News/Archive

Global warming changes the flowering times of plants and the moment when bees hatch – sometimes with severe consequences for the bees. This was shown by a new study conducted by ecologists from the University of Würzburg.

Multiple biological clocks control the daily rhythms of physiology and behavior in animals and humans. Whether and how these clocks are connected with each other is still a largely open question. A new study now shows that a central clock governs the circadian rhythms in certain cases.

Ants operate a unique rescue system: When an insect is injured during a fight, it calls for help. Its mates will then carry it back to the nest for recovery.

Many tumors are thought to depend on glutamine, suggesting glutamine deprivation as therapeutic approach, but a new study shows that this effect might have been overestimated.

Fruit flies from warm regions have a siesta, whereas their Nordic counterparts do not. Biologists from the University of Würzburg reset the circadian clock of African flies in an experiment. As a result, these insect also reduced the length of their siesta.

Scientists have long been puzzled by the flounder's asymmetrical physiology. The mechanism that triggers the unusual asymmetry has now been identified by comparing the genomes of two related fish species.

Advance in biomedical imaging: The Biocenter of the University of Würzburg in close collaboration with the University of Copenhagen has developed an alternative approach to fluorescent tagging of proteins. The new probes are practicable and compatible with high-resolution microscopic procedures.

An international team of researchers has unravelled how the highly inflammatory giant cells arise. Researchers of the Würzburg Institute for Human Genetics participated in the project. Their findings will help develop more efficient therapies for immune diseases that are difficult to treat.

Sex determination, dormancy, water balance: The phytohormone abscisic acid has branched out in the process of evolution. An international research team presents new insights on this subject in the science journal PNAS.

The formation of macromolecular machines within cells is often a complicated endavour. Biochemists of the University of Würzburg and Göttingen have now unravelled new details of these processes. They show that cells invest a great deal of effort into preventing production errors.

Putting a halt to the profound changes affecting agricultural landscapes: With this goal in mind, scientists, farmers and official representatives teamed up to look into ecological intensification as a potential solution.

Inhibiting a protein called Sclerostin could probably help treating the bone-loss disease osteoporosis. New findings at the university of Würzburg could stimulate this research.