Category: Biology and Medicine

Projects

Balancing growth and resilience

In an international research project, a research group at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Vienna has investigated how plants react to rising temperatures in terms of the two strategies essential for their survival: “growth” and “warding off disease”. Their studies show that heat triggers a broad immune response and stops growth. Awareness of these regulatory […] Continue reading “Balancing growth and resilience”
Brain model early 20th century.

Projects

How practising in your mind improves performance

Mental practice is already widely used in sports and music. It has also recently been introduced to motor rehabilitation. Little is known, however, about the processes underpinning such mental exercises. A team of psychologists in Innsbruck is working to fill this gap. In a basic research project, the researchers are exploring how certain cognitive strategies […] Continue reading “How practising in your mind improves performance”
Young man studying while reading book at basketball court in university

Projects

Antidepressants reboot the brain for new experience

Roughly 15 percent of the world’s population suffer from depression at least once in the course of their lives. About a third of patients respond well to antidepressants from the group of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and another third exhibit significant improvement. A team of researchers from Vienna has explored whether these antidepressants improve […] Continue reading “Antidepressants reboot the brain for new experience”

On the road

Early morning in the reeds

By Katharina Mahr

The Hortobágyi National Park in Hungary was the recent venue of Katharina Mahr’s field research into the big questions of evolution. A behavioural scientist, Mahr wants to find out how the growth and reproduction of living creatures have developed over time and what the underlying mechanisms are. She expects her research object, the bearded reedling, […] Continue reading “Early morning in the reeds”

Projects

Implant to improve therapy of brain tumours

Despite surgery and subsequent treatment with chemotherapy and radiation, the majority of patients experience recurrence of malignant brain tumours. Research groups from Sweden and Austria have shown in cells in culture that an ion pump can deliver drugs more accurately, which gives less severe adverse effects in chemotherapy. The results have been published in Advanced […] Continue reading “Implant to improve therapy of brain tumours”

Projects

Why corona will not disappear and new vaccines will be needed

In a new research project, virologist Andreas Bergthaler is investigating how coronavirus mutations emerge in human hosts. He is seeking an explanation, among other things, for the sudden appearance of greatly mutated variants such as the ones dubbed British and South African. While the expert does not consider it certain that the virus could become […] Continue reading “Why corona will not disappear and new vaccines will be needed”

Projects

How does the beta blocker get into the garden cress?

The effluents from sewage treatment plants are testimony to the most common ailments of the Austrian population, and transport residues of painkillers, antibiotics or anti-hypertensives into the rivers. Fortunately, they only contain small traces. But if water becomes scarce – which might well happen even in Austria in the face of climate change – farmers […] Continue reading “How does the beta blocker get into the garden cress?”

Projects

Important jigsaw piece for the therapy of rare genetic diseases discovered

Many human cell types have a precise calcium uptake mechanism. One gene in which part of the blueprint for these so-called calcium channels is encoded is also partly to blame for a rare human developmental disorder that triggers epilepsy and autism. A research group from Innsbruck is exploring these links and working on a potential […] Continue reading “Important jigsaw piece for the therapy of rare genetic diseases discovered”