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In 2021, FAU was awarded almost a quarter of a billion euros in third-party funding. With an increase of more than eight percent, this means FAU, which is the largest university in Northern Bavaria, has once again increased the volume of third-party funding it receives.

One of the rare diseases is hereditary spastic paraplegia, a disease that causes spasms and weakness in the leg muscles, increasingly affecting mobility as the disease progresses. Approximately 77,000 people across Europe suffer from the condition. Researchers have already discovered that the disease starts in nerve cells in the brain. These are obviously particularly difficult to investigate.

The Erlangen location of the Bavarian Center for Cancer Research (BZKF) is providing start-up funding worth a total of 110,000 euros to three research projects at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen. The aim of the projects is to conduct fundamental research into new therapeutic approaches for treating cancer.

Another milestone in the construction of the interdisciplinary center in Erlangen has been achieved. Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Hubert Aiwanger, commended the project for creating an ideal research environment at the topping out ceremony for the Max Planck Center for Physics and Medicine. The center is a strategic partnership between FAU, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen.

Sport scientists have now discovered that long periods in space damage bone structure irreparably in some cases and can make parts of the human skeleton age prematurely by up to 10 years. Adapted training programs in conjunction with medication could provide better protection for astronauts on future space missions.

Energy Science and Engineering (40), Telecommunication Engineering (64), Metallurgical Engineering (73) and Medical Technology (88) – these are the subjects in which FAU has once again ranked among the top 100 best universities worldwide in the recently published Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. Energy Science and Engineering has moved up six places compared to the previous year.

Researchers from the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and FAU have investigated extinction events with rapid global warming in the last 300 million years. They discovered that species from warm and cold waters are highly likely to become extinct as a consequence of global warming, while species in temperate waters survive.

At the current time, there is no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Things may be about to change, however. Researchers at FAU and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have identified a protein that already displays pathological characteristics at an early stage of the neurological disease.

Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi has been holding the new "Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies" at FAU since 2021. For her research, the physicist and historian focuses on the intersection of science and technology, the history of science, the history of diplomacy, political science and international relations.