uni.news - Tag [fo]

Bielefeld’s Center for Biotechnology and the Joint Genome Institute, USA, decipher genetic information of microbes in biogas plants

Day after day, legions of microorganisms work to produce energy from waste in biogas plants. Researchers from Bielefeld University’s Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) are taking a close look to find out which microbes do the best job. They are analysing the entire genetic information of the microbial communities in selected biogas plants up and down Germany. From the beginning of 2013, the Californian Joint Genome Institute will undertake the sequencing required. The biocomputational analysis will be performed at CeBiTec. Not an easy task, since the data will be supplied in billions of fragments stemming in turn from hundreds of organisms. Piecing together this huge jigsaw puzzle will be painstaking work.[Weiterlesen]

Biologists at Bielefeld University publish research findings in specialist journal

All a question of timing: When bushcrickets mate, the male attaches a sticky package, the so-called spermatophore, to the female’s abdomen. Alongside the sperm themselves, this ‘bridal present’ consists of a protein-rich mass that the female eats after mating. It then takes several hours for the sperm to find their way into the female’s reproductive tract. But, who decides when that will happen? A study by the Bielefeld biologists Professor Dr. Klaus Reinhold and Dr. Steven Ramm suggests that it is the male who determines the dynamics of this process even when he has long ‘hopped off’ somewhere else. They have now published their results in the online first version of the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.[Weiterlesen]

Interdisciplinary study by Bielefeld and Saarland Universities

Much celebration at the universities in Bielefeld and Saarbrücken. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding for a long-term research project by Professors Dr. Martin Diewald and Dr. Rainer Riemann from Bielefeld University and Dr. Frank Spinath from Saarland University. They are studying the development of social inequalities – for the example of 4,000 pairs of twins living in Germany. The name of the study is ‘Twinlife’. The DFG announced its decision today (7 December), and will be providing more than four million Euros of funding for the first three years.[Weiterlesen]

Astonishing research finding by biologists at Bielefeld University published in the online journal Nature Communications

Flowers need water and light to grow. Even children learn that plants use sunlight to gather energy from earth and water. Members of Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse’s biological research team at Bielefeld University have made a groundbreaking discovery that one plant has another way of doing this. They have confirmed for the first time that a plant, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it from other plants. This finding could also have a major impact on the future of bioenergy. The research findings have been released on Tuesday 20 November in the online journal Nature Communications published by the renowned journal Nature.[Weiterlesen]

German Research Foundation (DFG) approves international Research Training Group of universities in Bielefeld and Vancouver, Canada

In many natural sciences, technological progress enables experimental data to be gathered more quickly than it can be interpreted - in the deciphering of genomes, for example. Computer-aided analyses are essential for this. Appropriate methods and software can only be developed with the involvement of numerous disciplines from statistics through molecular biology to (bio-)informatics. For an initial period of four years, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is therefore funding a new international Research Training Group with an interdisciplinary approach set up by the universities in Bielefeld and Vancouver, Canada.  Vancouver’s official acceptance of the funding is expected in January.[Weiterlesen]

Grasshoppers are having to change their song – one of the iconic sounds of summer – to make themselves heard above the din of road traffic, ecologists have discovered. The study, published in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, is the first to show that man-made noise affects natural insect populations.[Weiterlesen]

New application from scientists at Bielefeld University and international partners monitors mood changes in patients

“On top of the world, or in the depths of despair” describes what doctors denote as Bipolar Disorder. Patients’ moods change between episodes of depression and mania. The Cluster of Excellence “Cognitive Interaction Technology” (CITEC) at Bielefeld University presents an application at the world’s largest medical fair “Medica” in Düsseldorf, Germany, from 14 to 17 November: Smartphone-embedded sensors monitor mood changes in Bipolar Disorder patients and send data to the consulting doctors. The presentation is part of the common booth of the State Government of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany (Hall 3, booth D81).[Weiterlesen]

Bielefeld students on a par with teams from international elite universities

Months of painstaking work in the laboratory at Bielefeld University‘s Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) have paid off: the 15 students participating in this year’s ‘international Genetically Engineered Machine competition’ (iGEM) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have good reason to celebrate. The goal of their project was to develop a biological filter that removes estrogen from drinking water. It was a success: they managed to produce enzymes that break down the hormone. On Monday 5 November, the competition finals came to a close in Boston. From 190 teams throughout the world, Bielefeld’s students made it through to the ‘Sweet Sixteen’, the selection of the 16 best teams in the company of teams from such prestigious universities as Stanford University (USA), the Canadian University of Calgary, and Jiaotong University in Shanghai, China.[Weiterlesen]

Mathematicians, physicists and economists open Bielefeld Graduate School in Theoretical Sciences

Bielefeld University’s Faculties of Mathematics, Physics and Business Administration and Economics along with the Institute of Mathematical Economics are expanding their collaboration: they are training doctoral students together. Their PhD candidates will be supervised by prestigious scientists from all three disciplines. What is special is that the doctoral students can receive interdisciplinary training. The opening ceremony of the new Bielefeld Graduate School in Theoretical Sciences (BGTS) will take place on Friday, 2 November, at 4 pm in lecture hall H2 of Bielefeld University.

[Weiterlesen]

Professor Dr Achim Müller awarded Advanced Grant by the European Research Council

Dr Achim Müller, Professor at Bielefeld University's Faculty of Chemistry, has received the European Union’s most prestigious science award. The European Research Council has honoured him with an Advanced Grant under the 2012 funding scheme. Müller is one of the world’s leading scientists in nanochemistry and the ERC will support his scientific work with €1.2 million for three years. “We are proud that this highly prestigious prize has been awarded for the first time to a Bielefeld scientist and congratulate Professor Müller on this fabulous result," says Professor Dr-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, Rektor of Bielefeld University.[Weiterlesen]