Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association Some converse in Creole, while others speak Scots, but it's not only humans who can be identified by the diversity of language they speak. Naked mole-rats have their own dialects, too. Shared dialect also strengthens cohesion within a colony, a team led by MDC researcher Gary Lewin reports in Science head of the Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Lab at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) Alison Barker from his own team and other researchers from the MDC and the University of Pretoria in South Africa - Professor Nigel Bennett and Dr Daniel Hart - to more closely analyze the chirps that the naked mole-rats use to greet one another we established that each colony has its own dialect," reports Barker lead author of the study published in Science "The development of a shared dialect strengthens cohesion and a sense of belonging among the naked mole-rats of a specific colony." Foreigners are not welcome in an established naked mole rat colony "You might even say that these animals are extreme xenophobes," says Lewin who has been studying naked mole rats for around 20 years at the MDC "This behavior is probably a result of the permanent shortage of food in the dry plains of the naked mole rat's East African habitat Each one knows its rank and the tasks it has to perform - and usually accomplishes them reliably In order to analyze the naked mole-rats' language over a period of two years Lewin's team recorded a total of 36,190 chirps made by 166 individuals from seven naked mole-rat colonies held in laboratories in Berlin and Pretoria who is now at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands used an algorithm to analyze the acoustic properties of the individual vocalizations "That enabled us to collect and compare eight different factors such as the height or level of asymmetry in the sound spectrogram," explains Lewin Veviurko also developed a computer program that was able to very reliably detect which chirps came from which individual naked mole-rat "So then we knew that each naked mole-rat has its own voice," says Barker was whether the animals could recognize one another from their voices." didn't only identify the animals on the basis of their individual voices: "It also detected similarities in the types of sounds made within a single colony," says Lewin The program was therefore also able to identify which colony a specific individual came from "That meant that each colony probably had its own distinct dialect," says Barker the research team did not yet know whether the animals were aware of that and whether they could recognize their own dialect and distinguish it from others she repeatedly placed one naked mole-rat in two chambers In one chamber the chirping of another naked mole-rat could be heard "We observed that the animals always immediately headed for the chamber where the chirps could be heard," says Barker If the sounds were made by an individual from the test subject's own colony but if they were made by an individual from a foreign colony "That enabled us to infer that naked mole-rats can recognize their own dialect and will selectively respond to that." To ensure that the test subjects were responding to the dialect and not to the voice of an individual known to them the researchers deliberately created artificial sounds These contained characteristics of each dialect but did not resemble the voice of a specific individual "The naked mole-rats produced vocal response to the chirps developed by the computer," reports Barker And the experiment worked even when the chamber where the familiar and trusted dialect could be heard was given the scent of a foreign colony "That demonstrated that the naked mole-rats were responding specifically to dialect rather than scent and that they have a positive reaction to hearing their own dialect," says Lewin Foster pups learn the dialect of their new colony the researchers placed three orphaned naked mole-rat pups in foreign colonies where the queen - the only female in naked mole-rat colonies that reproduces - had also recently had a litter "That ensured that the new arrivals would not be attacked," explains Barker our computer program showed that the foster pups had acquired the dialect of their new home." It was rather more by chance that the team discovered another interesting fact: a naked mole-rat queen isn't only responsible for reproduction in her colony she also plays a decisive role in controlling and preserving dialect integrity one of our colonies lost two queens within relatively quick succession," says Lewin we observed that the vocalizations of the other naked mole-rats in the colony began to vary much more widely than usual Dialect cohesiveness was thus greatly reduced and didn't return until a few months later with the ascendance of another high-ranking female as the new queen." Insight into the basic workings of human culture "Human beings and naked mole-rats seem to have much more in common that anyone might have previously thought," concludes Lewin "Naked mole-rats have a linguistic culture that developed long before human beings even existed The next step is to find out what mechanisms in the animals' brains support this culture because that could give us important insight