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A research team from the universities of Frankfurt and Mainz shines a light on new global players in Africa and Asia.
When Korean pop bands such as boy group BTS reach millions of fans worldwide, and when films and music from Nigeria are seen and heard across the globe: What does this mean for the production of culture? And how does it affect our perception of cultural spaces? An interdisciplinary research team that brings together Economics, African Studies, Korean Studies, Sinology, Cultural Anthropology and Film Studies will look for answers to these questions at Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz over the next three years. With € 2.1 million in funding from Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), CEDITRAA (“Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Africa and Asia") will study the emergence of what Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto calls the “new world order of cultural production", which Hollywood and Europe no longer dominate.
FRANKFURT. In the
early 1990s, Kenneth Nnebue, a Nigerian seller of home video equipment, picked
up his VHS camera and changed the course of film history. To boost sales of VHS
recorders, he produced his own film. “Living in Bondage" sold around 750,000
copies and spawned numerous imitations. Practically out of nowhere, Nigeria built
up a film industry with global outreach, now popularly known as “Nollywood",
which today ranks second only to India in terms of annual film output. “The
rise of Nigeria and the global success of Korean films, TV dramas and pop music
in the new millennium show that a fundamental shift is taking place in cultural
production and reception across the globe," says Vinzenz Hediger, project
leader and professor of cinema studies at Goethe University.
Digitalisation is one of the driving
forces behind this transformation and the emergence of the “new world order of
cultural production". The researchers in Frankfurt and Mainz will study how
cultural industries with transregional audiences contribute to the economic
growth and soft power of their regions and countries of origin. They will also
examine the role of regional resources in the creative work of artists in music
and film. “One open question," says economics professor Cornelia Storz, “is
whether entrepreneurs in digital industries may, in fact, be more dependent on
local resources than their global reach and outlook might suggest." Particular
attention will be paid to how producers in music and film draw on cultural
heritage to produce innovative formats which resonate with larger, global
contexts.
The CEDITRAA research group will address
these issues through a series of case studies on music and film in Africa and
Asia. Here, the Archiv der Musik Afrikas
(AMA), the Archive for the Music of Africa, at Johannes Gutenberg University
Mainz will play a particularly important role. For the case studies dedicated
to music and copyright issues, the AMA is an invaluable resource – particularly
for research on “Afrobeats" and other forms of sub-Saharan pop music, which
recombines different gernes in innovative new ways. “This music has many fans
in the Global North as well," says Matthias Krings, professor of cultural
anthropology and the popular culture of Africa in Mainz. “Among them is
Beyoncé, who created a sensation with her 2020 album 'Black Is King', not least
because it featured guest appearances by Afrobeats stars such as Burna Boy,
Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade."
The parts of the project dedicated to Asia
will study the circulation and reception of Korean popular culture in Asia and
Africa and benefit from close collaboration with non-university partners such
as the Korean Film Archive. The case study dedicated to Taiwan will focus on
the Kaohsiung Film Festival and its close ties to the Korean film industry. In
Nigeria, the project will collaborate closely with the Nollywood Studies Centre
at the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, a research institute with closes ties
to the film and music industries in Nigeria. The Nigerian part of the project
will include a PhD position at the Pan-Atlantic University.
Funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of
Education and Research, the project will bring together for the first time the
area studies research centres in the Rhine-Main University Alliance in a joint
research initiative – the Centre for Interdisciplinary African Studies (ZIAF) and the Interdisciplinary Centre for
East Asian Studies (IZO) at Goethe University and the Centre for Intercultural
Studies (ZIS) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
The research project enhances the profile
of area studies in the Rhine-Main University Alliance through its close
connection to teaching. Project results will be used in teaching in several
degree programmes, most notably the bachelor's degree programme “African
Languages, Media, and Culture", which is being prepared as a joint programme of
Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Image: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/98633989
Caption:
Global popstars with an army of Twitter
fans: K-pop superstars BTS (c) Kim-Hee Chu / dpa
Further information
Professor Vinzenz Hediger, Professor of Cinema Studies, Goethe University: hediger@tfm.uni-frankfurt.de
Professor Claudia Storz, Chair for the
Study of Economic
Institutions, Innovation and East Asian Development, Goethe University: storz@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de
Professor Matthias Krings, Professor of
Anthropology and Popular Culture of Africa, Johannes Gutenberg University
Mainz: krings@uni-mainz.de
Clustering of receptors can have the same effect as binding a signaling molecule – receptor clusters can direct cell movement
Whether we
smell, taste or see, or when adrenaline rushes through our veins, all of these
signals are received by our cells via a specific group of receptor proteins
called G protein-coupled receptors, which transmit signals to the inside of the
cell. Biochemists at Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Leipzig
have now discovered that such receptors can also produce signals even in the
absence of an external stimulus: It is apparently sufficient for certain
receptors if many of them are clustered at the cell surface. (Science,
doi/10.1126/science.abb7657)
FRANKFURT.
