Research

Around 90 percent of the population are infected with herpes viruses, often without knowing and mostly without consequences. However, infection with a herpes virus can be life-threatening for babies or people with a weakened immune system. Suitable medication has not yet been developed for treating these patients. A research group at FAU led by Dr. Florian Full wants to change this with a promising new therapy.

Anja Boßerhoff, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at FAU was appointed as the Chair of the Scientific Commission during the winter session of the German Council of Science and Humanities. In her new role, she will advise the federal and state governments on developments in science, humanities and higher education.

FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger discusses artificial intelligence and its potential to revolutionise medicine and our healthcare systems with his guest Prof. Dr. Andreas Maier, head of the Pattern Recognition Lab at FAU.

The Research Data and Research Information Working Group (AGFD) supports researchers at FAU with collecting and storing their research data.

Dr. Michaela Kramer, media education specialist at FAU, has investigated the influence smartphone photography and posting images on social media has on shaping young people’s sense of identity. She has drawn up a typology describing the different ways young people can present themselves via photos and what that says about their developing personalities.

Family physicians, or GP’s, are the first port of call for questions concerning health or illness. They therefore need information sources which cover various medical fields whilst still being suitable for use in individual cases. A team of researchers at FAU have investigated how GP’s can access medical information and what they look for in digital material.

Children, young people and media is a topic which sparks heated debate. Should children steer clear altogether of televisions, computers or smartphones? Is it true that young people are not interested in books? These are just some examples of the questions investigated by researchers from the Institute of Book Studies at FAU. The researchers discovered one crucial aspect: the key to using both analogue and digital media is literacy.

New method: researchers investigate how tissue properties influence cell migration.

Disease-causing microbes as well as cancer cells gang together to form larger structures - and only then become dangerous to humans. Scientists at the FAU, the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin in Erlangen and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden have now presented a new mathematical model in the renowned journal Physical Review Letters that describes this process. And thus helps to find new approaches in the fight against infections and tumours.

Autumn marks the beginning of the high season for rhinoviruses. They cause cold symptoms, which can be dangerous for children suffering from bronchial asthma. Scientists at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen (UKER) have been working as part of an international team to find a way of preventing this from happening.