into how human culture evolved." The Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) 10.1126/science.abc6588 are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system Copyright © 2025 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) A team of neuroscientists at Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) have made an unexpected discovery about the way mice perceive warming sensations It's counterintuitive: cooling receptors in the skin are critical for the perception of warmth challenges the predominant model of non-painful temperature perception and provides clues about the way not just mice "When we grab a cup of coffee with our hands this is happening because not only neurons activated by warming are at play but also neurons inactivated by it," said Ricardo Paricio-Montesinos co-first paper author and neuroscientist from the MDC our data from mice suggest that we would either need much longer to feel it or perhaps we wouldn't even sense warming at all." neuroscientists have theorized that dedicated pathways or "labeled lines" convey only warm or only cool sensations from the skin to the brain While there has been some evidence of this in humans and primates Professor Gary Lewin, who heads MDC's Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Lab teamed up with Dr who heads MDC's Neural Circuits and Behavior Lab to study non-painful temperature perception in mice "Temperature is still a mysterious sensation," Poulet said The mouse's ability to perceive non-painful temperature changes has not been closely investigated they discovered that mice detect temperature changes with same high level of acuity as humans - licking a water dispenser in response to 1ºC of warming and 0.5ºC of cooling we could show that mice basically feel warmth and cooling just exactly the same as we do," Lewin said "They have the exact same thresholds as humans." When neural pathways thought to be associated with warming were blocked the mice would lick the dispenser in response to 2ºC of warming revealing perception was diminished but not gone when the pathway associated with cooling was blocked by turning off the trmp8 gene "We were really surprised," said Dr. Frederick Schwaller, co-first author and post-doc in the Lewin Lab "We initially tried to train these mice to detect skin warming as a control but we stumbled on the most important finding in the paper sort of by chance." Upon closer inspection of nerve cells in the forepaw no nerve cells were solely dedicated to warming they found most nerve cells fired an electrical signal in response to temperature and blunt pressure "How does the nervous system figure out if the neuron's activity is because of warm The answer lies in the second thing the team found: a population of nerve cells that are always firing at the forepaw baseline temperature of 27ºC The team theorizes that the mouse is able to detect warmth because one population of neurons increases activity Two signals going in opposite directions generates a pattern that conveys "warm" to the brain in which all the neurons increase activity so the pattern is all going in the same direction "The use of two populations makes it much easier for the mouse to unambiguously say that's warming the cool cells were silent and no activity was transmitted to the brain Without that contributing to an opposite signal pattern The researchers anticipate the mouse's sensations reflect what is happening in humans because we have the same receptors and nerves that convey information from the skin to the spinal cord and brain Further studies will be required to confirm humans exhibit the same pattern and to determine where and how the signals are compared in the brain or spinal cord (2020): "The sensory coding of warm perception" 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.02.035 A new deep-learning algorithm can quickly and accurately analyze several types of genomic data from colorectal tumors for more accurate classification which could help improve diagnosis and related treatment options according to new research published in the journal Life Science Alliance Colorectal tumors are extremely varied in how they develop require different drugs and have very different survival rates they are classified into subtypes based on analysis of gene expression levels "Disease is much more complex than just one gene," said Altuna Akalin bioinformatics scientist who leads the Bioinformatics Platform research group at MDC's Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) we have to use some kind of machine learning to really make use of all the data." To look at numerous features contained in genetic material single point mutations and DNA copy-numbers Akalin and PhD student Jonathan Ronen designed the Multi-omics Autoencoder Integration platform - "maui" for short Supervised machine learning typically requires human experts to label data and then train an algorithm to predict those labels to predict eye color from pictures of eyes the researchers first feed the algorithm with pictures where eye color is labeled The algorithm learns to identify different eye colors and can independently analyze new data unsupervised machine learning does not involve training A deep-learning algorithm is fed data without labels and sifts through it to find common patterns