron” (29 April 2019). In their publication, the researchers reveal where sensory stimuli are integrated in the brain, and in which area of the brain this flexibility can be located. From Bielefeld University, Professor Dr. Christoph Kayser and Dr. Hame Park from the Cluster of Excellence CITEC were involved in the study.[Weiterlesen]