Research

When bones break more easily in old age, osteoporosis is often to blame. However, the cause of the disease and how it develops is not yet sufficiently understood. An interdisciplinary team is now developing a new imaging process with funding from an ERC Synergy Grant worth 12.3 million euros.

Researchers at the Institute of Biochemistry are investigating healthy ingredients in beer win the research grant from the European Foundation for Alcohol Research and the European Brewery Convention, worth 60,000 euros.

Researchers at FAU have discovered that proteins that were previously associated with longevity and anti-ageing also play an important role during the formation and positioning of synapses.

Combining two statistical methods that are fundamentally different. Dr. E. Waldmann from FAU has received the Freigeist Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation for her innovative and unusual research project.

Chronic itching affects up to 25 percent of the population during the course of their lives and is often underestimated. The first team of researchers from Germany has now therefore joined forces to carry out research in this area as part of a translational project called PRUSEARCH.

Although the symptoms of the fatal Huntington's disease typically begin at the age or 30 or even later, the mutant gene which causes the disease already starts to have an effect in childhood. This is the conclusion reached by research carried out by scientists from FAU and the Universities of Cardiff and Lund.

More and more elderly people are suffering from malnutrition. People who are unmarried, separated or divorced are most often affected. Those who have difficulty walking or coping with stairs or who have just returned home from hospital are also more likely to suffer from malnutrition than others of the same age.

Immunotherapy treatment option: scientists at the Division of Molecular Pneumology have succeeded in proving that a certain protein in the cell nucleus has an essential role to play in fighting lung carcinoma.

Melanoma and liver cancer are among the types of cancer which are most likely to be fatal in the Western world. Three research groups at the Institute of Biochemistry have now jointly discovered a mechanism which is highly significant for future treatment strategies.

'Traffic jams' can also occur in the brain and they can be damaging. Researchers at the Division of Stem Cell Biology have been able to prove that disrupted transportation routes in nerve cells could be a significant cause of Parkinson's disease.