or representative features this kind of algorithm can process pictures of faces that are not labeled in any way maui is able to analyze multiple "omics" datasets and identify the most relevant patterns or features gene sets or pathways to colorectal cancer maui identified patterns associated with the four established subtypes of colorectal cancer assigning tumors to subtypes with high accuracy The platform found a pattern that suggests one subtype (CMS2) might need to be split into two separate groups The tumors have different mechanisms and survival rates The team suggests further investigation to verify if the subtype is unique or perhaps representative of the tumor spreading it demonstrates the power of the platform to take all the data rather than only the known genes associated with a disease "Data science can handle complex data that is hard to handle other ways and makes sense of it," Akalin said "You can feed it everything you have on the tumors and it finds meaningful patterns." it also works much faster than other machine learning algorithms - three minutes to pick out 100 patterns compared to the other programs that took 20 minutes and 11 hours "It is able to learn orders of magnitude more latent factors at a fraction of the computation time," said Jonathan Ronen The team was actually surprised at how fast the system performs especially because they did not have to use graphics cards that usually help speed up calculations though they are continuing to find ways to further finetune the system which also included Bayer AG computational biologist Sikander Hayat adapted their program to analyze cell lines taken from tumors and grown in labs for researching the effects of potential drug treatments cell lines differ from real tumors in many ways on the molecular level The team used maui to compare cell lines currently used for testing colorectal cancer drugs to see how closely they were related to real tumors Nearly half of the lines were found to be more related to other cell lines than actual tumors A handful were found to be the best lines most closely representing the different classes of CRC tumors While drug discovery research is moving away from cell lines this insight could help maximize the potential impact of cell line research and could be adapted for other types of genetic-based drug testing tools Now that the deep-learning platform for colorectal cancer has been established it could be used to analyze data for new patients "Think of this like a search engine," Akalin said A clinician could input the new patient's genetic data into maui to find the closest match to quickly and accurately classify the tumor The platform could advise what drugs have been used on the closest matching tumors and how well they worked thus helping to predict drug responses and survival outlook For now, this could take place in a research setting only after doctors have tried the established protocols. It is a long road for a test or system to be approved for clinical use, Akalin said. The team is exploring the potential for commercialization with the help of the Berlin Institute of Health's Digital Health Accelerator Program They are also in the process of adapting maui for other types of cancers (2019): "Evaluation of colorectal cancer subtypes and cell lines using deep learning" 10.26508/lsa.201900517 Using new high-resolution imaging techniques MDC researchers and colleagues have tracked titin in real time throughout its entire lifecycle The method and results could provide new insight into muscle development as well as treating damaged muscles and heart disease As twinkling lights brighten the holiday season Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine researchers are cheered by red and green lights for an entirely different reason a team has tracked the full lifecycle of titin the body's largest protein known to play a key role in muscle tissue Observing titin from synthesis to degradation has provided novel insight into the formation of sarcomeres the main contractile units of heart and skeletal muscle The results were reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Titin is such a large molecule that its analysis provides unique challenges The team attached red and green fluorescent tags to opposite ends of the protein enabling them to observe titin's precise movements in muscle cells derived from the mouse heart "Cardiomyocytes are highly specialized and cannot skip a beat," said Michael Gotthardt who heads MDC's Neuromuscular and Cardiovascular Cell Biology Lab and spearheaded the research "We can watch how titin is made and inserted into the myofilament while everything is still working The insight gained from being able to watch titin in real time is significant Titin has long been assumed to be the rigid backbone of sarcomeres the basic functional segments of heart and skeletal muscles that expand and contract It turns out that titin is much more dynamic than previously thought Heart muscle cells appear to have a pool of soluble titin spread throughout the sarcomere ready to replace proteins damaged in the repetitive process of muscle expansion and contraction Overextended proteins are moved out of the cells and then degraded All of this happens over the course of a few hours but is actually much longer than for any other sarcomeric