News - 2018

Plant biologists, including Prof. Jörg Kudla from the WWU Münster have shown: A mechanical injury of plant leaves causes rapid stomatal closure. This closure process is initiated by the plant hormone jasmonic acid.

The foundations were laid by a team led by Prof. Dirk Prüfer at the Institute of Plant Biotechnology at Münster University with their years of research into dandelion rubber – and now tyre manufacturer Continental has officially opened its "Taraxagum Lab Anklam" research and testing laboratory in Anklam, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Zu den weltweit meistzitierten Forschern gehören drei Professoren der WWU: Laut dem Zitations-Ranking 2018 des US-amerikanischen Konzerns "Clarivate Analytics" sind der Mediziner Frank Baumgartner, der Chemiker Frank Glorius und der Biologe Jörg Kudla dabei.

During her PhD she discovered an important protein complex that makes photosynthesis efficient.

The award enables a one-year research visit to the Moerschbacher lab at the IBBP to investigate enzymes from marine bacteria.

For the first time, researchers have created, within a single generation, a new crop from a wild plant – the progenitor of our modern tomato – by using a modern process of genome editing. Participating in the study was a team led by Prof. Jörg Kudla from the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Münster.

Pflanzen-Biotechnologen der Universitäten Münster und Queensland (Australien) haben mit einem Forscherteam die Struktur einer an der Photosynthese beteiligten Molekülverbindung visualisiert. Die Ergebnisse könnten dazu beitragen, mithilfe von einzelligen Algen künftig fossile Brennstoffe zu ersetzen.

On 25 July the European Court of Justice gave its long-awaited ruling on new techniques of breeding plants. The judges decided that these new techniques fall under existing legislation regulating genetically edited organisms.

A German-Finnish team led by Prof. Iris Finkemeier from the University of Münster has discovered a regulatory mechanism which plays a part in photosynthesis. Plants in which the “NSI acetyltransferase” is defective can only adapt to changed light conditions to a limited extent.

A brace of awards: As before, in 2016, the Rectorate of the University of Münster has again awarded two Transfer Prizes this year. One went to biotechnologist Prof. Dirk Prüfer, and the other was awarded to business information specialist Prof. Jörg Becker.

Für ein Projekt zur Erforschung der Protein-Regulation in Pflanzenzellen erhält ein Konsortium um Prof. Dr. Iris Finkemeier von der WWU etwa 850.000 Euro durch das "ERA-CAPS"-Netzwerk. Zu diesem internationalen Verbund haben sich Organisationen zur Forschungsförderung aus zehn Ländern zusammengeschlossen.