Creat­ing the Future
Projects

Inter-kingdom wound care between ants and plants

Melina Kienitz - Hector RCD Awardee Erik T. Frank

This project investigates the mutualism between Vachellia trees and Pseudomyrmex ants, focusing on their role in wound care. Using chemical ecology, proteomics, microbiology, and behavioral experiments, we plan to identify relevant wound healing compounds as well as the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled inter-kingdom wound care. This research expands on our concept of the social immune system by expanding it towards the ants’ host in this unique relationship.

Inter-kingdom wound care between ants and plants© Melina Kienitz

Neuro­mod­u­la­tory Processes Involved in Learn­ing and Brain Plastic­ity Across the Lifes­pan: Insights from Visual Percep­tual Learning

Savanna Babu - Hector RCD Awardee Sebastian Frank

This project investigates how mechanisms of learning and brain plasticity differ between young and older adults using Visual Perceptual Learning (VPL) as a model. VPL refers to an improvement in a visual skill with repeated visual experience or training. VPL will be studied using behavioral training protocols combined with techniques such as eye-tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).

© Savanna Babu

Visual percep­tual learn­ing after a transient phase of congen­i­tal blind­ness: Neural mecha­nisms of sight recovery

Hector Fellow Brigitte Röder
Hector RCD Awardee Sebastian Frank
Hector Fellow Eberhart Zrenner

This project aims to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying vision recovery through visual perceptual learning in patients treated for congenital blindness. Led by Dr. Sebastian Frank, Prof. Dr. Brigitte Röder and Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Eberhart Zrenner, in collaboration with the LV Prasad Eye Institute, the study uses MRS and EEG to assess changes in excitation and inhibition. The goal is to bridge neuroscience, psychology, and ophthalmology to improve rehabilitation strategies, deepen a comprehensive understanding of visual plasticity, and advance treatments for visual impairments.

Crane Design

© Crane Design - Adobe Stock

Living in night and day: genomics of light adapta­tions in moths as cater­pil­lars and adults

Hector RCD Awardee Anna Stöckl
Hector Fellow Axel Meyer

This project, led by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Anna Stöckl and Prof. Dr. Axel Meyer (University of Konstanz), investigates how moths adapt to artificial light at night. By combining genomics, neuroanatomy and behavioral studies, the team aims to elucidate the mechanisms of sensory plasticity during metamorphosis. Using transcriptomics, epigenetics, and behavioral analysis, the research will investigate how caterpillar light exposure affects adult moths. The results will provide critical insights into animal adaptation to human-induced environmental change and shape future ecological and evolutionary studies.

© Martin - Adobe Stock

Unrav­el­ing univer­sal mecha­nisms of viral replication

Hector Fellow Ralf Bartenschlager
Hector RCD Awardee Tessa Quax

This project, led by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ralf Bartenschlager (University of Heidelberg) and Prof. Dr. Tessa Quax (University of Groningen), investigates whether archaic viruses form specialized replication compartments, a strategy that has already been demonstrated in bacterial and eukaryotic viruses. By combining structural biology, cell biology, medicine, and chemistry, the goal is to identify universal mechanisms of viral replication. Using advanced imaging, genetic labeling, and lipid analysis, the viral replication process in archaea will be studied and compared to other life forms. The results will provide new insights into the evolution of viruses and identify potential approaches for antiviral therapies. In addition, young scientists will be trained in interdisciplinary virology to promote virus research in different biological areas.

© catalin - Adobe Stock

Electrophilic Reactiv­ity Provid­ing Well-Defined Helically Chiral Gold(III) Catalysts for the Asymmet­ric Synthe­sis of Bioac­tive Compounds

Hector RCD Awardee Agnieszka Nowak-Król
Hector Fellow A. Stephen K. Hashmi

The aim of the project led by Hector RCD Awardee Agnieszka Nowak-Król (University of Würzburg) and Hector Fellow A. Stephen K. Hashmi (Heidelberg University) is to develop well-defined helically chiral gold(III) complexes, the first examples of helically chiral gold complexes with gold atoms on either an outer or an inner helicene rim. The catalytic potential of these unprecedented complexes and their practical utility will be demonstrated in the enantioselective synthesis of small organic compounds and biologically or pharmaceutically relevant targets, i.e. natural products and pharmaceutically active compounds.

© kitipol - Adobe Stock