protein The large amount of titin located outside the sarcomere was as surprise seen for the first time thanks to the new genetic mouse model and imaging technique Another unexpected finding was the diversity of titin molecules Faster moving proteins are likely different isoforms than slower moving ones "This is a look at the real life of the sarcomere," Gotthardt said "We can understand the formation and remodeling of the myofilament structure which has relevance to human disease and development." The fluorescent probes can help researchers study how muscles rebuild themselves after exercise or how heart muscles remodel after a heart attack They might also help to better understand heart diseases associated with mutations in other sarcomeric proteins to follow endogenous titin variants in real time from start to finish," Rudolph said "So many experiments are possible with these mouse models and different imaging techniques." the technique could potentially be used to track implanted cells to see how well they are integrating with the native muscle fiber and if they properly connect with their new neighbors to work as a unit or not Such insight could show if cell based therapies are effective Validating the novel tools and establishing methods for image analysis was a challenge and required the collaboration with colleagues from MDC's Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology The team worked hard to show how the fluorescent proteins had no unexpected side effects on muscle or titin development and function MDC researchers are continuing to investigate titin with the new tools including how skeletal muscles respond to exercise Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10.1073/pnas.1904385116 Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system. What if we could correct genetic mutations that cause disease in order to radically improve human health Harnessed from the naturally occurring immune system that bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses once-in-a-generation tool that offers the real potential to quickly and efficiently achieve what was once thought impossible over 15,000 papers containing the term CRISPR have been published and hundreds of different organisms have been edited CRISPR has become a mainstream topic of conversation fodder for Hollywood scriptwriters and the standard genome-editing tool used globally it is clear that CRISPR-based applications will help us tackle societal challenges including disease food production and environmental sustainability I receive daily emails from people suffering from debilitating genetic diseases asking how and when CRISPR can fix what is hardwired in their DNA and often runs in their family we know the gene that causes the disease but have so far been powerless to change it Sickle-cell research at the Innovative Genomics Institute and elsewhere shows we can proactively mitigate or correct the mutation that causes the illness Gene-editing treatments for this and other diseases are beginning or will soon enter clinical testing The gene-editing revolution has led to a rapidly growing CRISPR economy the technology will likely produce tangible and potentially wide-ranging treatments and even cures for genetic diseases ensuring responsible use is an ongoing challenge scientist He Jiankui shocked the world by revealing that he had edited the embryos of twin girls It was a medically unnecessary experiment that radically broke the global consensus that CRISPR should not currently be used in clinical human-germline editing–that is making genetic changes that can be passed down to future generations The scientific community responded by redoubling efforts to establish stronger safeguards encourage a more deliberate approach and deepen public conversation about responsible use The World Health Organization is now pushing government regulators to act which is critical since interest in editing the human germline is not going away we will look to expand the types of edits we can make focus on advancing the safe and effective delivery of CRISPR genome-engineering tools work through the first wave of Food and Drug Administration approvals and increase our exploration of a naturally occurring way to fine-tune CRISPR-based editing to improve accuracy There’s a possible future where genetic disease is a thing of the past where we routinely sequence DNA and treat harmful mutations as an outpatient procedure everyone will have access to these new technologies and there’s a consensus on rules to regulate whether and how this technology is applied to the human germline This must come from a collaborative effort that includes increased private and public investment more commercial partnerships to reduce financial risk and scale the technology and the political and regulatory nuance to allow widespread affordable access to safe effective cures without stifling a technology that will underpin the health of future generations a professor at the University of California co-discovered CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology Contact us at letters@time.com the startup that wants to launch a fleet of flying electric cars in cities across the globe by 2025 is awaiting safety approval in Europe and the USA the Munich-based company will be joined by Christopher