Projects

Every week, scilog features an exemplary project funded by the FWF. The presentations shed light on scientific questions and report on recent insights gained in basic research. The projects not only reflect the great variety of scientific disciplines, but also the range of support options offered by the Austrian Science Fund.

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

Corona Fictions – what literature can tell us about the future

The way we tell stories about crises impacts our individual and collective actions. In a newly launched basic research project Yvonne Völkl, a literary and cultural studies scholar, explores the narrative function of the coronavirus pandemic with the support of the population. Using the example of the pandemic, she investigates how literary narrative patterns influence […] Continue reading “Corona Fictions – what literature can tell us about the future”

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

Choirs and coronavirus – the political dimension of singing

There is one image the coronavirus crisis has consistently produced from the outset: people joining in song from windows and balconies or in virtual space. Self-isolating people from all walks of life have joined forces and given society a face in the crisis. Literary scholar Antonia Egel has investigated how the relationship between the individual […] Continue reading “Choirs and coronavirus – the political dimension of singing”

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”