The continuing development and long-term quality assurance of research software is the priority of three projects at Heidelberg University that were successful in acall by the German Research Foundation(DFG).One project is based in biomedicine,two others in geography.Participating are scientists in the respective disciplines as well as experts from the Scientific Software Center,which is based in the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing at Ruperto Carola.The DFG is making funding totalling approximately 1.2 million euros available for three years.The project teams involved will be able to improve the quality of available software and make it available to awider group of users.A challenge facing modern,digital research is that science increasingly depends on the use and development of customised research software,for which the necessary resources and structures are,however,often limited or lacking,explains Prof.Dr Jürgen Hesser,director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing(IWR)and scientific coordinator of the Scientific Software Center(SSC).“Our success in the DFG call proves that Heidelberg University is excellently positioned when it comes to research software.As part of the funding as aUniversity of Excellence,the SSC was established with the goal of advising and supporting researchers in all matters of software development,”says Prof.Hesser.The goal of the biomedical project is to make software for storing and processing molecular findings available to abroader group of users.To achieve this,the existing codebase will be restructured and software access improved.By means of asystem of incentives,the participating scientists want to recruit acommunity of developers who process problems arising and undertake maintenance jobs.The project“Establishing aknowledge graph community in biomedical science”is jointly handled by Dr Inga Ulusoy from the Scientific Software Center and Dr Sebastian Lobentanzer.Dr Lobentanzer is apostdoctoral researcher in the“Systems Biomedicine”research group headed by Prof.Dr Julio Saez-Rodriguez at Heidelberg University Hospital.Adding various aspects to broaden the usefulness and reproducibility of research software for laser scanning data simulation is the focus of the project“Fostering acommunity-driven and sustainable HELIOS++scientific software”.Dr Dominic Kempf from the SSC is cooperating with the 3DGeo research group of Prof.Dr Bernhard Höfle,located at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Geography.A software package was developed there to simulate measurements by means of laser scanning.The studies aim,in the coming three years,to guarantee along-term,continuing maintenance of the research software.Research software to analyse luminescence data used for age-dating is the subject of the project“REPLAY:REProducible Luminescence data AnalYses”.It aims to develop existing software solutions into an open software ecosystem that prioritises the reproducibility of results for luminescence-based geochronology.The emphasis is on consistently implementing what are called FAIR principles,intended to enable asustainable use of research data and software.REPLAY involves collaborations between universities in Germany,Austria and Switzerland under the leadership of Heidelberg University and Giessen University.In Heidelberg,the project is directed by Dr Sebastian Kreutzer,who works at the luminescence laboratory of the Institute of Geography.In Giessen it is headed by Dr Thomas Kolb,from the Department of Geography.The Scientific Software Center develops scientific software to enable sustainable and reproducible research.Located at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing,it is one of the first especially established centres for research software engineering in Germany.The SCC Research Software Engineers offer software development for projects in all research areas and train scientists with guidance,courses and mentoring programmes.With the interdisciplinary call“Research Software:Quality Assured and Re-Usable”,the German Research Foundation seeks to improve the usability of existing research software and to contribute to long-term quality assurance. 查看详细>>

An internationally outstanding representative of the extremely innovative research field“Molecular Systems Engineering”,physicist Prof.Dr Christine Selhuber-Unkel,is to receive the Lautenschläger Research Prize for 2023.The prize winner from the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at Heidelberg University conducts research at the interface of materials science and biophysics on biohybrid life-inspired microsystems.The award comes with prize money of 250,000 euros.Dr h.c.Manfred Lautenschläger,the sponsor of the prize and Honorary Senator of Ruperto Carola,has also established aprize for outstanding early-career researchers.This award,endowed with 25,000 euros,goes to biologist Dr Victoria Ingham.At the Centre for Infectious Diseases of Heidelberg University Hospital,she investigates whether,and if so,to what extent an increasing burden of insecticides and rising insecticide resistance impact on the development of the malaria pathogen and its transmission to humans.The award ceremony of the most highly endowed research prize from aprivate donor in Germany takes place on 22 June 2023.Prize-winner Christine Selhuber-Unkel With her research studies,Prof.Selhuber-Unkel pursues the aim of linking synthetic systems from molecular components with living cells.If the cells can be made to transfer their forces and motion to the artificial structures,“living materials”can emerge.These biohybrid,life-inspired microsystems would be independent of external energy sources.Prof.Selhuber-Unkel’s vision is the development of self-regulating bio-tech hybrids,whose functionality extends far beyond the present,purely technical systems.