Delbrueck as its first CFO Delbrueck will take up his role with Lilium in September coming from being an acting chief executive officer at the German energy company Uniper SE Delbrück is credited with playing an instrumental role in the listing of Uniper in 2016 as well as the subsequent tripling of its share price business development and leading financial roles at E.ON as well as four years with the Boston Consulting Group Delbrueck said: “The urban air mobility market will see tremendous growth over the next decade and I believe Lilium has both the team and the technology to capitalise on this growth and become one of the world’s leading technology companies.” The German VTOL startup is seeking regulatory approval for the world’s first all-electric vertical takeoff and landing passenger jet Delbrueck revealed that Lilium is applying for certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (ESEA) and will also commence an application with the U.S Gaining regulatory approval in the U.S. is seen as a key step for Lilium, particularly in view of the number of existing helipads and airfields that could host its craft and lever spending on infrastructure. In Europe, Volocopter and Fraport AG – the owner and manager of FRA intend to develop concepts for the ground infrastructure and the operation of electric aerial taxis at airports The emission-free pay-per-ride service uses 36 rotors for speeds of up to 300 kph. In 2017, the Lilium prototype successfully transitioned between hover mode and horizontal flight The aircraft should have a 300-kilometre range although the eventual application of the aircraft will be autonomous bloomberg.com, lilium.com I agree with the Privacy policy electrive has been following the development of electric mobility with journalistic passion and expertise since 2013 we offer comprehensive coverage of the highest quality — as a central platform for the rapid development of this technology Israeli Scientists WarnThe gene-editing tech is considered a promising method for treating many diseases but Tel Aviv University researchers say it sometimes destroys genetic material – as happens in cancer 2022Get email notification for articles from Gid'on Lev FollowJul 27 2022It was a groundbreaking development a decade ago: CRISPR gene-editing technology that allows the snipping of DNA to remove undesired sequences or add desired ones It has since been used to treat a variety of diseases Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information A researcher views the CRISPR/Cas9 process through a stereomicroscope at the Max-Delbrueck-Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin Menu.page-59473204{--colorD:#d9c2fe;--colorJ:#d9c2fe;--gradientTransparentJ:#d9c2fe00;--colorDC:#d9c2fe;--colorDA:#d9c2fe;--colorDF:#d9c2fe;--colorJD:#d9c2fe;--colorDJ:#d9c2fe;--colorJF:#d9c2fe;--colorJG:#d9c2fe;--colorDDC:#d9c2fe;--colorDTransparent:#d9c2fe;--colorJTransparent:#d9c2fe}ChirpTalking naked mole-rats mimic 1 of humanity's worst traitsChirping behavior is revealed to be so much more The naked mole-rat is a seemingly strange creature. This blind, cold-blooded mammal burrows underground in a network of subterranean tunnels — ruled by a queen overlord — rarely making its way to the surface But despite these bizarre traits, the naked mole-rat is more humanlike than it appears. New research suggests how they communicate hides clues for better understanding the origin of human language their xenophobic tendencies hint at something complicated and unexpected — culturally transmitted dialects These dialects contribute to maintaining social order but they also lead to aggression against outsiders This is the first such discovery in a rodent The finding was published Thursday in the journal Science naked mole-rats have cast away everything underground which uses their energy and isn’t necessary to survive Some background — Scientists have some understanding of naked mole-rat socialization: they live their lives in colonies, they eat each other's poop and they call to each other and convey information through "chirps." This team wanted to find out more by studying the rodents' distinct vocalizations They hypothesized the chirps might serve a social function Previous studies have found that due to limited food supplies producing both tightly-knit social communities — and a strong fear of outsiders Professor Gary Lewin said in a press statement: "We wanted to find out whether these vocalizations have a social function for the animals who live together in an ordered colony with a strict division of labor." producing both tightly-knit social communities — but also a strong fear of outsiders "You might even say that these animals are extreme xenophobes," co-author Gary Lewin, head of the Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Lab at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, said "This behavior is probably a result of the permanent shortage of food in the dry plains of the naked mole-rat's East African habitat." When dealing with members of their own colony How they did it — Although the naked mole-rat can produce 17 distinct sounds the researchers were most interested in studying the "soft chirp" they use when responding to other noises the scientists recorded more than 36,000 sounds from naked mole-rats in seven colonies They