Research

Always-on connectivity, information overload and new technology that has become part of our lives and that we now depend on. In this emerging digital world, researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and universities in Augsburg, Bamberg, Munich and Würzburg are investigating ways that we can interact with this technology that are beneficial rather than damaging to our health.

As the smallest living unit, a cell can survive alone, but not in a cluster. When the oldest known human being died at the age of 122, some cells in her body had reached the same age, others were replaced after just 60 hours. And yet they all behaved according to plan.

The Jung Foundation for Science and Research has awarded the young gastroenterologist Dr Sebastian Zundler from the Chair of Internal Medicine I at FAU the Ernst Jung Career Advancement Award for Medical Research 2019. He was been awarded the prize for his research project on the significance of intestinal tissue-resident memory T cells.

Whilst vaccines provide protection from diseases such as Ebola, there is an urgent need for therapeutic options once the infection has taken hold. FAU is carrying out research in this area together with partners such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Germany hopes to cooperate more closely with the Pacific Alliance. FAU has taken on a significant role in preparing the way.

Digitalisation makes it possible for us to complete more work in the same amount of time. However, the increasing speed at which we receive information and tasks can also have a negative impact on the workforce. Researchers at FAU are investigating the requirements of today’s workplace in a research project.

In contrast to what was previously suspected, our bones have a network of thousands of veins and blood vessels. This discovery was made by biologists and medical researchers at FAU and Duisburg-Essen University.

ATHENA, a space observatory being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) should make it possible to gain important information about how large structures of matter observed in the universe were formed and have evolved over time. FAU is supporting the project with special software for mathematical models.