Our body consists of 100 trillion cells that communicate with each other,
receive signals from the outside world and react to them. A central role in
this communication network is attributed to receiver proteins, called
receptors, which are anchored at the cell membrane. There, they receive and
transmit signals to the inside of the cell, where a cell reaction is triggered.
In humans,
G protein-coupled receptors (GPC receptors) represent the largest group of
these receptor molecules, with around 700 different types. The research of the
Frankfurt and Leipzig scientists focused on a GPC receptor that serves as a
receptor for the neuropeptide Y in cells and is accordingly called the Y2
receptor. Neuropeptide Y is a messenger substance that primarily mediates
signals between nerve cells, which is why Y2 receptors are mainly present in
nerve cells and among other activities trigger the formation of new cell
connections.
In the
laboratory, the researchers engineered cells, which had approx. 300,000 Y2
receptors on their surface and were grown on specifically developed,
light-sensitive matrices. Each of the Y2 receptors was provided with a small
molecular "label". Once the scientists created a spot of light with a
fine laser beam on the cell surface, the Y2 receptor under this spot were
trapped via the molecular label to the exposed matrix in such a way that the Y2
receptors moved closely together to form an assembly known as a cluster. The
whole reaction could be immediately observed at the defined spot and within a
few seconds.
Professor
Robert Tampé from the Institute of Biochemistry at Goethe University Frankfurt
explains: "The serendipity about this experiment is that the clustering of
receptors triggers a signal that is similar to that of neuropeptide Y. Solely
by the clustering, we were able to trigger cell movement as a reaction of the
cell. The laser spots even allowed us to control the direction of the cell
movement." As the light-sensitive lock-and-key pairs utilized are very
small compared to the receptors, the organization of the receptors in the cell
membrane can be controlled with high precision using the laser spot. "This
non-invasive method is thus particularly well suited to study the effects of
receptor clustering in living cells," Tampé continues. "Our method
can be used to investigate exciting scientific questions, such as how receptors
are organized in networks and how new circuits are formed in the brain."
Publication:
M. Florencia Sánchez, Sylvia Els-Heindl, Annette G. Beck-Sickinger, Ralph
Wieneke, Robert Tampé: Photo-induced receptor confinement drives
ligand-independent GPCR signaling. Science abb7657
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb7657; https://science.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb7657
Image/Movie
downloads:
http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/98160408
Caption
Image: Laser spots activate very small synthetic lock-and-key pairs in a matrix
to create receptor clusters in the cell membrane. This ligand-independent
activation triggers calcium signaling and increased cell motility. (Graphic
copyright: M. Florencia Sánchez & Robert Tampé, Goethe University
Frankfurt.)
http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/98150564
Caption
Movie: Upon irradiation with laser light (white rings), receptors cluster in
the cell (light green circles). Thereupon, the cell moves into the direction of
the receptor clusters. (Copyright: M. Florencia Sánchez & Robert Tampé,
Goethe University Frankfurt). Reprinted with permission from M. F. Sánchez et
al., Science 10.1126/science.abb7657(2021).
