Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) hosted seven Ukrainian researchers after the attack on their country last year. How are they doing today?

During the metabolism of cells, aggressive oxygen compounds are formed as side products that can damage proteins or DNA. To intercept these oxygen compounds, cells use the peptide glutathione. A team of researchers from FIAS and the University of Zurich developed a novel sensor to measure the glutathione concentration in cell organelles. The sensor allows precise observation of the important molecule in cell organelles and supports research into related diseases.

This week eleven doctoral students, three postdocs and eight subproject leaders of the CMMS project spend a week in the idyllic Eifel. Two invited speakers complete the team.

FIAS congratulates its Board of Trustees Chairman! He was appointed to the FIAS Board of Trustees in 2021 and elected its chair last year. Volker Mosbrugger was born in Constance on 12 July 1953. He studied biology and chemistry for the teaching profession in Freiburg and later obtained his doctorate there. He habilitated at the Institute of Palaeontology at the University of Bonn in 1989 and followed a call to the University of Tübingen one year later. Mosbrugger investigated ecological and climatic changes in the Earth's history.

FIAS researchers have made a significant breakthrough in understanding the process of autophagy, a vital cellular mechanism responsible for the degradation and recycling of damaged cellular components. Their findings, obtained in collaboration with leading experts at the Francis Crick Institute in London and the University of Tokyo, were published in Science Advances and shed light on the role of a specific protein, ATG3, in this process.

FIAS Director Eckhard Elsen called for social responsibility on the part of the research institutes at the Academic Celebration of the Department of Physics on 30 June.

Rudolf Steinberg, an outstanding figure in the field of education and science, turns 80 today. The former president of Goethe University and long-time chairman of the Foundation Board of FIAS made significant contributions to the promotion of cutting-edge research and academic excellence during his career.

On the 13th of June, Danylo Batulin from the group of FIAS fellow Jochen Triesch defended his doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics of Goethe University Frankfurt.

The "Best FIGSS Talk " was awarded for the first time by the Frankfurt International Graduate School for Science (FIGSS) at FIAS. The FIGSS was founded in 2004 and brings together the doctoral students at FIAS who work at a broad variety of research topics ranging from nuclear physics to mathematical biology. In the bi-weekly FIGSS Seminar, doctoral students present their research to a broad scientific audience including their fellow doctoral students at FIAS.

The high-performance computer "Goethe NHR", developed by FIAS Fellow Volker Lindenstruth, achieved second place among the most energy-efficient mainframe computers in Germany and sixth place among the fastest.

Family atmosphere at the family winery: At the end of April, Lucia Baltz invited to her family winery - she had just left the Covino group for her PhD in Mainz.

Biomolecular function unraveled by the computational microscope - or how computer-based simulations - playing an increasingly important role in the study of cellular processes - can be used.

Josephine Naa Ayeley Tetteh, from the group of Esteban Hernandez-Vargas, defended her doctoral thesis virtually on April 11th 2023. Her doctoral studies focus on the application of mathematical and computational techniques to model the development of resistance in infectious diseases.

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that has fascinated humans for centuries. However, understanding the complex structures of lightning has been a challenge for scientists due to the vast amount of data involved. In a recent study, researchers from FIAS and University of Groningen have developed a novel method to understand lightning structures using machine learning. This knowledge will also help us to avoid lightning dangers in the future.

KISS enables faster, more flexible and more efficient evaluation of research data based on AI simulations. With Dr. Kai Zhou as PI, FIAS is participating in the joint project "Artificial Intelligence for the Fast Simulation of Scientific Data" (KISS) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

FIAS has been able to recruit the neuroinformatician Prof. Dr. Gordon Pipa as a new Fellow. The Chair of Neuroinformatics and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück focuses on information processing in the brain. In doing so, he uses methods ranging from mathematical description and computer-based methods to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

In his new book, Luciano Rezzolla takes us on a voyage of discovery to black holes. In doing so, he manages to reach readers of all knowledge levels and to draw a fascinating arc from the basic principles of gravity to the modern research results of relativistic astrophysics. The popular science book was published in German by C. H. Beck; the English version by Cambridge University Press is available since March 2023.

A mathematically inspired extension of Einstein's general theory of relativity provides new insights into space and time. In their recent publications, David Vasak et al. of Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) describe how the torsion of spacetime can explain the dark energy of standard cosmology.

We welcome two new PIs, each with a postdoc, to the CMMS team: Dr. Cornelia Pokalyuk and Prof. Dr. Gemma Roig.

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics has awarded an honorary doctorate to Prof. Horst Stöcker.