pART of Research Calendar 2021

Nils Rollersbroich

Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology / Medical Faculty

"The image shows several murine cardiac fibroblasts, that were visualized via fluorescence microscopy after isolation and cultivation. The nuclei are stained in blue, vimentin in green and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in red. Undifferentiated fibroblasts express only vimentin filaments, whereas differentiated fibroblasts, socalled myofibroblasts, also express the contractile structure α-SMA. This cell type plays an important role in scar formation and thus remodeling after myocardial infarction and also is highly fascinating to look at under the microscope."

Marc-Sven Röll, Lennart Charton

Institute of Plant Biochemistry/ Faculty of Math. and Nat. Scie.

"Failure is a constant companion in scientific lab work. However, failure sometimes comes along with beauty. In this case, a mislocalized fluorescent marker in plant tissue resulted in a modern art image."

Dr. Jasmin Bartl

Pediatric Neuro-Oncogenomics / Medical Faculty

"The picture shows young astrocytes differentiated from mouse stem cells. The nuclei are stained in blue and the red staining shows the cell processes. When I saw the picture for the first time, I thought of itsy bitsy spiders."

Sara Ipakchi

Department of Philosophy / Faculty of Arts and Humanities

"Since toilet paper had become a luxury and limited commodity, I thought that maybe I could use other paper tissues I have at home as toilet paper. However, I had heard that using other paper tissues for the drain could be problematic. So I did this experiment. I took four bowls filled with water. In the first one I put toilet paper, in the second (recycled) kitchen paper, in the third (recycled) cosmetic tissue and in the last normal cosmetic tissue. Although the circumstances for my experiment were not ideal and I am not an expert in this field, after three weeks it seemed to be true that toilet paper is best suited for the drain. So no refutation!
(I am a philosopher and my field of research is the "refutation")."

Jennifer Urbach

Institute for Biochemistry und Molecular Biology I / Medical Faculty

"Every time I want to use this mannitol solution I have to destroy this pretty crytal, grown at 4°C. However I can enjoy this beautiful view of the crystal and over the campus from our lab every time I have to prepare specific buffers. It's worth looking for a while."

Dr. Vera Vasylyeva-Shor

Inorganic Chemistry 1/ Faculty of Math. and Nat. Scie.

"Carbamazepine is an anticonvulsant medication used primarily in the treatment of epilepsy and neuropathic pain.  Under the polarised misroscope it crystallises to give a colourful flowerish landscape."

Dr. Irene Küberl

Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry / Faculty of Math. and Nat. Scie.

"Nowadays, we are technologically so advanced that research does not have to stand still completely, even in "lockdown periods". The majority of my colleagues, but also private contacts, have continued to work from home over the last few weeks. Long overdue documentation was completed or exciting conceptual experiments were developed. Even though this works very well for a limited time, we all miss the personal contact to our colleagues. With my contribution I would like to underline the feeling of isolation which has burdened many people in the last weeks. The rainbow on the laptop refers to the rainbow that isolated children painted on window screens or sidewalks in the spring of 2020 to send an optimistic signal for "fellow sufferers"."

Dr. Mahsa Armaghan

Institute for Inorganic and Structural Chemistry / Faculty of Math. and Nat. Scie.

"I have been studying Red Crystals of an inorganic-organic hybrid compound containing Rhodium hexachloride @ diaminoheptan at Professor Frank research group. I have created the attached picture which depicts my red crystals in Botanic garden in HHU. The style in my design is reminiscent of the style of the contemporary german painter Oskar Kollar (Red poppies)."

Jennifer Lydia Rodak

Polyclinic Rheumatology / Medical Faculty

"Shortly after 10 a.m., 35 degrees. The visits are documented quickly, the medical prescriptions are finished. Suddenly the message that they are out of Cefuroxime. Not again. Annoyed groans. Research can also look like this."

Gillian Ludwig

Clinic for Urology/ Medical Faculty

"This confocal-microscopic image shows the three-dimensional growth of germ cell tumor cells (stained in green) and immune cells (lymphocytes, stained in red) in the so-called ‘hanging drop cell culture technique’. Cell nuclei appear in blue. In 3D culture, a close interaction between the diverse cell types develops."

Jana Deitersen

Institute for Molecular Medicine I / Medical Faculty

"A group of cells surrounds an old senescent cell. Although they look diffent from another, they are all clones of the same origin and still share their nutrients with each other."