Goethe-Universität — Press releases

Goethe University PR & Communication Department

Mar 10 2025

13:39

Study shows how a 2-thiouracil molecule becomes reactive within a fraction of a second when exposed to UV radiation

X-ray snapshot: How light bends an active substance

With the help of the world's most powerful X-ray laser, European XFEL, a research team led by Goethe University Frankfurt and the research centre DESY has achieved an important breakthrough: Using the example of the pharmaceutically active substance 2-thiouracil, they applied a long-established imaging technique to complex molecules for the first time. Although 2-thiouracil is no longer applied therapeutically, it is part of a group of chemically similar active substances that are used today as immunosuppressants or cytostatics. The study shows how UV radiation deforms 2-thiouracil, making it dangerously reactive.

FRANKFURT. Many biologically important molecules change shape when stimulated by UV radiation. Although this property can also be found in some drugs, it is not yet well understood. Using an innovative technique, an international team involving researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt, the European XFEL in Schenefeld and the Deutschen Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg has elucidated this ultra-fast process, and made it visible in slow motion, with the help of X-ray light. The method opens up exciting new ways of analyzing many other molecules.

“We investigated the molecule 2-thiouracil, which belongs to a group of pharmaceutically active substances based on certain DNA building blocks, the nucleobases,” says the study’s last author Markus Gühr, the head of DESY’s free-electron laser FLASH and Professor of Chemistry at University of Hamburg. 2-thiouracil and its chemically related active substances have a sulfur atom, which gives the molecules its unusual, medically relevant properties. “Another special feature is that these molecules become dangerously reactive when exposed to UV radiation.” Studies indicate an increased risk of skin cancer due to this effect.

To better understand what happens during such processes, the research team used an already well-established method, bringing it to a new level by applying the technical possibilities available today. “Coulomb explosion imaging involves irradiating a molecule with intense X-ray pulses, which knock out electrons,” explains Till Jahnke, Professor of Experimental Atomic and Molecular Physics at Goethe University and the study’s first author. “Thereby, the molecule charges up positively and thus becomes unstable, so that it is torn apart within fractions of a second.” By tracking the direction in which the various fragments of the molecule – the atoms – fly apart, it is possible to derive information about the molecule’s structure.

To date, Coulomb explosion imaging had only yielded useful results for very simple molecules. Using an experimental setup specially developed at Goethe University, the research team now combined this technique with the world's most powerful X-ray laser, European XFEL using the SQS (“Small Quantum Systems”) scientific instrument of EuXFEL. “This experiment is a technical innovation in many ways and it constitutes an important expansion of the experimental possibilities available at the SQS instrument. For the first time ever, it is now possible to use these imaging techniques on a biologically and medically relevant molecule, and not just for fundamental physics research,” says Michael Meyer, head of the SQS instrument, about the successful experiment.

European XFEL’s enormously powerful X-ray pulses made it possible to fragment this molecule, and thereby to conduct an analysis of its structure. The researchers sent the molecules into the X-ray laser beam using a fine gas nozzle, which means that only single, isolated molecules are irradiated at a time. An additional UV pulse, irradiated shortly before the X-ray pulse, was used to excite the molecules.

“By varying the time interval between the two pulses, it becomes possible to obtain something like a slow motion movie of these processes, which take place at an amazing speed within 100-1000 femtoseconds, that is less than a millionth of a millionth of a second” explains Jahnke. At the end of the process, a sophisticated detector registered the impact points and times of the various atoms of 2-thiouracil.

The experiment revealed two important findings, the first of which concerns 2-thiouracil: UV radiation causes this otherwise flat molecule to bend, which in turn results in the protrusion of the sulfur atom. This state is stable for a relatively long time; it ensures that the molecule becomes very reactive and might cause skin cancer, for instance. “This is also a significant difference to ordinary nucleobases, which are structurally very similar but do not have a sulfur atom,” says Gühr. “Instead, they have a mechanism for dealing with UV radiation and ultimately converting it into harmless heat via various excitation and oscillation states.” In the case of 2-thiouracil, the sulfur atom prevents such a conversion.

“The second finding is related to the experimental technique itself,” says Jahnke. “As we have seen, we don't need to track down all the atoms by the detector to reconstruct the molecule and its structural changes. All we needed in this case was to measure the sulfur and oxygen atoms as well as the four hydrogen nuclei, and we could ignore the six carbon atoms.” This finding will significantly simplify measurements in future investigations on even more complex molecules, and clearly illustrates the vast possibilities of this innovative method.

