Two ERC Starting Grants for the University of Konstanz

Dr Damien Farine, a principal investigator from the Cluster of Excellence “Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour” at the University of Konstanz, and Professor George Walkden, Professor of English Linguistics and General Linguistics at the university’s Department of Linguistics, have both been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant.

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Konstanz "Fridays for Future" school strike. Image: University of Konstanz

International day of climate strikes on 20 September 2019

The Fridays for Future network (FFF) has called for a global day of climate strikes on 20 September 2019. Young people are asking all generations to come out and demand effective environmental protection and climate policies. In Konstanz, too, a demonstration will take place under the motto #AllesfürsKlima (everything for the climate) in addition to other activities to draw attention to FFF priorities.

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The novel photoactivatable nitroxide for DAinv reaction spin label for proteins, PaNDA. It can be ligated to proteins through a DAinv cycloaddition to genetically encoded noncanonical amino acids. Credit: Anandi Kugele

New protein spin labelling technique

University of Konstanz researchers develop a new site-directed spin labelling approach based on genetically encoded noncanonical amino acids amenable to Diels-Alder chemistry as well as a new spin label, PaNDA

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Sofja Kovalevskaja Award

Sofja Kovalevskaja Award winner Dr Angelo Di Bernardo from the University of Cambridge to establish a new research hub in the field of superconducting spintronics at the University of Konstanz’s Department of Physics

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Ribosome binding of NAC is mediated by a ribosome binding regulatory arm (N-αNAC, blue) and a translation sensor domain (N-βNAC, green). N-βNAC senses short nascent chains already deep inside the ribosomal tunnel close to the peptidyl-transferase centre (orange) where amino acids are assembled into proteins. The tunnel-sensing activity of NAC is believed to orchestrate general cotranslational protein folding and transport processes in the cell. Copyright: Martin Gamerdinger

New protein-sensing mechanism discovered

In a stunning discovery, molecular biologists from the University of Konstanz and ETH Zurich have been able to demonstrate that the nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC) senses newly synthesized proteins upon birth inside the ribosomal tunnel

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