Further information:
Professor Robert Tampé
Institute of Biochemistry
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany
Phone: +49 69 798 29475
tampe@em.uni-frankfurt.de
http://www.biochem.uni-frankfurt.de/
Goethe University successful in industry open call for replacement of animal components
While many studies take place in a petri glass in toxicology research, for some processes there is still a need for animal components such as serum or liver cell tissue. A team of researchers headed by Goethe University now seeks to develop a new cell culture technique to replace the use of animal components. Their project won the “CRACK IT" innovation challenge by NC3Rs, a British organisation that works to reduce reliance on animal models in research. The challenge is sponsored by AstraZeneca and Unilever.
FRANKFURT. Studies
using cell cultures are necessary in toxicology research because they make it
possible to test whether new substances exhibit undesirable effects. In these
studies, the serum of unborn calves (Foetal Calf Serum, FCS) is often used as
animal component in the cell cultures. Other “in vitro" toxicity tests also
frequently use components of animal origins. The livers of laboratory rats, for
example, are used to create an enzyme cocktail that helps investigate whether
liver enzymes transform the substance being tested into toxic products.
Pharma producers and companies in the
cosmetic industry want to find substitutes for both components, serum and liver
tissue. The reasons are not only ethical nature. Tissue and serums that are
taken directly from animals also introduce inaccuracies, as their composition
varies depending on origin. In addition, not all components, including those of
foetal calf serum, are known. That jeopardises the reproducibility of the
results. In the “CRACK IT 36: Animal-free in vitro" challenge, products
of animal origin are therefore to be replaced by precisely defined and
reproducible alternatives.
No more animal components in cell culture nutrient
solutions
Prof. Henner Hollert und Dr. Andreas
Schiwy from the Department for Evolutionary Ecology and Environmental
Toxicology at Goethe University and the LOEWE Centre TBG, together with the environmental
toxicologist Prof. Beate Escher from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research in Leipzig (UFZ) and the companies BiodetectionsSystems in Amsterdam
and Scinora in Heidelberg seek to find alternatives to these animal components.
In a first step, chemically defined
nutrient solutions for cell cultures will be developed – without animal
components. These nutrient solutions are already common in drug manufacturing,
not least for safety reasons, as they eliminate the risk that diseases such as
BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) are transmitted through the calf serum.
Up to now, there have been only very few
such systems for toxicological testing, because the amounts required are low in
comparison with pharmaceutical production. To develop them, the metabolic
processes of the cells must be known in detail.
Dispensing with laboratory rats
In a second step, the researchers want to
replace the enzyme cocktail from laboratory rats by having liver cell lines
metabolise the substances to be tested instead. The liver cell lines are to be
grown under chemically defined culture conditions. Subsequently, the metabolic
products will be extracted and their effect tested in the adapted toxicological
cell cultures that were developed in the first step.
Hollert and his team will first test the
process on the model substance benzo[a]pyren,
a substance also found in cigarette smoke. Benzo[a]pyrene is transformed
into toxic substances in the human liver, which causes damage to cell DNA and
impairs hormonal balance.
Funding during the first phase amounts to 100,000
pounds, or about 114,000 euros. Following a successful evaluation, the
researchers can apply in the same year for a second phase of the challenge, in
which the equivalent of about 685,000 euros over another three years may be
awarded.
Further
information
Prof. Henner Hollert
Head of the Department for Evolutionary Ecology and Environmental Toxicology
Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity
Goethe University Frankfurt
Phone: +49 69 798-42171
hollert@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
https://www.bio.uni-frankfurt.de/43970666/Abt__Hollert
Goethe University further expands scientific focus
A new research institute will be established at Goethe
University: The Buber-Rosenzweig Institute will be dedicated to the study of modern
and contemporary Judaism. It brings together numerous and largely third-party
funded projects and contributes further to the consolidation of this research
area at Goethe University. It all began with an endowed guest professorship for
Jewish philosophy of religion dedicated to Martin Buber.
FRANKFURT. The new Buber-Rosenzweig Institute is intended to provide the necessary framework for increasing visibility and focusing research energies. This requires neither state funds nor funds from the department or university: Thanks to the successful acquisition of third-party funding, especially in recent times, the foundation is on a solid financial footing. "The Executive Board has unanimously approved the founding of the Institute. We are delighted about Christian Wiese's initiative. The new institute has great potential to further expand cooperation with other institutions, especially internationally, and to initiate other important projects in the future," says Prof. Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University.
