Current Events and News

The group of Prof. Thomas Carell from the Department of Chemistry of the LMU has won a million-dollar grant from the Volkswagen Foundation.

Researchers led by Regina de Vivie-Riedle, a professor of theoretical chemistry at LMU Munich, have found indications for a base-independent mechanism that can decrease the photostability of the RNA base uracil.

The hula twist is no longer an unproven postulate: LMU chemists have now directly shown that a light-sensitive molecule can perform this complex photoreaction. This has inter alia implications for the development of novel molecular machines.

Julian Stingele, Professor at the LMU Gene Center, has been awarded the Alfried Krupp Prize for Young University Teachers.

The LMU is adding a new central element to its high-tech campus at Großhadern. By 2020, a new building is to be built where researchers will investigate important mechanisms of genetic control.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are an indispensable component of the digital technologies that are now an integral part of our everyday life. Yet their biological role has been discovered only recently. A few years ago it became apparent that these metals are essential elements for methano- and methylotrophic bacteria. One representative is the bacterium Methylacidiphilum fumariolicum SolV, which was found in a volcanic mudpot near Naples, Italy, and is known to be strictly dependent on REEs such as lanthanum and cerium for its growth.

Ribosomes are the cell’s protein factories. LMU researchers have now structurally characterized late stages in the assembly of the human small ribosomal subunit, yielding detailed insights into their maturation principles.

Mechanisms of epigenetics, the evolution of life and the question of how the immune system distinguishes the body’s own from foreign DNA: The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) will fund three new large-scale projects.