A fire brigade against dangerous mosquitoes

New technology can protect against the spread of tropical diseases

06-Jun-2023 - The warm season in Europe marks the beginning of the high season for mosquitoes. While they and their larvae serve as prey for many animals and thus play an important role in the ecosystem, humans find the small bloodsuckers rather annoying. Meanwhile, they can also become dangerous to us: ...

Sophisticated gene memory: Researchers develop new method to genetically compare hundreds of animal species

02-May-2023 - Thanks to great technological advances, the genetic material of living beings can now be sequenced at a rapid rate. Comparisons of genomes, whether of closely related or completely different species, reveal particularly interesting findings. In this way, information can be obtained on ...

Genome of the pygmy right whale holds great potential for cancer research

The genome of the smallest baleen whale provides insight into evolution and tumor resistance

24-Apr-2023 - The pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) is the smallest of all baleen whales although it can grow to six metres in length and weigh up to three tons. The species occurs circumpolar in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Hemisphere, and only a handful of sightings have been reported thus far. ...

Genomics for biodiversity conservation

Genomic analyses provide important insights for conservation management

28-Feb-2023 - Conserving nature’s biodiversity is one of the great challenges of our time. To develop strategies and effective measures, well-founded scientific analyses, and concrete information for the actors in nature conservation are needed. The field of biodiversity genomics can make an important ...

Molecular archeology: 1200-year-old DNA sequences from Madagascar lead to the discovery of an extinct tortoise

Genetic analyses reveal the lost world of giant tortoises in the western Indian Ocean

13-Jan-2023 - An international research team led by Senckenberg scientist Uwe Fritz has succeeded in sequencing the genetic material of up to 1200-year-old tortoise finds from the western Indian Ocean. This led to the discovery of a tortoise species from Madagascar that went extinct in the Middle Ages and ...

Natural products against flu viruses

Active substances from nature could help inhibit the spread of flu viruses in the future

16-Dec-2022 - Fever, cough, sore throat, and general malaise – the cold season is here, and not only corona but also influenza viruses are spreading again at a rapid pace. Influenza A and B viruses cause severe, contagious infections that can even be fatal if complications arise. The most effective protection ...

Final destination deep sea: microplastics impact ocean floor even more than assumed

The deep sea serves as the “oceans’ garbage dump” – and it is surprisingly dynamic when it comes to deposition

15-Jul-2022 - Senckenberg researchers Serena Abel and Angelika Brandt, together with colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and Goethe University in Frankfurt, have investigated microplastic pollution in the Western Pacific Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. ...

An eye on genes

Currently unknown genes are responsible for good eyesight

07-Jul-2022 - Many people suffer from eye diseases, that can lead to blindness in the worst case. Eye-related diseases like cataract, glaucoma, and macular degeneration are well described, nevertheless, the underlying causative genes are frequently unknown. A team of scientists from Frankfurt and Dresden has ...

Dangerous plastics

Ingestion of microplastics can trigger evolutionary changes

13-Apr-2022 - The fact that microplastics can also trigger evolutionary changes has now been shown for the first time by an international team of scientists from the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt (SBiK-F) and the ...

New test to better assess environmental impact of substances

Researchers developed a test that investigates whether substances can cause inheritable changes in the genome of multicellular organisms such as insects

24-Nov-2020 - Researchers of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics hope to increase the reliability of environmental impact tests of substances. To this end, they developed a test that investigates whether substances can cause ...