The origins of the institute's foundation
were modest but fruitful: in 1989, the Protestant Church in Hessen and Nassau
established the Martin Buber Professorship as a visiting professorship at the
Department of Protestant Theology. It was intended to provide students from all
disciplines, especially theology and philosophy, but also interested members of
the public with an insight into the past and present of Judaism and Jewish
religious philosophy. In 2005, the state of Hessen permanently took over the
funding, and in 2010 the endowed guest professorship was converted into a
permanent professorship. Since then, Prof. Christian Wiese has taught across disciplines
in theological and religious studies subjects, but also in history and philosophy.
Wiese has systematically developed the professorship into an internationally
visible, third-party funded and cooperating research centre. Christian Wiese is
the spokesperson for the LOEWE research hub "Religious Positioning"
and one of the main applicants for the interdisciplinary Graduate School
"Theology as Science". He is also the international president of the
Hermann Cohen Society and vice-president of the International Franz Rosenzweig
Society. His most recent success was the acquisition of funding over 24 years
for the academy project "Digitization of the Buber Correspondence ".
"With its numerous externally funded
projects, focus on promoting young researchers and international networking,
the Martin Buber Professorship is already firmly established among research
institutions on modern Jewish history and culture. The status as a research
institute will open up the opportunity for us to be even more visible, to focus
our activities, and to attract young international scholars," says Prof.
Wiese. The very fact that the institute has limited itself to a specific period
of Jewish intellectual and cultural history offers great potential: under the
umbrella of an institute with such a clearly defined profile will allow further
projects to arise in the future. The project "Synagogue Memorial Book of
Hessen" with seven to eight staff positions is currently being developed,
and further research initiatives are planned. As an institute, it will also be
easier to compete with other institutions. Cooperation with the Seminar for
Jewish Studies and the Fritz Bauer Institute for the History and Impact of the
Holocaust within Goethe University also offers great opportunities.
The institute's name refers to the two
Jewish philosophers Martin Buber (1878-1965) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929),
who are of great importance for the history of Goethe University. Martin Buber,
who was born 143 years ago, received a teaching assignment for Jewish religion
and ethics in 1924, which was initially assigned to Franz Rosenzweig; later
Buber became an honorary professor. Together, Buber and Rosenzweig established
the Freie Jüdische Lehrhaus in
Frankfurt, a Jewish educational institution for adults. Together, the two
philosophers of religion undertook a translation of the Hebrew Bible into
German, which Martin Buber continued after Rosenzweig's premature death in 1929
and completed in Jerusalem in 1961. In particular after 1933, the year of Hitler’s
seizure of power and Buber's withdrawal from the university, the Lehrhaus
became part of the Jewish resistance against National Socialist persecution.
Further
information:
Prof. Dr. Christian Wiese
Martin Buber Chair for Jewish Religious Philosophy
Faculty 06
Goethe University Frankfurt
Phone: +49 69 798-33313
E-Mail c.wiese@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Homepage:
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/40082634/Martin_Buber_Professur_für_Jüdische_Religionsphilosophie
Goethe University research team investigates aerosal formation from iodine-containing vapours in international CLOUD project
When sea ice melts and the water surface increases,
more iodine-containing vapours rise from the sea. Scientists from the
international research network CLOUD have now discovered that aerosol particles
form rapidly from such iodine vapours, which can serve as condensation nuclei
for cloud formation. The CLOUD researchers, among them atmospheric scientists
from the Goethe University Frankfurt, fear a mutual intensification of sea ice
melt and cloud formation, which could accelerate the warming of the Arctic and
Antarctic.
FRANKFURT. More than two thirds of the earth is covered by clouds. Depending on whether they float high or low, how large their water and ice content is, how thick they are or over which region of the Earth they form, it gets warmer or cooler underneath them. Due to human influence, there are most likely more cooling effects from clouds today than in pre-industrial times, but how clouds contribute to climate change is not yet well understood. Researchers currently believe that low clouds over the Arctic and Antarctic, for example, contribute to the warming of these regions by blocking the direct radiation of long-wave heat from the Earth's surface.