used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze eight different features of the soft chirp in order to "predict the identity of individuals within a colony." The researchers also tested for colony-specific dialects They then placed the naked mole-rats in two interconnected chambers with audio equipment that could playback and record noises Video from the Lewin Lab of naked mole-rats What's new — Researchers learned a few surprising things about naked mole-rats during their study including how the soft chirping sounds contribute to the social order of the colony individuals within each colony produce distinct soft chirp vocalizations — the algorithm picked up on those individual sounds with a reliable degree of accuracy Each colony also has its own unique soft-chirp signal or "dialect." This suggests the blind naked mole-rats can produce distinct chirping sounds allowing them to distinguish members of their clan from outsiders powerful preference for the sounds of their own colony reflecting the rodent's xenophobic behavior towards foreign members of their species Digging into the details — The team also got the chance to test their vocalization hypothesis during times of social unrest one of the colonies lost two of its queens in a violent upheaval By recording soft chirps during these periods of naked mole-rat anarchy the researchers found that the noises varied more in frequency in the queen's absence The algorithm also couldn't predict the colony's dialect as accurately during periods of anarchy This suggests the queen maintains the colony's language — her very presence a driver of dialect cohesiveness The researchers also wanted to know whether these colony-specific vocalizations remain strong across numerous generations the team transferred abandoned rodent pups from their home colonies to new ones adopted the chirping dialect of the new colony suggesting the unique language does transfer across generations Lewin’s team recorded a total of 36,190 chirps made by 166 individuals from seven naked mole-rat colonies held in laboratories also communicate through acoustic vocalizations scientists have not previously observed this behavior in rodents In a related commentary, Rochelle Buffenstein writes: "This is an astonishing feat for a rodent and is in stark contrast to the majority of mammalian vocalizations The study could also help scientists better understand the development of human language the scientists found similarities between the way naked mole-rats and humans both communicate to signal individual and group identity What's next — The researchers hope to build on this study's surprising findings in future work Specifically, they want to identify whether they are truly capable of complex acoustic learning, similar to songbirds or whether they're simply "exceptionally good usage learners" like non-human primates — communicating based on social conditioning and observation Such findings could help scientists better understand the development of different types of social communication in the animal kingdom Battery system manufacturer Voltabox has presented a new technology concept to enable lithium-ion batteries to be produced in almost any conceivable free-form shape is based on solidifying plastic materials to enclose the battery The idea behind this novel approach is to bring flexibility to the shaping of batteries while reducing weight at module and system-level and increasing cost efficiency says that battery housings of the future will no longer have to consist of relatively heavy metal parts that are screwed or welded together The flow-shape design based on self-solidifying and ultimately dimensionally stable plastic meaning that the given installation space could be used many times more precisely even completely new integration possibilities are conceivable The market launch of the new technology is scheduled for summer 2021 when Voltabox wants to start delivering its own FSD modules and customer-specific FSD battery systems the company aims to spread this technology through licenses in selected markets they have filed several patents and have already protected utility models and trademarks Discussions on the use of the technology are now gradually being initiated with customers who also expects to issue the first licenses to battery manufacturers and OEMs starting next summer Voltabox believes that this technology has the potential to have a significant impact on the entire industry The idea of relying on solidifying materials is borrowed from the aerospace industry “The method enables the use of all available cell types Thanks to the special case concept and the material’s strongly energy-absorbing properties the batteries are actually even more robust in terms of shock and vibration resistance,” says Voltabox Different materials are always used depending on the specific requirements “Our conceptual innovation is extraordinary and disruptive because we have provided an answer to the key limiting factors for the use of lithium-ion battery technology system price and complex production methods,” says CFO Patrick Zabel a significant reduction in the number of individual components the use of low-cost materials and relatively simple manufacturing processes also make it possible to achieve significantly more attractive pricing