The Covid-19 pandemic did not hinder the triple BIOME cores for Cellular and Molecular Immunology/Infectious Diseases/Tumour and Signalling from holding their annual interdisciplinary retreat this year, which, due to lockdown, took place held virtually on three intensive, consecutive mornings. The retreat's programme was adapted to suit the format accordingly: instead of the usual talk and poster sessions, each doctoral member was given a strictly-scheduled, four-minute talk slot in which to present their research's punchline, with a further two minutes for peer discussion thereafter. The sessions were sovereignly hosted by doctoral chairs, with discussion panel members being announced at the beginning of each session. This year's keynote speaker was Toni Cathomen (University of Freiburg) who gave a fascinating overview of the clinical translation of genome editing. Prizes for each day's best doctoral presentation were awarded to Nina Buß, Keven Hörster and Beatrice Thier.

© For the kind permission of the SARS-CoV-2 image used in the collage above, BIOME would like to thank the following scientists:
Maren Bormann¹, Lukas van de Sand¹, Leonie Schipper¹, Bernd Walkenfort² and PD Dr. rer. nat. Adalbert Krawczyk¹ from the ¹Department of Infectious Diseases and the ²Electron Microscopy Unit (EMU) of the IMCES, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

The international excellence of biomedical research at the University of Duisburg-Essen is reflected in the latest US News & World Report on the Best Global Universities with three listings in the top 100 subject rankings for Oncology (# 15), Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (# 57) and Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (# 70) in particular.

At the end of 2018, the Science Council already highlighted the great potential and the highly positive development at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University Hospital Essen in recent years and emphasised the location's success in research. “The very good placement in this important international ranking confirms that we have chosen the right path so far,” states the Dean of the the Medical Faculty, Prof. Jan Buer.

Clinical Medicine at the University Hospital Essen also performed notably: it is the front runner in North Rhine Westphalia, is ranked 8th in the top 10 in Germany and reached 129th place worldwide.

Compared with the 1 500 universities included in the ranking, UDE is 5th in NRW, 21st in Germany, 124th in Europe, and 285th worldwide.

The Fritz Schiff Prize 2020 was awarded to Dr. Esther Schwich from the Institute for Transfusion Medicine. She received the EUR 3 000 prize of the German Society for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology for her doctoral and subsequent project work in the field of transfusion medicine, which was funded by the BIOME-PEP excellence programme of the Medical Faculty.

The focus of the investigations she carried out was the surface molecule HLA-G present on blood cells and its properties as an immune checkpoint molecule. "With this study we were able to gain important insights for an improved understanding of the course of the disease and possible new therapeutic approaches for breast and ovarian cancer," explains the young scientist, Dr. Esther Schwich.

In addition to the brilliant and diverse line-up of BIOME alumni speakers who joined us from Tarrytown (NY), Stockholm, Zurich, Oxford, Yale and Trinity College Dublin as well as from various parts of Germany, confirmed keynote guest speakers at this highly successful combined physical/digital event were Maija Hollmén (University of Turku, FI), Eran Elinav (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, IL) and Ali Ertürk (Helmholtz Zentrum München, DE).

BIOME extends a huge, big thanks to each of our alumni and keynote guest speakers for so kindly sharing their career experiences and job/research insights with the members of our graduate school at this occasion. It was trully a wonderful and inspiring event to mark BIOME's 10th anniversary, and we very much appreciate the time, efforts and thoughtful contributions that made this (alas hybrid) conference work. It was our privilege to have you as our guests. Thank you to everybody for joining us, and wishing all participants every success in continuing their impressive professional endeavours.

BIOME warmly welcomes the collaborative research centres, CRC 289: Treatment Expectation (Speaker: Ulrike Bingel) and CRC 296: Local Thyroid Hormone Action (Speakers: Dagmar Führer-Sakel and Heike Heuer) as independent research and training structures to our graduate school network. These long-term multidisciplinary scientific programmes are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Patients’ expectations about treatment benefits are important modulators of health outcomes. An individual’s expectation can substantially shape symptoms and disease progression and influence the efficacy and tolerability of treatments. The ultimate goal of the CRC 289: Treatment Expectation is to generate the knowledge base for the systematic utilisation of patients’ expectation in order to optimise therapeutic strategies and thereby improve health outcomes.

Thyroid hormones (TH) are essential for normal tissue homeostasis since they orchestrate many cellular processes. Both TH deficiency and TH excess result in a vast array of clinical manifestations indicating that proper organ functions are compromised. While current treatment strategies aim to normalise circulating TH levels in affected patients, recent discoveries have highlighted the importance of local mechanisms in controlling the organ-specific TH status. Hence, the goals of the CRC 296: Local Thyroid Hormone Action (Locotact) are to dissect how these local control mechanisms are organised, as well as to address whether a local modulation of TH action is beneficial in certain pathologies.

UDE remains a rising star in the international university landscape. In the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Ranking of the 200 best universities in the world that are 50 years old or younger, it currently ranks 16th. As in the previous year, it remains the best young German university. The awards go to institutions that have developed quickly and successfully in a short time and are considered to be ambitious. For five years now, UDE has been among the top 20 best young universities worldwide and has established itself as a research university in international competition.

It is particularly convincing in the THE citation index, where it takes 103rd place in the overall World University Ranking. In a nationwide comparison, UDE ranks fifth after Heidelberg, Berlin Charité, Ulm and Hohenheim.

THE assesses the most research-intensive universities in the world according to various academic dimensions such as teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international orientation.

Neutralization tests for the novel corona virus are complex and can only be carried out in special laboratories. Scientists at the University of Duisburg-Essen have now developed a new method that is faster, cheaper and can be widely used. A pre-print of the study has already been published to give the scientific community quick access to the method.

The work originated at Essen's Institute of Virology, which is headed by Prof. Dr. Ulf Dittmer. In addition to the virologist Dr. Khanh Le-Trilling, Lara Schöler, an outstanding young researcher and member of Prof. Dr. Mirko Trilling's working group, has been acknowledged as the first author of the publication with equal rights. Lara Schöler is a medical doctoral student who has participated in the ELAN and BIOME excellence programmes and now works in the Research Training Group 1949.

Link to paper