Research

How do killer whales communicate? A team of researchers at FAU set out to find answers. In order to find out how whales communicate, the researchers used deep learning to analyse the audio recordings and then compared these with the animals’ behaviour.

Coral reefs are hotspots of biodiversity. As they can withstand heavy storms, they offer many species a safe home. A team of researchers from FAU and the University of Bayreuth have now discovered that a very specific type of ‘cement’ is responsible for the stability of coral reefs – by forming a hard calcareous skeleton, coralline red algae stabilise the reefs, and have been doing so for at least 150 million years.

Working together with researchers from the University of Tübingen, the University of Tromsø, the UC Davis and the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, biologists from FAU have discovered how tomato plants identify Cuscuta as a parasite. The plant has a protein in its cell walls that is identified as 'foreign' by a receptor in the tomato.

Organic solar cells are cheaper to produce and more flexible than their counterparts made of crystalline silicon, but do not offer the same level of efficiency or stability. During his doctoral thesis, Andrej Classen, who is a young researcher at FAU, demonstrated that increases in efficiency can be achieved using luminescent acceptor molecules.

A team of researchers has developed an intelligent camera that achieves not only high spatial and temporal but also spectral resolution. The camera has a wide range of applications that can improve environmental protection and resource conservation measures as well as autonomous driving or modern agriculture.

How tumour cells spread from the primary tumour to other organs depends, among other things, on how the tumour cells are attached to the surrounding tissue. A collaborative project in which scientists are researching how tumour cells can ‘lose their grip’ is now set to receive 900,000 euros of funding from the DFG and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Earth and all the living organisms on it are constantly changing. But is there any way we can detect if these changes are occurring at an abnormal rate? An international team of researchers including scientists from FAU have developed a method of detecting such developments and tracking how new ecosystems are formed.

Experts from Universitätsklinikum Erlangen are involved in seven projects in the university medicine research network (Netzwerk der Universitätsmedizin, NUM), which is receiving a total of 150 million euros in funding from the BMBF.

It is very important to diagnose dementia as early as possible in order to provide the best possible care to patients. The dementia research project ‘Bavarian Digital Dementia Register’ (DigiDEM) led by FAU has adapted tests for dementia that are commonly used worldwide so that they can also be carried out online.