May 3, 2022
Volkan Baran, member of the Dortmund state parliament, visited IfADo together with Jens Peick, member of the Dortmund federal parliament, to learn about the institute’s research activities. Prof. Dr. Hengstler, head of the Department of Toxicology, gave – supported by researchers – insights into current issues the institute is dealing with.
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April 20, 2022
At this year’s conference of the German Endocrine-Brain-Immune-Network (GEBIN), Leonie Fleige, PhD student in the Department of Immunology, was awarded the GEBIN Early Career Research Award 2022. At the meeting, Leonie Fleige presented her work on sex-specific differences in the dopaminergic effect in B cells in rheumatism patients. The award honours outstanding research on the immune system, inflammatory mechanisms and related therapeutic approaches in the field of behavioural sciences or psychiatric diseases. We congratulate on this award.
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April 12, 2022
Donated blood is regularly needed for research projects in the department of Immunology. The time required for a blood collection is low and usually amounts to 30 minutes. An expense allowance of 20 euros is paid for the blood donation.
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April 11, 2022
In a recent article, Carsten Watzl, Head of Department Immunology, points out the misconceptions about SARS-CoV-2 and vaccination that are widespread among the public and contrasts them with the scientific findings from an immunologist’s point of view.
The essential statements are summarised below:
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April 8, 2022
The research group led by Ali Salehinejad and Michael Nitsche published the paper “Cognitive functions and underlying parameters of human brain physiology are associated with chronotype” in Nature Communications in summer 2021. In it, the researchers conclude that chronotype influences human brain functions from basic physiological mechanisms to higher cognitive functions, such as perception, learning or thinking. Nature Communications has now announced that this paper is among the Top 25 most downloaded articles in the field of social sciences and human behaviour published in 2021.
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March 30, 2022
Every year, the Free State of Bavaria and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft award the Hugo Geiger Prize to honour young scientists for outstanding doctoral achievements in the field of applied research. This year, the third place goes to Jessica Schwarz for her doctorate on the topic of “Multifactorial real-time diagnosis of the user state in adaptive human-machine interaction”. IfADo researcher Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rinkenauer supervised Jessica Schwarz’s doctorate.
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March 16, 2022
When our immune system comes into contact with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it fights back and produces antibodies. A similar immune response is triggered by Corona vaccines. However, there is still little data available on the strength and durability of immune protection. A team led by Prof. Carsten Watzl from the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (MPI) and the Klinikum Dortmund, has now been able to detect high levels of neutralising antibodies in test persons even 300 days after a coronavirus infection with the original variant of the coronavirus. And what’s more: after complete vaccination, the recovered probands showed antibody levels about 5 times higher than those vaccinated without prior infection. This would provide much better protection against a severe course of the disease in the event of a new infection with other coronavirus variants.
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Feb 3, 2022
Making an emergency call quickly and successfully is the first step in the rescue chain and thus essential for saving lives and protecting property. Automatic recognition and reporting of emergencies could significantly increase the level of safety. This is especially true for people with disabilities or older people who may no longer be able to pick up the phone themselves in an emergency. The ADLeR project (Automated Detection, Reporting and Guidance System for Rescue Forces – Rethinking the Rescue Chain) is therefore intended to provide this target group with more safety and at the same time greater self-determination in everyday life.
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Jan 31, 2022
Since mid-January, Daniel Schneider, head of the Information Processing Group, has been authorised to teach neuropsychology at the RUB. In his habilitation thesis with the topic “Attentional control functions in perception and memory: EEG correlates of target selection and distractor inhibition re-define the (retroactive) focusing of attention”, he dealt with attention processes in perception and memory. In his inaugural lecture, Daniel Schneider spoke about working memory as a system for remembering the past and as a “premembering” for the future.
Jan 26, 2022
The phone rings, a colleague knocks on the door and every new email announces itself with a signal tone – while you are working on a text that urgently needs to go out today. Along with time and performance pressure, interruptions are one of the greatest stress factors in modern working environments. Yet little is known about the cognitive processes that play a role in coping with work interruptions. These are the focus of the newly funded DFG project “Investigations on the influence of interruptions on attentional and working memory performance in younger and older adults using EEG methodology”, which recently started.
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