All clouds are formed by aerosols,
suspended particles in the air, to which water vapour attaches. Such suspended
particles or aerosols naturally consist of dusts, salt crystals or molecules
released by plants. Human activities cause above all soot particles to be
released into the atmosphere, but also sulphuric acid and ammonia molecules,
which can cluster and form new aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Model
calculations show that more than half of the cloud droplets are formed from
aerosol particles that have formed in the atmosphere. For the formation of
clouds, it is not decisive what the aerosol particles are made of; what matters
most is their size: Aerosol particles only become condensation nuclei for cloud
droplets from a diameter of about 70 nanometres and up.
In the atmosphere over the sea, aerosols
released by humans play a much smaller role in the formation of low clouds than
over land. Besides salt crystals originating from sea spray, aerosol particles over
the sea mainly originate from certain sulphur compounds (dimethyl sufide) that
are released from phytoplankton and react to form sulphuric acid, for example. At
least, that is what previous research concluded.
Scientists from the CLOUD consortium have
now studied the formation of aerosol particles from iodine-containing vapours.
The slightly pungent smell of iodine is part of the aroma of the sea air you
breathe when walking along the North Sea. Every litre of seawater contains 0.05
milligrams of iodine, and when it enters the atmosphere, iodic acid or iodous
acid is formed through sunlight and ozone. The scientists simulated atmospheric
conditions in mid-latitudes and arctic regions in the CLOUD experimental chamber
at the CERN particle accelerator centre in Geneva, including cosmic rays
simulated by an elementary particle beam.
Their findings: aerosol particle formation
by iodic acid takes place very rapidly, much more rapidly than the particle
formation of sulphuric acid and ammonia under comparable conditions. Ions
produced by cosmic rays further promote particle formation. For the
transformation of the molecular iodine into the iodine-containing acids, not
even UV radiation and only a little daylight are necessary. In this way, very
large aerosol quantities can be formed very quickly.
Atmospheric researcher Prof. Joachim
Curtius from Goethe University explains: "Iodine aerosols can form faster
than almost all other aerosol types we know. If ions produced by cosmic rays
are added, each collision leads to the growth of the molecular clusters."
Curtius added that this is particularly important because global iodine
emissions on Earth have already tripled over the past 70 years. "A vicious
circle may have been set in motion here: The pack ice thaws, which increases
the water surface area and more iodine enters the atmosphere. This leads to
more aerosol particles, which form clouds that further warm the poles. The
mechanism we found can now become part of climate models, because iodine may
play a dominant role in aerosol formation, especially in the polar regions, and
this could improve climate model predictions for these regions."
The CLOUD
experiment (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) at CERN studies how new aerosol
particles are formed in the atmosphere out of precursor gases and continue to
grow into condensation seeds. CLOUD thereby provides fundamental understanding
of the formation of clouds and particulate matter. CLOUD is carried out by an
international consortium consisting of 21 institutes. The CLOUD measurement
chamber was developed with CERN know-how and is one of the cleanest experimental
rooms in the world. CLOUD measurement campaigns use a variety of different
measuring instruments to characterise the physical and chemical state of the
particles and gases that make up the atmosphere. The team led by Joachim
Curtius from the Institute for Atmosphere and Environment at Goethe University
Frankfurt developes and operates two mass spectrometers
in the CLOUD project to detect trace gases such as iodic acid and iodous acid
even in the smallest concentrations.
Publication:
Xu-Cheng He, Yee Jun Tham, Lubna Dada,
Mingyi Wang, Henning Finkenzeller, Dominik Stolzenburg, Siddharth Iyer, Mario
Simon, Andreas Kürten, et. al. Role of
iodine oxoacids in atmospheric aerosol nucleation, Science 05 Feb 2021: Vol. 371, Issue 6529, pp. 589-595, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe0298
Further
information:
Prof.
Joachim Curtius
Institute for Atmosphere and Environment
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Tel:
+49 69 798-40258
curtius@iau.uni-frankfurt.de
Dr. Andreas Kürten
Institute for Atmosphere and Environment
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Tel: +49 (69) 798-40256
kuerten@iau.uni-frankfurt.de