24.01.2013 Articular Cartilage Damage: Help from a Printer

A multi-layered implant: This is how the cartilage replacement to be developed by the research network HydroZONES might look like.  (Graphics HydroZONES)

Healing cartilage defects: This is the objective of a new international research network. Implants that are structured like natural tissue are to provide durable repair of defects in the joint. The project, which is coordinated at the University of Würzburg, is funded by the EU with almost ten million euros.


22.01.2013 Optogenetik-Pioniere ausgezeichnet

Georg Nagel, mehrfach ausgezeichneter Forscher und Pionier auf dem Gebiet der Optogenetik. (Foto: Christian Wiese)

Erneut hat der Würzburger Pflanzenphysiologe Professor Georg Nagel eine hohe Auszeichnung erhalten: den Louis-Jeantet-Preis für Medizin. Nagel teilt sich den mit 700.000 Schweizer Franken dotierten Preis mit dem Berliner Biophysiker Peter Hegemann.


17.01.2013 Destructive Embrace

For the spliceosome to be able to work, the assembly chaperone (grey) in the illustrated ring-shaped function unit must first be removed. This task is performed by the SMN complex (purple and brown). (Graphics: Clemens Grimm)

Proteins that embrace their partners and induce a breaking point through thermal motion: In the course of evolution, cells have developed a lot of tricks in order to do their tasks successfully. University of Würzburg researchers have now clarified amazing details of such a process.


09.01.2013 Tuberculosis: Agents in MycPermCheck

Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in a stained electron microscopic image. Source: Public Health Image Library / Janice Haney Carr

About two million people worldwide die of tuberculosis each year. There is an urgent need for new drugs and they will probably get easier to find in future – thanks to the new model MycPermCheck, which was developed at the University of Würzburg.


02.01.2013 Better than Diamond

A combination of light and radio waves can be used to store and retrieve information in silicon vacancy defects. Graphics: Georgy Astakhov

University of Würzburg physicists have modified silicon carbide crystals in a way that these exhibit new and surprising properties. This makes them interesting with regard to the design of high-performance computers or data transmission.