Publication: Till Jahnke, Sebastian Mai, Surjendu Bhattacharyya, Keyu Chen, Rebecca Boll, Maria Elena Castellani, Simon Dold, Ulrike Frühling, Alice E. Green, Markus Ilchen, Rebecca Ingle, Gregor Kastirke, Huynh Van Sa Lam, Fabiano Lever, Dennis Mayer, Tommaso Mazza, Terence Mullins, Yevheniy Ovcharenko, Björn Senfftleben, Florian Trinter, Atia Tul Noor, Sergey Usenko, Anbu Selvam Venkatachalam, Artem Rudenko, Daniel Rolles, Michael Meyer, Heide Ibrahim, Markus Gühr. Direct observation of ultrafast symmetry reduction during internal conversion of 2-thiouracil using Coulomb explosion imaging. Nature Communications (2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57083-3

Picture download:
http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/168920601

Caption: The SQS instrument’s COLTRIMS reaction microscope was used to analyze the structural changes of the 2-thiouracil molecule at the European XFEL. Photo: European XFEL

Further information:
Professor Till Jahnke
MPI for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg
and
Institute for Nuclear Physics
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel.: + 49 (0)69 798 47023 (secretary)
till.jahnke@xfel.eu

Mar 4 2025

15:11

Inclusion research at Goethe University receives first-class evaluation

How to establish a successful “school of diversity”

Internationally renowned inclusion expert Professor Vera Moser has held Goethe University Frankfurt’s “Kathrin and Stefan Quandt Endowed Professorship for Inclusion Research” since 2020. Funded by the Quandt family of entrepreneurs, this top professorship focuses exclusively on the topic. The continuation of the ten-year funding was tied to the professorship receiving a positive evaluation after five years. An external body has now evaluated the endowed professorship for inclusion research, giving it an extremely positive assessment.

FRANKFURT. Unanimously and firmly very positive – this is the verdict of the international expert report on the continuation of funding for the “Kathrin and Stefan Quandt Endowed Professorship for Inclusion Research”, which Prof. Vera Moser has held since 2020. In their evaluation, the three experts from the universities of Zurich, Graz and Stockholm attest to the professorship's outstanding achievements – both in the areas of research, teaching and the promotion of young talent, as well as with regard to cooperation within the university and the subject’s external impact on the international expert community.

How can more children with disabilities be taught in mainstream schools? Set up in 2020, the endowed professorship for inclusion research and its team have been tasked with scientifically supporting the transformation of school education towards a “school of diversity” and contributing to the corresponding training of teachers. Vera Moser tackled these tasks in an extraordinary manner, the experts say, pointing out that her research is exceptionally productive compared to other professorships in inclusion and educational science – as shown by four approved third-party funded projects to date with a total volume of more than €500,000.

The evaluation also highlights that Vera Moser initiated new research findings in school inclusion research, thereby ensuring national and international visibility in her field. She is part of an interdisciplinary and participatory team researching the removal of barriers that exist in schools from the perspective of autistic pupils; one of her colleagues, Dr. Anne Piezunka, is researching the topic of “psychological violence” as exercised by teachers. On behalf of Frankfurt Municipality, Vera Moser is also investigating the reasons for the continuously rising demand for school places for pupils with a special educational focus on “intellectual development”. Together with her colleague Prof. Merle Hummrich, Vera Moser initiated Goethe University’s [in:just] research initiative, which deals with questions of inclusion, justice and experiences of recognition in the education system.

With respect to teaching, the reviewers emphasized Vera Moser's special ability to combine theoretical approaches with practical applications – an ability that contributes to her students’ high level of learning success and qualifies young academics in a special way. The inclusion researcher is also extremely active in communicating scientific findings to a broader audience as well as in the context of policy communication; for example, she was invited to serve as an advisory member of Germany’s Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (SWK) on various topics.

The experts expressly recommend continuing the endowed professorship for the next five years. The donor couple, entrepreneur Stefan Quandt and his wife Kathrin, were “happy to make the decision to continue funding the professorship for the second half of the contract term (another five years)”, said the letter of commitment, dated early February 2025.