compared to the current market level Company CEO Jürgen Pampel speaks of nothing less than a revolution in the lithium-ion battery industry: “This was only possible because we called into question every one of the current technical assumptions relating to battery design.” He added that the technology not only shows its strengths in the classic fields of application and those previously occupied by Voltabox “The strengths of this technology will make themselves felt not only in the traditional fields of application which Voltabox has catered for to date aircraft and stationary applications in particular the advantages of Flow-Shape-Design are obvious,” says Pampel Voltabox is presenting its new approach to technology just at the end of a difficult year The battery systems manufacturer already cashed in its growth targets for 2020 at the end of March in the face of the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic Voltabox also presented a “comprehensive balance sheet adjustment” retrospectively for the 2019 financial statements the Voltabox Group reported sales of 56.6 million euros for 2019 – well below the forecast of 70 to 80 million euros voltabox.ag The biggest challenge facing the European Union in the coming years will be to forge a coherent foreign policy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published Sunday who is poised to win a fourth term in Germany’s parliamentary election later this month also expressed hope that a solution to the impasse over the distribution of migrants across the EU would be found in the “not too distant future.” In the interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she said EU member countries urgently need to find a common stance toward China and Russia “The world has to see that member states won’t deviate from a European consensus on these issues,” she said adding that it was important to recognize that a country’s position would sometimes be overruled in favor of the bloc’s To help end the stand-off over the distribution of migrants across the bloc the EU should “stabilize” all other elements of migration policy developing a partnership with Africa and putting more pressure on smugglers The success of its migration policy would also depend on EU countries’ willingness to show solidarity “with no if and buts,” she said Merkel also had stern words for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “What we are experiencing at the moment with German citizens in Turkish custody is serious and absolutely unacceptable,” she said adding that Turkey is slipping further away from Europe and its values it is pointless to negotiate with Turkey on expanding the customs union it shares with the EU and time to decide whether EU accession talks should be suspended or even ended “There are a number of options on the table,” she added Merkel warned against resignation in the face of injustice that we should just accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea I wonder: What would have happened if the question of the GDR [communist East Germany] was handled in that way Last month, the leader of the liberal Free Democrats, Christian Lindner — a possible coalition partner for Merkel after the election — called for Germany to see the annexation of Crimea as a “permanent provisional solution.” Merkel also called on politicians to guard against lazy language in political debate: “I’ve always said They are all individuals’ … We have to guard against stereotypes.” down-to-earth restaurant with a small menu and big heart intimate neighborhood favorite serving up quality Italian food A self-described neighborhood bar for music lovers this spot is a local gem far from the Brussels bubble crowd Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations Near the end of a recent campaign speech in northern Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel turned to Europe’s refugee crisis of 2015 and offered her audience a comforting dual message German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses with a gift as she attends an election campaign event of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Delbrueck-Steinhorst “It is good if EU and Turkey share the burden but we need protection of external borders,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her arrival to the European Council Summit on Thursday Germany and other European Union countries turned a blind eye to the refugee crisis building on its external borders for too long, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a German newspaper interview published today (31 August) Slovenia and Serbia said on Tuesday (8 March) they would place new restrictions on the entry of migrants putting extra obstacles in the way of those trying to reach the European Union via the Balkans Austria told Macedonia today (12 February) to be ready to "completely stop" the flow of migrants across its southern border from Greece and said it would do the same on its own frontiers within months Please press and hold the button until it turns completely green If you believe this is an error, please contact our support team 147.45.197.102 : 4d8addf1-3707-44be-b105-39d89746 Professor Amanda Fisher and Professor Wisia Wedzicha Professor Amanda Fisher and Professor Wisia Wedzicha have been announced as winners of the Helmholtz International Fellow Award The Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organisation. Established in 2012, the International Fellow Award aims to strengthen cooperation between researchers and is awarded to individuals in recognition of their personal qualities and service to science.  