University of Münster - Directed Evolution
Abstracts
Cluster of Excellence: Cells in Motion (CiM) –
Imaging and Understanding Cellular Behaviour in Organisms
Cells are the building blocks of all living organisms, and their dynamic interplay is essential for the development and maintenance of higher biological functions. As such, cells need to sense, interpret and translate environmental cues into intracellular signals that control their behaviour. In developing and mature organisms, this cellular plasticity is required for the formation of both tissues and organs and for their homeostasis. Disease is the result of abnormal cellular behaviour, leading to organ dysfunction and/or degeneration, with common examples being cardiovascular, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. The analysis of dynamic cellular processes (“Cells in Motion”) in health and disease is therefore of utmost scientific and medical interest. The CiM excellence cluster initiative is based on the
Cells in Motion Interfaculty Center – CiMIC.
Cluster of Excellence: Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures
The Excellence Cluster examines the manifestations of, and the change in the relationship between, religion and politics in an historical depth dimension from antiquity down to the present day. The area under study ranges from ancient oriental, Greek and Roman forms of polytheism to the text-based monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in their diverse forms and interrelationships and the religions of Africa and East Asia.
The current escalation of various politico-religious conflicts has increased the relevance of the subject over the past few years. The researchers engaged on the project proceed from the assumption that today’s conflicts can only be properly assessed way by taking an historical view which compares cultures. The members of the research project still see it as one of their central tasks to enter into a dialogue with the public, thus making a contribution to current debates and making it possible to reflect on current problems with more intellectual objectivity.
The starting point for the work done in the Excellence Cluster was the experience that the modern separation of religion and politics, which had been considered to be natural for a long time, has been called into question today as a result of global processes interlinking economic, political, cultural and media aspects. The historical master narratives have now been historically relativized. It has been shown that the idea of a secularized modern age needs to be modified and extended in view of modern developments, non-western societies and pre-modern epochs. It is here that the Excellence Cluster is making a contribution to progressing the subject, by looking at religion and politics as historically mutable social and cultural fields whose relationship to each other is always a result of variable power constellations, conflicts, negotiation processes and symbolic constructions.
Excellence Cluster "Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures"
Contacts
Helga Soer-SodmannDep. 6.6
Schlossplatz 4
48149 Münster
Tel.: +49 251 83-21470
Fax: +49 251 83-21472