The initiative for the professorship came from the Quandt entrepreneurial family five years ago. The couple had seen for themselves that the status quo of inclusion in schools was not prepared for the political demands placed upon it by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which came into force in 2009. Goethe University Frankfurt was able to recruit internationally renowned inclusion expert Prof. Vera Moser from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to the new professorship. The endowed professorship was funded for ten years – provided that its work would be assessed positively at the halfway point.

Mar 4 2025

14:44

Professorship to work closely together with Sigmund Freud Institute, building on the tradition of combining psychoanalysis and social perspectives

Goethe University establishes professorship for clinical psychoanalysis using endowment funds

Goethe University Frankfurt is investing €4 million raised from several funds to set up a new professorship for clinical psychoanalysis, which is to work together closely with Frankfurt-based Sigmund Freud Institute. The required funds come from Dr. Elmar und Ellis Reiss Stiftung, Franz Adickes Stiftungsfonds, Alfons und Gertrud Kassel-Stiftung, and Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung. In setting up this new professorship, Goethe University is building on the long-standing and traditional Frankfurt approach to psychoanalytic research. Supporters of this tradition are invited to contribute additional funds to the professorship. This is the fourth endowed professorship, i.e. one that is permanently financed by endowment income, to be established by Goethe University in the past three years.

FRANKFURT. Goethe University wants to further cultivate the important field of psychotherapy research and psychotherapist training into a nationally and internationally outstanding and visible profile field together with Sigmund Freud Institute. A special focus will be placed on psychoanalytical approaches. To that end, the university plans to recruit an outstanding researcher to fill the professorship at its Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences. The professorship will be coupled with the position of director of Sigmund Freud Institute, with the option of assuming the management of the Institute's outpatient clinic.

“We raised endowment funds to establish the professorship – meaning we are making use of the special opportunities afforded to us as a foundation university to strengthen an important research focus at the interface of the social and the natural sciences," says Goethe University President Prof. Enrico Schleiff. “In so doing, we want to further cultivate the interweaving of clinically oriented psychoanalysis, as practiced at the Faculty of Psychology, with the sociologically and social-psychological psychoanalysis conducted at the Faculty of Social Sciences – an approach embodied by the Sigmund Freud Institute. This will allow us to contribute to psychoanalytically inspired social research in the Frankfurt School-based tradition of critical theory."

“We are witnessing an increase in mental illnesses, especially as a result of ongoing social crises. That is why we are very pleased to have our Institute of Psychology strengthened in this way," says Prof. Sonja Rohrmann, dean of Goethe University's Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences. “A wide range of different clinical approaches, methods and tools exist within psychology. Psychoanalysis is one of the oldest and most fundamental of them. The professorship for clinical psychoanalysis will enable us to explore new research fields and innovatively combine the Institute of Psychology's current expertise and orientation with Sigmund Freud Institute's expertise. I would like to thank President Schleiff for his great commitment to funding and establishing this professorship. As required by law and medical practice regulations, the new Master's degree program in Psychotherapy, offered by the Department of Psychology, teaches all of the four recognized psychotherapy methods, with Goethe University being one of only very few universities to offer a psychotherapy degree program comprising several psychotherapy methods taught at an academic level."

“In addition to fostering our strengths in psychological-psychoanalytical and psychotherapeutic research and teaching as well as clinical care, we want to deepen the cooperation between Goethe University Frankfurt and Sigmund Freud Institute. At the same time, we are seeking to establish a highly modern focus in the field of psychoanalytically and psycho-dynamically oriented psychotherapy research rooted in the Frankfurt tradition," adds Prof. Vera King, managing director of Sigmund Freud Institute. “This will allow us to both provide urgently needed impetus in psychotherapy research, with a particular focus on clinical psychoanalysis, and also play a leading scientific role in shaping this field from Frankfurt. We are extremely grateful to Goethe University President Schleiff for his outstanding commitment and would like to thank the foundations for their generous support."

“As Hesse's minister of science, I am very pleased that Goethe University has succeeded in securing endowment funds for this professorship, which is also extremely important to Sigmund Freud Institute," adds Timon Gremmels. Sigmund Freud Institute is a Frankfurt-based non-university research institution supported by the state of Hesse in accordance with Article 91b of Germany's Basic Law. “By working closely together with this professorship, Sigmund Freud Institute will not only be able to increase its scientific interaction with its neighboring university, it will also be able to connect even better with the focus on psychoanalysis, which is strongly linked to Frankfurt as a location – thereby significantly strengthening its scientific profile. I would like to congratulate the Institute on this success. I am also delighted that since the collaboration between the two institutions will become even closer, this means one of the key recommendations made by the German Council of Science and Humanities, which reviewed Sigmund Freud Institute in 2020 at my request, can now be implemented."