Both Professor Wedzicha and Professor Fisher will be invited to visit one of the Helmholtz research centres to undergo collaborative work They will also be expected to spend the prize money of approximately €20,000 in conjunction with one of the Helmholtz Centres and to serve as ambassadors for collaborative research Professor Wisia Wedzicha is Professor of Respiratory Medicine, at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London.  She was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013 and is a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator Professor Wedzicha’s main area of research is in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) She leads a research group in COPD exacerbations as well as the role of bacterial and viral infection in COPD aggravation “I am greatly honoured to receive this prestigious International Award and looking forward to collaborations between Imperial and the University of Munich,” she said Professor Amanda Fisher is director of the Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial She is known for her pioneering work within the fields of HIV pathogenesis embryonic stem cells and epigenetic gene regulation Professor Fisher has made several important advances in her research field including describing the first active clones of HIV and discovering the functions of several HIV genes Professor Fisher is planning to use her award money for scientific meetings as well as lab staff exchange. She wishes to extend Imperial’s existing partnership with the Max-Delbrueck-Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin.  “I am always interested in facilitating collaborations with science institutions around the world and I am incredibly grateful to the Helmholtz Association for this great opportunity to further our collaboration with the Max Delbrueck Center in Berlin,” she said Article text (excluding photos or graphics) available under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. Photos and graphics subject to third party copyright used with permission or © Imperial College London Your contact details will never be published Antibiotics used to kill gut bacteria also hinder the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory, reports a study in mice published on May 19th Bacteria are living organisms existing as single cells They are everywhere and most don’t cause any harm lives in the intestine and helps digest food 262 million prescriptions are written for antibiotics in 2011 in the US alone, an estimated 30% of these were inappropriate Scientists from the Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin found that prolonged use of antibiotics decreases neurogenesis and cognitive function The researchers found that mice who lost their healthy gut bacteria performed worse on the memory tests a type of white blood cell that seems to act as a correlator between the brain We detected that treatment of adult mice with antibiotics decreases hippocampal neurogenesis and memory retention Reconstitution with normal gut flora (SPF) did not completely reverse the deficits in neurogenesis unless the mice also had access to a running wheel or received probiotics In parallel to an increase in neurogenesis and memory retention both SPF-reconstituted mice that ran and mice supplemented with probiotics exhibited higher numbers of Ly6Chi monocytes in the brain than antibiotic-treated mice Elimination of Ly6Chi monocytes by antibody depletion or the use of knockout mice resulted in decreased neurogenesis whereas adoptive transfer of Ly6Chi monocytes rescued neurogenesis after antibiotic treatment We propose that the rescue of neurogenesis and behaviour deficits in antibiotic-treated mice by exercise and probiotics is partially mediated by Ly6Chi monocytes.” Luckily, the adverse side effects of the antibiotics could be reversed. Mice who received probiotics or who exercised on a wheel after receiving antibiotics regained memory and neurogenesis. “The magnitude of the action of probiotics on Ly6Chi cells, neurogenesis, and cognition impressed me,” says senior author Susanne Asu Wolf. “For us, it was impressive to find these Ly6Chi cells that travel from the periphery to the brain and if there’s something wrong in the microbiome Ly6Chi acts as a communicating cell,” says Wolf Log in to leave a comment Play Duration: 23 minutes 6 seconds23m Brought to you by Two years ago the birth of Lulu and Nana, the first gene-edited babies, shocked the world. But their story is a gateway into a much bigger enterprise: the global race to bring cutting-edge genetic modification tools to your local clinic. As we head into the realms of science fiction, are governments and regulation keeping pace? A researcher performs a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing process at the Max-Delbrueck-Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Gregor Fischer/picture alliance via Getty Images) Published: YesterdayMon 5 May 2025 at 12:00pm Download the ABC listen app to hear more of your favourite podcasts