Biomedical research at the Faculty aims to identify disease mechanisms at the molecular level and to develop biotechnological methods that can be used to influence these processes in order to develop more precise diagnostics and novel active substances.

The focus of the working groups on "Water Research" is on questions relating to the development, changes and restoration of aquatic biodiversity from the level of genes and species communities to ecosystems and their function. In addition to basic research, the focus is on interdisciplinary, application-oriented research projects.

The research focus on subject-related empirical teaching and learning research investigates questions relating to the learning and teaching of biology at school, at university or at extracurricular learning venues. In cooperation with other working groups in subject didactics and teaching-learning research, they also investigate interdisciplinary questions. They are integrated into the Interdisciplinary Center for Educational Research (IZfB) and the Center for Teacher Education (ZLB).

Insect diversity in Germany is primarily influenced by land use, with weather and climate playing a lesser role. This has been confirmed by researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Senckenberg Society in a recent study published in the journal Conservation Biology.

Areas with low-growing vegetation in particular are biodiversity hotspots: they have up to 58 percent more species than forests. However, these species-rich regions are often inadequately protected. This could further accelerate the decline in insect diversity.

A small protein called survivin helps tumor cells to escape current treatment methods and thus ensures their survival.
Molecular biologist Prof. Dr. Shirley Knauer and chemist Prof. Dr. Michael Giese from the University of Duisburg-Essen now want to develop dynamic, light-switchable ligand systems as novel survivin inhibitors.
The Wilhelm Sander Foundation is funding their project with almost 190,000 euros for two years.

The four Research Centers and the College of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) form a new research hub in the science metropolis of the Ruhr region.
Already 27 top international scientists have opted for a future in the UA Ruhr and thus at one of the three partner universities, the Ruhr University Bochum, the Technical University of Dortmund or the University of Duisburg-Essen. In total, more than 50 new research professorships will be created within the centers and the college.

Congratulations to Mike Blüggel on receiving the Joachim Herz Add-on Fellowship for "Innovative Tumor Treatment Project"! His project "Sundowner", explores light-controlled protein degradation using nanobody-PHOTACs in collaboration with UDE´s Faculty of Chemistry. The goal is to combine PHOTACs with nanobodies to enable targeted degradation of the apoptosis inhibitor Survivin in tumor tissue, thereby protecting healthy tissue.
The fellowship enables research stays, conference attendance, training, science communication activities, and participation in fellowship meetings.

The Faculty of Biology is delighted that the DFG Collaborative Research Center “RESIST” has been successfully evaluated and can now enter its second funding phase (2025-2028).

In RESIST, the interdisciplinary team led by spokesperson Prof. Dr. Bernd Sures and co-spokesperson Daniel Hering is researching how multiple stress factors change our rivers and what the prerequisites are for successful ecological restoration.
In the second phase, the effects of stress factors in connection with drying events and heat waves will be investigated in particular.
The faculty congratulates the entire RESIST team and wishes them a successful second funding phase.

Automated analysis of German insect diversity

• Birte Vierjahn
• 10.10.2024

How do you protect what you don't know? Until now, global society has been faced with this impossible task in view of the worldwide insect decline. Biologists from the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung have now developed a cost-effective workflow with laboratory robots for the first time, with which they can analyse almost 2,000 samples from Malaise traps* in parallel and almost in real time. The genetic information reveals which of the many thousands of species occur where and thus provides a basis for conservation measures. Molecular Ecology Resources reports.