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News in brief
News in brief
Life sciences
A cup of health
Every year, 273 billion litres of tea are consumed across the globe, and the trend keeps growing. A German-Chinese team with Jülich participation analysed the genetic material of more than 200 types of tea. In the process, the team discovered which gene variants are responsible for the production of those ingredients that are considered to be advancing health. The team carried out comparative research both on old and wild as well as on cultivated tea plants from 16 provinces in China. The new knowledge will make it possible to breed particularly healthy varieties in the future.
– Institute of Bio- and Geosciences –
Materials research
How platinum dissolves
Platinum is considered a very good catalyst for the reduction of oxygen to water at the cathode of fuel cells. However, the platinum particles dissolve over time. An international team with Jülich participation discovered how atoms move, arrange or even detach from the platinum surface during this undesirable process. This knowledge can help to increase the stability of the catalyst and thus improve the hydrogen propulsion of vehicles, for example by using special additives that suppress atomic movement.
– Institute of Bio- and Geosciences –
Biophysics
Always on the move
The skeleton of cells is constantly in motion: elements of the cell skeleton are constantly being decomposed, built up or reorganised. Jülich researchers have developed models and techniques to simulate these dynamic processes on the computer. In this way, they want to better understand what is going on in the cell. The findings are supposed to help develop so-called active materials. These are materials that adapt their properties independently to changing environmental conditions.
– Institute of Biological Information Processing/Institute for Advanced Simulation –
The two video simulations by Jülich researchers show how seemingly chaotic and yet orderly protein filaments, which form the cytoskeleton of cells, can move.
Materials research
Unexpected reaction of nanoparticles
Magnetic nanoparticles are interesting for data storage, batteries and medical applications. However, they behave differently than previously assumed: under the influence of a magnetic field, the core of a particle – in which the magnetic moments are ordered – grows. The surface area, on the other hand, where magnetic moments are disordered, becomes thinner. These findings are important for the targeted use of nanoparticles. An international team including Jülich researchers carried out special experiments with neutron scattering for this purpose.
– Jülich Centre for Neutron Science –
Tracking defects
Commercially available lithium-ion batteries, for example in smartphones and electric cars, have an anode made of graphite. Theoretically, batteries with silicon anodes should be able to store many times more energy, but in practice, they wear out after a short time. Researchers at Jülich have now discovered a cause for this: the two layers that form on the silicon anode are not uniform, causing cracks and defects in the anode during charging. According to the researchers, these layers are a promising starting point for counteracting rapid battery ageing.
– Institute of Energy and Climate Research –
Medicine
Excellent
Prof. Dieter Willbold and his Jülich and Düsseldorf teams have been awarded one of the three “Innovation Prizes of the BioRegions in Germany” 2020 for the development of an Alzheimer’s drug candidate. The patented drug candidate RD2 takes a new, so-called anti-prionic approach: it breaks down the amyloid beta oligomers, which play a crucial role in the disease process, and prevents them from forming again. RD2 has meanwhile completed the first of three phases of clinical trials required for drug approval.
– Institute of Biological Information Processing –
0million euros
is provided by the European Commission for the final phase of the Human Brain Project (HBP). In the HBP, researchers from 131 European institutions explore the functioning of the human brain. The findings are increasingly being incorporated into medicine, technologies and computing. The expansion of the digital research platform EBRAINS is intended to contribute to this. It will continue to provide resources, such as current data, analyses and brain simulations, after the end of the project (see also “Exploring the brain“).
– Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine –
Bioeconomy
Alternative heating fuel
The North American herbaceous plant Sida hermaphrodita has great potential as a supplier of biomass: it grows even on poor soils and develops up to a third more biomass than maize. For using it as a heating material, Jülich researchers have found that pellets would be ecologically most sensible. They also found that growing two plants per square metre would be most economical. The pilot project BioökonomieREVIER involves plans to cultivate the plant on a trial basis and find out whether the biomass can also, for example, be used for insulation material or as a raw material supplier for basic chemicals.
– Institute of Bio- and Geosciences –
Photos: Forschungszentrum Jülich/Sascha Kreklau, Dick, Häberle/TU München, Gerard A. Vliegenthart at al.; Filamentous active matter: Band formation, bending, buckling, and defects; Science Advances 22 Jul 2020: Vol. 6, no. 30, eaaw9975, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw9975 (CC-BY 4.0), Carmen Hauser/Shutterstock.com, DONOT6_STUDIO/Shutterstock.com, Bjoern Wylezich/Shutterstock.com