How do plants build resilience? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen studied the molecular mechanisms of the plant immune system. They were able to show a connection between a relatively unknown gene and resistance to pathogens. The results of the study were published in the journal The Plant Cell. Scientists from "PRoTECT" – Plant Responses To Eliminate Critical Threats – investigated the molecular mechanisms of the…

The astronomy research instrument CRIRES+ is designed to study planets outside our solar system. It is now in operation at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The Institute of Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen is part of the international research consortium that built the high-resolution infrared spectrograph at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. When a new optical instrument on a telescope begins…

Oxygen deficit, also called hypoxia, in the brain is actually an absolute state of emergency and can permanently damage nerve cells. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence that to a certain extent, hypoxia can also be an important signal for growth. Together with scientists from the University Hospitals of Copenhagen and Hamburg-Eppendorf, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have shown in mice that…

Researchers from the Thünen Institute of Organic Farming and the University of Göttingen are the first to investigate very early immunocastration in male piglets to prevent ‘boar taint’, which affects the taste of meat from non-castrated animals. Being an alternative to surgical castration, immunocastration induces an immune response against certain hormones thereby delaying sexual maturity. The project team collected extensive data on the…

Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of different complex structures that can be found in…

A higher diversity of flowering plants increases the breeding success of wild bees and may help compensate for the negative effects of insecticides. This is what researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim, as well as the Julius Kühn Institute, have found in a large-scale experimental study. The results have been published in the scientific journal Ecology Letters. In their experiment, the researchers investigated how…

Scientists from across Europe are calling for an action plan in order to reduce Covid-19 cases in a coordinated manner across Europe. Specifically, they appeal to the European states to aim for a seven-day incidence rate of 10 cases per 100,000 per week or below. Particularly in view of the new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, they consider that a deci-sive and coordinated Europe-wide approach is necessary in order to con-tain the…

Social media is increasingly used to spread fake news. The same problem can be found on the capital market – criminals spread fake news about companies in order to manipulate share prices. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen and Frankfurt and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana have developed an approach that can recognise such fake news, even when the news contents are repeatedly adapted. The results of the study were published in…

„Patrick Cramers Forschungsarbeiten leisten einen prägenden Beitrag für die Lebenswissenschaften und für die interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit“, betonte Christoph Klein, Direktor der Kinderklinik Dr. von Haunersches Kinderspital München, in seiner Laudatio.  Im Fokus von Cramers Forschung steht ein zentrales Rätsel der Biologie: die Steuerung der Genaktivität. Mithilfe dieses Kopiervorgangs – der Gentranskription – erstellen lebende Zellen…

The physicist Professor Metin Tolan will become the next President of the University of Göttingen. The Senate of the University unanimously agreed this decision today. The University Foundation Committee also approved this proposal unanimously. Tolan succeeds Professor Reinhard Jahn, who held the office until 31 December 2020. Since that time, full-time Vice-President Dr Valérie Schüller has been Acting President of the University on an interim…