News

Globally, forests are increasingly under pressure. Climatic extremes such as heat and drought are major stress factors for them. A study in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and published in Science is examining, how global change may affect forests in the future. The researchers present potential scenarios of future forest development and thereby offer important information for forest policy and management.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is launching two new bachelor's and five new master's programs in the 2020/21 winter semester. They include four new programs at Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, one each at the new TUM Department of Aerospace and Geodesy and the TUM School of Life Sciences at the Weihenstephan campus, and a program offered jointly with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

For sports, the current corona epidemic is the biggest challenge of the last 100 years. Henning Wackerhage, Professor of Sports Biology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has therefore analyzed the relationships between sports and the Corona pandemic together with colleagues from the universities of Gießen, Glasgow, Hildesheim, Mainz and Padua as well as the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. In this interview he explains selected results of the study.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. But individual tumors can vary significantly, presenting different spatial patterns within their mass. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Helmholtz Zentrum München have now succeeded in visualizing spatial changes within tumors by means of optoacoustics. This method may be helpful for the future development of new drugs.

How will we be able to feed 10 billion people in the not too distant future without causing widespread environmental damage? How can we stop using petroleum and still be able to manufacture chemical industry products? These are just some of the questions which humankind is facing today. Potential answers to these questions can be found in the latest developments in fungal biotechnology, which can now be read in a white paper entitled Growing a circular economy with fungal biotechnology.

Under the Bavarian government's Hightech Agenda Bayern, TUM's leading expertise in the forward-looking fields of robotics and artificial intelligence is set to undergo a massive expansion. By establishing 14 new professorships, including two under the auspices of multi-location Bavarian research cooperatives, the initiative contributes to position TUM among the world's leading centers of research and innovation in AI and machine intelligence.

One factor contributing to the development of pancreatitis lies in mutations within a cell membrane ion channel that is characterized by its specific permeability for calcium ions. This groundbreaking discovery was made by a research team at Technical University of Munich (TUM), in cooperation with other groups from Germany, Japan and France. These insights could lead to the development of new therapeutic agents for treating and preventing chronic pancreatitis.

Landing a helicopter on the deck of a ship in poor visibility is a big challenge even for the most experienced of pilots. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an assistance system that displays key information in the visor of the pilot's helmet-mounted display. This permits precise landing approaches – even in adverse weather conditions.

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an innovative x-ray method for lung diagnostics, which they now plan to test in one of its first applications for diagnosis of the respiratory ailment Covid-19 caused by Coronavirus. The method could clearly identify abnormalities typical of the illness and involves a significantly lower radiation dose than the computed tomography methods currently in use. Last week, the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) issued the approval necessary for the tests.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Framatome are working together on the development of a new fuel for the research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibniz (FRM II). The fuel shall consist of low-enriched, monolithic uranium molybdenum alloy (U-Mo). The first prototypes are expected to be manufactured in early 2021. If the tests are successful, production could start as early as 2022.