Looking further afield
Different skills, joint research: 1st November sees the start of four new pilot projects within the Cell-in-Motion (CiM) Cluster of Excellence at Münster University. These pilot projects are small research projects which junior scientists apply for and implement, and for which they are responsible. In the process, project partners come together from a range of disciplines.
CiM has been funding projects of this nature for a year now. Doctoral and post-doctoral students can apply for start-up financing of up to 20,000 euros for one year for their independent research. The project partners always have to represent different disciplines and work on one joint scientific question. "With these pilot projects we are already promoting interdisciplinary collaboration in young researchers," says Prof. Lydia Sorokin, spokeswoman for the CiM Cluster of Excellence. Up to now, CiM has provided a total of 270,000 euros in funding for 17 pilot projects.
Two examples of projects: when disciplines come closer together
In one of the new pilot projects, research is being carried out by PhD student Michael Glatza from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine (MPI) in Münster, working with two other PhD students: Lydia Wagner, likewise from MPI, and Marc Ehrlich from the Institute of Neuropathology at Münster University. The aim that the three students have is to produce "mini-brains" – in the lab, using stem cells – in which scientists can investigate how extensions of nerve cells are wrapped around with a “protective layer”. This could be helpful in research being done on diseases such as multiple sclerosis, morbus Parkinson or frontotemporal dementia.
In another new pilot project, junior researchers are developing a radioactively marked tracer. The aim here is to use this in future research in order to make particularly precise diagnoses of tumours or of the development of inflammations. PhD student Dmitrii Kalinin from the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medical Chemistry at Münster University is developing the chemical structure of the tracer. "For the radioactive marking I need the help of a nuclear medical specialist," he says. And this is why PhD student Viktoria Butsch, from the Clinic for Nuclear Medicine at University Hospital Münster, is also involved in the project.