Cell models from stem cells serve an ever-increasing role in research of cardiac dysfunction. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in producing cells which offer new insights into properties of the heart. They installed a molecular sensor into the cells which emits light, and not only makes the cells' electrical activity visible, but also makes it possible for the first time to quickly identify cell types.

It was a moving experience, in every sense of the expression, when a paraplegic Brazilian man kicked off the first ball of the tournament at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Soccer World Cup in Brazil. The young man was wearing an exoskeleton controlled with his thoughts. Two years later the researchers of the "Walk Again" project published a spectacular study: Training at the human-machine interface helped the patients' healing process.

Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially recreating this so-called DNA condensation on a biochip. Recreating important biological processes in cells to better understand them currently is a ...

Learning how to look inside a body without having to cut it open is still an important part of medical research. One of the great challenges in imaging remains the visualisation of oxygen in tissue. A team led by Prof. Vasilis Ntziachristos, Chair for Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Director of the Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging at the Helmholtz Centre in Munich, has developed an approach to t...

A team of scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has found an unusual way to protect mortar from moisture: When the material is being mixed, they add a biofilm – a soft, moist substance produced by bacteria. Oliver Lielegusually has little to do with bricks, mortar and concrete. As a professor of biomechanics at the Institute of Medical Engineering (IMETUM) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, he mainly deals w...

Together with colleagues from the ETH Zürich, scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a software that allows observing cells for weeks while also measuring molecular properties. The software is freely available and has now been introduced in 'Nature Biotechnology'. Certain questions in modern cell biology can only be answered by specifically observing the fate of individual...

Boosting food production with limited water availability is of great importance to humanity. However, our current water usage is already unsustainable today. The fact that plant leaves lose a great deal of water through photosynthesis is the greatest limiting factor for larger harvests worldwide. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an approach to solving the problem: they have been able to get plants to use water...

Fog, blizzards, gusts of wind – poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A helmet-mounted display, developed by researchers at the TUM, may in the future be able to help pilots detect hazards at an early stage, even when their visibility is severely impaired: the information required to do this is created in an on-board computer and imported into digital eye glas...

Defined metal surfaces support the formation of 2D nanostructures. It is very difficult, however, to transfer these ultimately thin structures to other surfaces. Within an international cooperation project, scientists at the TUM found a way to decouple the nanostructures from the substrate: Iodine atoms creep between the network of organic molecules and the metal surface. This opens up ways to transfer organic nanostructures from metal surfaces o...

Modern heating systems use an indoor and an outdoor sensor in order to efficiently achieve homely temperatures. Now a team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) discovered exactly such a dual sensor strategy realised by a protein of the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli.

  The electromagnetic waves of light oscillate approximately one million times in a billionth of a second, hence at petahertz frequencies. In principle, future electronics could reach this speed and become 100,000 times faster than current digital electronics.

Rechargeable lithium air batteries are a next-gen technology: Theoretically they might be much lighter and offer better performance than current Li-ion batteries. However, they currently run out of steam after only a few charging cycles. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Forschungszentrum Jülich have now investigated the processes and discovered a possible culprit: highly reactive singlet oxygen, which is releas...

Space is the most hostile environment that we know of. The lack of pressure would bring our bodily fluids to the boil. Oxygen, heat, food and water are not present either. Yet people live there - on the ISS, thanks to the life support systems that are installed there. For extended space missions, such as a trip to Mars, the functional capability of these technologies is also crucial. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have de...

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are researching new digitally-assisted methods of treatment and approaches on how to handle big data in medicine - initial results are already being implemented in the operating theater. "Modern molecular medicine alone witnessed more data generated in 2015 than in the entire period from 1990 to 2005," explains Burkhard Rost, Professor of Bioinformatics at the TUM.

An important milestone for the Human Brain Project has been reached: as of 30th March, the prototypes of the six information and communications technology (ICT) platforms are set for release. The neurorobotics platform, led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), gives scientists the chance to apply brain models to various different robots and thus conduct their own experiments.

The quantum mechanical entanglement of particles plays an important role in many technical applications. To date, however, the effect has been difficult to measure experimentally. Physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona have now developed a new protocol to detect entanglement of many-particle quantum states using established measuring methods.

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have built two new nanoscale machines with moving parts, using DNA as a programmable, self-assembling construction material. In the journal Science Advances, they describe a rotor mechanism formed from interlocking 3-D DNA components. Another recent paper, in Nature Nanotechnology, reported a hinged molecular manipulator, also made from DNA. These are just the latest steps in a campaign to tr...

Organic photovoltaics bear great potential for large-scale, cost-effective solar power generation. One challenge to be surmounted is the poor ordering of the thin layers on top of the electrodes. Utilising self-assembly on atomically flat, transparent substrates, a team of scientists at the TUM has engineered ordered monolayers of molecular networks with photovoltaic responses. The findings open up intriguing possibilities for the bottom-up fabri...

Physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a nanolaser, a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Thanks to an ingenious process, the nanowire lasers grow right on a silicon chip, making it possible to produce high-performance photonic components cost-effectively. This will pave the way for fast and efficient data processing with light in the future.

Materials like fiber-reinforced plastics and light metals are paving the way for components with lower densities. The firm and secure fusion of different materials poses a major challenge, however, which is why researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are working on ways to improve joining techniques - for example by laser surface treatments.