Multiple sclerosis sufferers often complain of more severe disease symptoms after consuming dairy products. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Erlangen-Nuremberg have now found a possible cause for this. According to the study, a protein in cow's milk can trigger inflammation that targets the "insulating layer" around nerve cells. The study was able to demonstrate this link in mice, but also found evidence of a similar mechanism in humans. The researchers therefore recommend that certain groups of sufferers avoid dairy products. The study has now been published in the journal PNAS.
The University of Bonn has again recruited high-ranking personalities. Prof. Dr. Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar and Prof. Dr. Martin Keßler are now taking up so-called Schlegel Professorships, which are financed by excellence funds. The internationally recognized researchers will open up new fields of research at the University of Bonn and provide important impulses in the life sciences and Protestant theology.
How can a customized chemotherapy be found for cancer, for example? Machine learning methods can help with this and also improve patient treatment for other diseases. The start-up project aimed analytics at the University of Bonn has developed a modular analysis system that precisely groups patients on the basis of medical Big Data. The team of Dr. Kevin Baßler, Dr. Patrick Günther and Karsten Waltemathe has now received a coveted EXIST start-up grant of 130,000 euros from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for one year.
With the OERContent.nrw funding line, the state is funding a total of 18 collaborative projects for digital teaching and learning formats at universities with more than ten million euros. Fifty-eight project applications from universities in NRW applied for the funding. The successful applications, in which at least three universities collaborate on e-learning formats, will be funded with up to 1.5 million euros. E-learning formats can be online courses, learning videos or virtual labs, for example. The projects will start on April 1, 2022, and the universities will have a total of two years to complete the projects.
The Faculty of Medicine awards grants from faculty and state funds to highly qualified female physicians and scientists to complete their habilitation. The goal is to address the gender gap that still exists in postdoctoral degrees.
Researchers at the University and the University Hospital of Bonn have developed a method that could be used to diagnose atherosclerosis. Using self-learning software, they were able to identify vascular changes in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), often at an early stage. Although these early stages do not yet cause symptoms, they are nevertheless already associated with increased mortality. The algorithm used photos from an organ not normally associated with PAD: the eye. The results have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Rare genetic diseases can sometimes be recognized through facial features, such as characteristically shaped brows, nose or cheeks. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now trained software that uses portrait photos to better diagnose such diseases. The improved version "GestaltMatcher" can now also detect diseases that are not yet known to it. It also manages to diagnose known diseases with very small numbers of patients. The study has now been published in the journal "Nature Genetics".
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Billmann has been appointed Professor of Pharmacogenomics at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn as of February 1, 2022.