Newsportal

In the past few weeks, the Rectorate has worked with academics on the new research profile of the University of Münster. The result: eight profile areas and five potential areas. These 13 areas are given an overarching structure by four so-called Key Impact Areas, in which the University will be pooling the strengths and resources of individual disciplines to benefit top-flight interdisciplinary research.

A research team led by the neurobiologist Prof. Christian Klämbt has shown: In insect nerve cells, there are structures that resemble the "nodes of Ranvier" in mammalian neurons.

Researchers like Prof. Erich Bornberg-Bauer from the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Münster assume that some proteins have no ancestors. They are on the trail of a phenomenon they call "de novo proteins".

With the publication "Twelve Months, Twelve People - Portraits 2022", the Office of Communication and Public Relations would like to take into account the diversity at Münster University and introduce some outstanding people of the past year.

The Rectorate of the University of Münster has approved the Code of Conduct – an overarching document in which the values which unite people at the University and to which the University as an institution is committed are brought together and made transparent.

An American-German research team describes in the scientific journal "Nature" a new approach to switch off certain "cancer genes" via a targeted modification of RNA. Among the scientists is Prof. Frank Glorius from the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the WWU Münster.

A team of researchers, including Prof Jörg Kudla from the Institute of the Biology and Biotechnology of Plants at Münster University, has found a mechanism in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) which enables plants to provide protection against salt stress for their sensitive stem cells in the meristem at the root tip.

Uncovering the secrets of the universe: this is one of many aims which CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Geneva has. Prof. Christian Klein-Bösing from the Institute of Nuclear Physics at Münster University has been working on the ALICE project there for many years. In an interview, he explains what the project is about and what collaboration is like in a large team.

The call for applications for "WiRe (Women in Research) Fellowships" is open until 15 September. The call is aimed at international female postdocs who want to carry out a research project together with a professor at Münster University in the coming year.

The Center for Soft Nanoscience is a research building for the nano-sciences. Here, 32 teams from the physics, chemistry, biology and medicine do their work using high-precision nano-analytical methods. The special thing: Together under one roof, scientists are researching how nanomaterials with complex properties are created in nature in order to produce nanomaterials based on this model.

It is an unwritten law: scientific exchanges and interdisciplinarity are the basis for excellent research. How does interdisciplinary collaboration increase the gain in knowledge? What obstacles have to be overcome in everyday work? We take a closer look at these and other questions by presenting two research projects from the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

Physics and philosophy are Michael te Vrugt's two specialities. For the 27-year-old, it was sometimes exhausting, but above all a welcome change to study both disciplines in parallel and to complete two doctoral theses.

At the nanoscale, the laws of quantum mechanics apply and the boundaries between chemistry and physics become blurred. Three scientists provide insights into their research in this border area.