The Council's work, commissioned by the Ministry, in 2020 resulted in a very positive evaluation of the work done by Sigmund Freud Institute, giving special praise to the combination of clinical psychoanalysis, social psychology and cultural studies perspectives that characterize its program. One of the Council's recommendations to strengthen the Institute from an organizational perspective was to establish an additional professorship working in close cooperation with Goethe University's Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences, complementing the Institute's existing cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences.

“I am very pleased that we succeeded in gaining the foundations' support," adds President Schleiff. “I would like to thank Dr. Elmar und Ellis Reiss Stiftung, Franz Adickes Stiftungsfonds, Alfons und Gertrud Kassel-Stiftung and Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung for supporting my cause. Thanks to their help, I am now able to keep the promise I gave the student representatives of our University Senate in 2021 to continue the professorship for psychoanalysis at Goethe University Frankfurt. The €4 million endowment made available by these foundations deliberately leave an option for further funding and we would like to invite other potential donors who feel connected to the Frankfurt tradition of psychoanalysis to offer additional support to the endowed professorship. I would also like to thank Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation, which is contributing €100,000 to the professorship's endowment."

This is Goethe University's fourth endowed professorship, i.e. one that is permanently finance from endowment income. The other three are the Lichtenberg Endowed Professorship for Molecular Systems Medicine, the Endowed Professorship for Digital Transformation and Work, and the Gisela and Wilfried Eckhardt Endowed Professorship for Experimental Physics. Over the course of the last three years, the university raised a total endowment volume of more than €22 million for these four professorships. “It is especially in times like these, when state funding for universities is sadly becoming increasingly uncertain due to budget shortfalls at federal and state levels, that we can use these funds to create our own scope for action", says President Schleiff.

The Frankfurt tradition of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis has a special tradition – at Goethe University, at Sigmund Freud Institute and in the city of Frankfurt. After the city's psychoanalysts had been expulsed by National Socialist Germany, the Hessian state government in the 1960s re-established this school of psychotherapy, which was dominant at the time, by creating a professorship for Alexander Mitscherlich, one of its most prominent representatives, at Goethe University. Ever since, psychoanalysis in Frankfurt has always focused not just on clinical psychology, but also on socio-political perspectives. As a result of legal changes to the training of psychotherapists, the design of the course content was tied to medical practice regulations, which in turn meant professorships were not appointed for individual psychological methods, including psychoanalysis. The only other current university professorships explicitly staffed by psychoanalysts exist at the University of Kassel (also in cooperation with Sigmund Freud Institute) and at specialized private universities.

Sigmund Freud Institute
Sigmund Freud Institute, a research institute for psychoanalysis and its applications in Frankfurt am Main, was opened in 1960. The Hessian Sigmund Freud Institute Foundation is an independent foundation under public law; it is funded by the State of Hesse. The central tasks of the Institute are research as well as the promotion of early career researchers with a view to the scientific study of psyche and society in the psycho-analytically oriented sociological-social-psychological, psychological and medical departments of the institution. Since 2016 the Institute has been under the leadership of managing director Vera Kling, as part of a cooperation professorship for sociology and psychoanalytic social psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt; director Patrick Meurs, as part of a cooperation professorship for psychoanalysis at the University of Kassel; and Heinz Weiß, former head physician at Robert Bosch Hospital Stuttgart, who heads Sigmund Freud Institute's medical focus and outpatient clinic.

Mar 3 2025

13:40

New study by Goethe University Frankfurt and Hamburg Police Academy starts today

Survey: Who has experienced discrimination and racism by the police?

We read or hear about it time and time again: Some people are stopped by the police more often than others and complain about disrespectful or insulting behavior. Many of them believe this is related to their outward appearance or consider such manners as racial discrimination. A scientific study by Goethe University’s Prof. Tobias Singelnstein and Hamburg Police Academy’s Prof. Eva Gross will now shed empirical light on the situation: A survey of those affected will run from March 3 to April 3, 2025.

