Research

A new study conducted at the Epilepsy Centre at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen shows that magnetoencephalography (MEG) significantly increases the success of surgery for epilepsy patients. It is the largest study of its kind to be performed on this subject with the longest period of investigation.

What are current challenges in AI research? For Prof. Dr. Martin Matzner, Chair of Digital Industrial Service Systems, the challenge is to create algorithms that perform well on practical data and not only in the laboratory.

The periodic table turns 150 this year. We took this as an opportunity to ask our scientists about their favorite element. Today: Prof. Dr. Jörn Wilms on hydrogen.

Synthesising single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is one of the greatest challenges faced by materials science. They can be synthesised using precursor molecules. Researchers at FAU have now developed a method for assembling these complex molecules from a few segments.

The Volkswagen Foundation will be providing funding worth nearly one million euros for palaeontology as a subject for the next seven years. With their project, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kießling, FAU, and Prof. Dr. Manuel Steinbauer from the University of Bayreuth hope to provide support to the field of palaeontology, set up networks, define joint research priorities and promote opportunities for young researchers.

In his research, the Romanian born Prof. Dr. Alexandru Babes currently focuses on the molecular mechanisms of sensory transduction in peripheral mammalian thermoreceptors and nociceptors. In 2002, he received his doctorate in biology from the University of Bucharest with “Summa cum laude”. In 2019, Prof. Dr. Babes was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. This enables him together with Prof. Dr. med. Peter Reeh, Institute for Physiology and Patho-physiology at FAU, to carry out an opto-thermo-genetic research project.

Artificial intelligence can be applied to various research fields, i.e. music as Prof. Dr. Meinard Müller, Audio Labs Erlangen and Professorship for Semantic Audio Signal Processing, shows.

With the Share at FAU Schaeffler and the FAU have signed a cooperation agreement with the aim to jointly work on research topics in the field of digitalisation and manufacturing processes and to test their industrial application at an early stage.

They form a protective sheath around nerve fibres and ensure that nerve impulses are transmitted rapidly: Schwann cells. Dr. Franziska Fröb and Prof. Dr. Michael Wegner, Chair of Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry have been researching these cells for years now.

Cardiac diseases such as heart failure affect the ability of the cardiac muscle to pump blood. The scientists Prof. Dr. Oliver Friedrich, FAU, and Prof. Dr. Boris Martinac, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney, are now collaborating to research how cells react to this stretching process. The project has been granted funding of approximately 230,000 euros.