Archive

Three experts for super-resolution microscopy jointly want to obtain better images of functioning and pathologically altered nerve cells. The European Research Council ERC is funding them with eleven million euros.

Ambrosia beetles are fascinating: they practice agriculture with fungi and they live in a highly developed social system. Biologist Peter Biedermann has now discovered new facts about them.

The carnivorous Venus flytrap snaps shut when a prey touches it twice within 30 seconds. In the journal Nature Plants researchers report on how this plant's short-term memory and counting system works.

Researchers at the universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt have developed a new compound for treating cancer. It destroys a protein that triggers its development.

Please do not disturb: After forest fires, bark beetle infestations and other damage, the affected forests should not be cleared. Researchers report this in the journal Nature Communications.

The long-term expression of genes in vertebrate organs predisposes these genes to be subsequently utilized in other organs during evolution. The scientists Kenji Fukushima and David D. Pollock report this finding in the journal Nature Communications.

What is the role and molecular basis of electrical signaling in higher plants? This can now be investigated non-invasively for the first time. The new method has been published in the journal PNAS.

An oak forest in Lower Franconia has caused a small sensation in zoology: A moth was discovered there that was considered extinct.

An international research team has found a new approach that may be able to reduce bone loss in osteoporosis and maintain bone health.

If chlamydiae want to multiply in a human cell, the first thing they need is a lot of glutamine. Würzburg researchers have clarified how the pathogenic bacteria obtain this substance.

The smallest cell structures can now be imaged even better: The combination of two microscopy methods makes fluorescence imaging with molecular resolution possible for the first time.

New details are known about an important cell structure: For the first time, two Würzburg research groups have been able to map the synaptonemal complex three-dimensionally with a resolution of 20 to 30 nanometres.

Using a new approach, scientists are applying the techniques of physics to investigate the relationships between parasites and their hosts. The programme is led by the Würzburg cell biologist Markus Engstler.

Environmental pollution is responsible for matings between two fish species that usually don't mix. In their offspring, scientists have now identified genes relevant for the development of skin cancer.

"Distance keeping" is not exactly the motto of the glutamate receptors: Using high-resolution microscopy, it now was discovered that the receptors usually appear in small groups at the synapses and are in contact with other proteins.