FRANKFURT. A recent representative survey by the Integration Barometer of Germany's Expert Council on Integration and Migration (SVR) shows that respondents who are perceived as “foreign” are checked by the police about twice as often as those who are not perceived as such. The non-representative "Afrozensus" report comes to similar conclusions. It is therefore not without reason that the actions of police officers are increasingly becoming part of the public discourse. “Beyond identity checks, we still know far too little about racism and discrimination in police work,” explains Professor Tobias Singelnstein, criminologist and criminal law expert at Goethe University Frankfurt. Together with Eva Gross, Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Akademie der Polizei Hamburg [Hamburg Police Academy], he has now launched a study to fill this knowledge gap. The survey is part of the three-year collaborative project “Experiences of Racism and Discrimination in Police Contact” (RaDiPol), which involves ten researchers and which has received around €630,000 in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The representative population survey will take place from March 3 to April 3, 2025. It will involve 100,000 people randomly from the population registers of five major German cities (Berlin, Frankfurt a.M., Dresden, Hamburg, and Munich). They will receive a letter with a link to an online questionnaire in which they can participate during the one-month survey period. “The more people who participate and provide us with their answers, the more accurate our assessment of this problematic situation becomes,” emphasizes Professor Eva Gross. The quantitative population survey will be complemented by 60 qualitative interviews with representatives of both the police and civil society groups, focusing on their different experiences and perspectives. Professor Tobias Singelnstein explains: “Our aim is to combine the results of the population survey with the assessments of the police officers who carry out state tasks in law enforcement or criminal investigations.” Most previous analyses have looked at the experiences of those affected and police perceptions separately.

Further information
Prof. Dr. Tobias Singelnstein
Institute for Criminal Justice and the Philosophy of Law
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel. +49 (0)69 798-34348
E-Mail singelnstein@jur.uni-frankfurt.de
Homepage https://radipol.uni-frankfurt.de/

Prof. Dr. Eva Gross
Akademie der Polizei Hamburg
Tel. +49 (0)40 4286-24960
E-Mail Eva.Gross@poladium.de

Mar 3 2025

10:46

Bluesky joins existing offer as a new channel featuring news about the university, research, science, the promotion of young talent and career opportunities

Goethe University explores new social media horizons

Goethe University Frankfurt is expanding its digital presence and has now launched an account on the social media platform Bluesky. After leaving X (formerly Twitter) together with more than 60 other universities in January, the university is focusing on a transparent, science-friendly and decentralized alternative.

FRANKFURT. Goethe University's latest news on university life, research, science, the promotion of young talent and careers is now available on Bluesky. The university chose Bluesky as a new central social media communications channel because it considers the platform to be a forward-thinking alternative to X, and one that is becoming increasingly important to science and research. Bluesky's advantages over other platforms played a vital role in this decision:

Decentralized network: Bluesky offers more openness, transparency and participation, as well as a more even distribution of power than centrally organized networks such as X.
Familiar user interface: The platform's user interface is similar to that of X, making it easier for researchers, students and interested parties to switch.
More control for users:
- Since Bluesky users can customize their algorithms to personalize their feed, they have more control over the content they see.
- Bluesky users can better determine which accounts they want to interact with.
- Data protection and ID checks rest in the hands of Bluesky users
Transparent moderation systems and rules.
Open access: Bluesky has been open to anyone interested in joining the platform since February 2024 and now has more than 30 million users (according to its own data, as of January 2025).
Bluesky is ad-free (for now), which promotes authentic communication.

As part of a concerted move involving more than 60 German-speaking universities and research institutions, Goethe University Frankfurt in January announced its decision to discontinue its activities on X (formerly Twitter). Many more institutions of higher learning and research have since followed suit. The decision to leave X is based on changes in the platform's orientation, which increasingly favor the dissemination of fake news and disinformation, and constitute problematic communication practices. Goethe University core values such as academic freedom, diversity, democratic discourse and fact-based cooperation are no longer compatible with these platform developments. Beyond that, scientific topics no longer generate any significant reach on X.

Goethe University's central communication is now available on Bluesky at: https://bsky.app/profile/goetheuni.bsky.social

Faculties, institutions and university members who would like to use Bluesky as an alternative or supplement to their existing social media activities can contact the PR and Communications Office with any questions. Goethe University's other central social communications channels include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Further links:
Goethe University Frankfurt and numerous other German universities withdraw from “X"
TU Darmstadt study on the social media platform Bluesky
Goethe University Frankfurt on Bluesky

Images for download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/168109593

Caption: Goethe University Frankfurt's Bluesky profile