News archive 2014

The Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence opened the doors of its labs for approximately 30 representatives from business and economy in Münster yesterday. The guests were excited and asked the scientists plenty of questions during the evening.

In the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, immune cells migrate into the brain and destroy tissue there. Up to now, physicians assumed that treatment with the highly efficacious drug natalizumab may prevent this. A team led by CiM group leader Prof. Heinz Wiendl and Prof. Sven Meuth now found that in some patients pathogenic cells still find their way to the brain - with the help of the adhesion molecule MCAM.

CiM group leader Professor Alexander Zarbock has been honoured for his research on the role of specialized immune cells in acute lung injury (ALI) by the German Society for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care.

Prof. Lydia Sorokin, spokesperson of the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence, and CiM group leader Prof. Cornelia Denz are new members of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.

More than 2.5 million people worldwide suffer from Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic inflammatory disease. Researchers of the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence now found that moderate sun exposure supports the development of a healthy immune system and helps with protecting the central nervous system from unwanted attacks.

Imaging expertise consolidated: Today the Science Council announced its recommendation for the establishment of a new building, the 'Multiscale Imaging Centre' (MIC), at the University of Münster (WWU). The new research building shall house more than 300 staff members from different disciplines, investigating cells and their behaviour using imaging techniques.

CiM researcher Dr. Mario Schelhaas was honored by the German Society for Virology for his internationally acclaimed achievements in the field of tumor virus research. Schelhaas working group is interested in the process of infection, so how tumor viruses manage to penetrate the body's cells.

When the immune system gets activated, immune cells and signaling molecules have to leave the vascular system and migrate into the injured tissue. This is achieved through 'hook and loop fasteners' between endothelial cells of blood vessels. A team of scientistis of the MPI including the CiM researchers Dietmar Vestweber and Alexander Zarbock has now deciphered the molecular mechanisms that open these fasteners.

Prof. Martin Burger, principal investigator in the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence (CiM), has received a grant of the European Research Council (ERC) of around one million euros for five years. He and his team develop mathematical methods for image processing and for the solution of inverse problems. The funded project deals with the question how in biomedical imaging data and observed processes can be interrelated.