News & views

A meeting full of exchange and inspiration: Yesterday (9. September), as part of our symposium, the Collaborative Research Centre “Breaking Barriers” celebrated its successful completion after twelve years of funding. The artist Cordula Hesselbarth presented her twelve-metre high artwork “Re | Solution” that takes an artistic approach to our research.

As a clinician scientist, junior professor Dr Philipp Backhaus is good at juggling the demands of research and hospital work. A specialist in nuclear medicine with six children, he hopes his research will help bring about concrete improvements in medical care. This is a dual role that requires good organisational abilities and the support of those around him.

Science needs specialised researchers. For many research questions, however, cooperation with colleagues from other disciplines is just as important. Using the example of the Collaborative Research Centre “inSight” Prof Michael Schäfers, a specialist in nuclear medicine, provides insight into research practice in the field of inflammation and imaging. He also talks about “network life” and explains, for example, how a grant application for a research network is created and what role junior scientists play. The podcast is available in German.

Through the “InFlame” Medical Scientist Programme, postdocs from biology, chemistry and computer science are undergoing specialist training for natural scientists in medical research at our University. Members of our CRC are actively involved as participants and mentors. In this interview, programme spokesperson Prof. Dr Petra Dersch talks about the important role of medical scientists, their career prospects and the contents of the career programme.

Many exciting research questions arise when computer science intersects with other sciences. In this video, Prof Benjamin Risse gives examples of how artificial intelligence is helping analyse the behaviour of ants and biomedical images. He also talks about how mathematics can be made accessible and what makes academia more attractive to him than business. The video is in German with English subtitles available!

Scientists from our university and their international guests are currently discussing the latest developments in research on inflammation and the imaging of the immune system in Münster. The symposium is taking place in our new Multiscale Imaging Centre (MIC). Here you can find pictures from the opening day and impressions from the poster sessions.

A team headed by the spokesperson of our CRC, Prof Michael Schäfers, has obtained funding from the German Research Foundation to expand our university’s career support programme for clinician scientist – i. e. physicians who combine both clinical work and research. Our CRC is very actively involved in this programme and supports clinician scientists in pursuing their important and challenging career path.

Medical professional Nadine Heiden is training to become a specialist physician while actively pursuing research. “I always wanted to do both,” she says – and a close connection between research and patient care can only be beneficial. Although the dual qualification is challenging, Nadine Heiden provides insight into how it is working out for her.

Dr Noelia Alonso Gonzalez recently became Professor of Macrophage Biology at the University of Münster. Her career springboard was a programme run by the research network “Cells in Motion”, which aimed to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions. In a video, the researcher and mother talks about her career path, international mobility and gender equality.

CRC project leader and nuclear medicine specialist Dr. Philipp Backhaus and his research partners examined breast cancer patients, for the first time systematically using a radiotracer that binds to the fibroblast activation protein. In particular small cancer lesions could be newly detected, and in combination with MRI, the new PET imaging method influenced further treatment in three of 19 patients. The study, published in “Radiology”, was awarded “Paper of the Month” by the Medical Faculty.

A research team led by biochemist Prof Andrea Rentmeister and nuclear medicine specialist Prof Michael Schäfers has, for the first time, utilised so-called SNAP-tag technology to radioactively label cells in living organisms. The method opens up the prospect of examining cells with different imaging techniques and at different temporal stages. The study was published in “Chemical Communications”.

In an interview, mathematician Prof Benedikt Wirth gives insights into mathematical concepts that are fundamental for medical imaging and describes specific research projects – including two projects of our CRC – in which he works together with colleagues from the fields of biology, medicine, physics and other disciplines. In an online talk on March 24, he will then be presenting (in German) mathematical findings which were necessary for the development of technologies.

Calculations play an important role in medical imaging. Marco Mauritz from Prof Benedikt Wirth’s research group works on methods to track individual cells in the body using positron emission tomography. This in turn can help develop and improve immune cell therapies against cancer.

The new Collaborative Research Center "inSight" at Münster University receives funding from the German Research Foundation amounting to approximately ten million euros. The researchers aim to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the body regulates inflammation in different organs and, to this end, develop a specific imaging methodology that brings together information from single cells to entire organisms.