“Prof.Selhuber-Unkel’s studies are characterised by highly innovative and original approaches with the potential for atechnological revolution,”according to the statement of reasons for awarding the prize.Christine Selhuber-Unkel–a scientist at the newly founded Faculty of Engineering Sciences–is the founding director of the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials(IMSEAM)of Heidelberg University.After studying physics in Heidelberg and Uppsala(Sweden)Christine Selhuber-Unkel earned her doctorate at Heidelberg University in 2006 and then worked as apostdoctoral researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen(Denmark).In 2010,as ajunior professor,she transferred to the Department of Material Science at Kiel University,where she led an Emmy Noether junior research group.The following year,she was appointed Professor of Biocompatible Nanomaterials in Kiel.In July 2020,she accepted aProfessorship for Molecular Systems Engineering at Heidelberg University.Before that she spent fairly long research periods abroad with aFeodor Lynen Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at Cornell University in Ithaca,New York(USA).The scientist has acquired several highly endowed research grants,for example from the European Research Council(ERC),most recently an ERC Consolidator Grant(2020). 查看详细>>

In the current approval round of the German Research Foundation(DFG),Heidelberg University has been successful with four applications to fund large research consortia,receiving funding worth atotal of approximately 63 million euros.Two Collaborative Research Centres on the topic of chronic pain and malignant brain tumours will continue for four more years each at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg.Likewise extended is aCRC/Transregio on dermatological and immunological questions,in which Heidelberg medics cooperate with partners in Tübingen and Mainz.In addition,scientists from the Central Institute of Mental Health(CIMH),who are also members of Ruperto Carola,are playing amajor role in atransregional consortium in Berlin,Dresden and Mannheim on how to deal with addictive drugs.The office of spokesperson will change to CIMH in Mannheim.It is the second funding phase for Collaborative Research Centre“Understanding and targeting resistance in glioblastoma”(CRC 1389),with its studies aimed at combating resistance to the treatment of these malignant brain tumours.Existing treatment strategies lead sooner or later to resistance to therapy where the fundamental molecular mechanisms have been only partially understood,if at all,for most of the procedures generally regarded as standard.The scientists want to achieve“treatability”by acomprehensive approach.To this effect,they intend to push ahead with the clinical implementation of the research findings,examining more intensively not only the initial illness but also the progression phase.The CRC approach centres on the“Core Collection”,which brings together uniform,integrated datasets from high through-put procedures for molecular analyses,preclinical models,imaging and clinical data.Spokesperson for CRC 1389,with its funding of around 14.9 million euros,is Prof.Dr Wolfgang Wick,Executive Director of the Neurology Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital and Head of the Clinical Cooperation Unit Neurooncology at the German Cancer Research Center.In Collaborative Research Centre“From nociception to chronic pain:structure-function properties of neural pathways and their reorganization”(CRC 1158)the scientists involved examine how acute pain turns into chronic pain.They focus on changes in nerve cells and nerve pathways.To that effect,they have already been able to elucidate important molecular and cellular mechanisms.In the third and last funding period,researchers will particularly explore how this chronicity can be prevented or reversed.The aim is for chronic pain to be treated and prevented not only by administering new medication but,inter alia,also by neuromodulatory and cognitive intervention.The CRC Spokesperson is still Prof.Dr Rohini Kuner,Director of the Institute of Pharmacology at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg of Heidelberg University.The DFG has allocated around 17.5 million euros to fund the Collaborative Research Centre.Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio“The skin as sensor and effector organ orchestrating local and systemic immune responses”(CRC/TRR 156)explores the question of what role the skin plays in warding off pathogens.A central element here is regulating systemic immune responses since immune cells in the skin not only trigger alocal response to certain stimuli but can also cause the whole immune system to respond.In this context,the researchers in CRC/TRR 156 study how immune cells in the skin interact with one another and also with other skin cell types.They want to gain new insights into how different cell types in the skin influence other immune cells and hence the body’s multi-layered resistance to disease.The third funding period will concentrate on the clinical application of research findings,for example by conducting studies on human auto immune diseases.The Spokesperson of CRC/TRR 156 remains Prof.Dr Alexander Enk,Executive Director of the University Dermatology Clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital.The transregional consortium is organised jointly by the universities of Heidelberg,Tübingen and Mainz.It is receiving funding of around 14.3 million euros. 查看详细>>

Approximately 700,000 years ago,a“warm ice age”permanently changed the climate cycles on Earth.Contemporaneous with this exceptionally warm and moist period,the polar glaciers greatly expanded.A European research team including Earth scientists from Heidelberg University used recently acquired geological data in combination with computer simulations to identify this seemingly paradoxical connection.According to the researchers,this profound change in the Earth’s climate was responsible for the change in the climate cycles,thus representing acritical step in the later climate evolution of our planet.Long-term expansion of Mediterranean forests and increase in precipitation as well as an enhanced East Asian summer monsoon associated with the increase and northward migration of the Atlantic moisture source.Paradoxically,the glacial was warmer and wetter than the preceding interglacial.|©AndréBahr Geological ice ages–called glacial periods–are characterised by the development of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere.In the past 700,000 years,phases shifted between distinct glacial and warm periods about every 100,000 years.Before then,however,the Earth’s climate was governed by 40,000-year cycles with shorter and weaker glacial periods.The change in the climate cycles occurred in the Middle Pleistocene Transition period,which began approximately 1.2 million years ago and ended about 670,000 years ago.“The mechanisms responsible for this critical change in the global climate rhythm remain largely unknown.They cannot be attributed to variations in the orbital parameters governing the Earth’s climate,”explains Associate Professor Dr AndréBahr of the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University.“But the recently identified‘warm ice age’,which caused the accumulation of excess continental ice,did play acritical role.”For their investigations,the researchers used new climate records from adrill core off Portugal and loess records from the Chinese Plateau.The data was then fed into computer simulations.The models show along-term warming and wetting trend in both subtropical regions for the past 800,000 to 670,000 years.Contemporaneous with this last ice age in the Middle Pleistocene Transition period,the sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic and tropical North Pacific were warmer than in the preceding interglacial,the phase between the two ice ages.This led to higher moisture production and rainfall in Southwest Europe,the expansion of Mediterranean forests,and an enhanced summer monsoon in East Asia.The moisture also reached the polar regions where it contributed to the expansion of the Northern Eurasian ice sheets.“They persisted for some time and heralded in the phase of sustained and far-reaching ice-age glaciation that lasted until the late Pleistocene.Such expansion of the continental glaciers was necessary to trigger the shift from the 40,000-year cycles to the 100,000-year cycles we experience today,which was critical for the Earth’s later climate evolution,”states AndréBahr.The results of this research were published in the journal“Nature Communications”.Scientists from Germany,France,Spain,and Portugal contributed to the research.The work was funded by the German Research Foundation. 查看详细>>

Heidelberg University has won support from the German Research Foundation(DFG)in the latest approval round with approximately 66 million euros in funding for five collaborative research centres.A new collaborative research centre(CRC)at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg will focus on glioblastoma,a type of malignant brain tumour.The faculty is also home to aCRC on pain research as well as atransregional collaborative research centre(CRC/TRR)that together with partners in Tübingen and Mainz is exploring issues of dermatology and immunology.Both consortia will continue their work for asecond funding period.The humanities collaborative research centre“Material Text Cultures”has entered its third four-year funding period.In addition,researchers from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim are principally involved as co-applicants in anew CRC/TRR that is researching the loss and regaining of control over the use of addictive drugs.Funding has been renewed for aweather forecasting research group with participation of Ruperto Carola. 查看详细>>