Research News
A Year of Health
The German Health Centres pool expertise in order to study common diseases even better. Photo: Helmholtz/Annette Spicker2011 is characterised by health - with new challenges, but also with promising opportunities. A major topic is the establishment of the German Health Research Centres in which Helmholtz Centres will play an important role. We therefore welcome the initiative of the German Research Minister Annette Schavan regarding the founding of the German Health Centres and look forward to the role assigned to us. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen health research in Germany even further. more
Using biomass more efficiently
More than two thirds of renewable energy in Germany is produced using biomass. Logs are utilised as is corn stover, rapeseed oil and other plant products. Yet although bioenergy can replace fossil fuels to a certain extent, it is not automatically ecological. This is because the cultivation of energy plants uses large areas which in turn has...more
Alleviating tinnitus with sounds
Tinnitus can be excruciating: The annoying noises are caused by pathological synchronous firing of neuron clusters in the brain. Prof. Dr Peter Tass of Forschungszentrum Jülich and his team have developed a "neurostimulator" which plays certain stimulation sequences into the patient's ear in order to bring these pathologically...more
German Centre for Diabetes Research opened
Today, around eight million people in Germany are already suffering from diabetes and the number of patients is rising. As such, diabetes is one of the diseases for which German Health Centres should be founded in order to fill gaps in research and make more rapid progress for the benefit of patients. The German Diabetes Centre (DZD) was opened on...more
Technology Transfer 2010/11
The knowledge and technology transfer at the Helmholtz Association on which we report on this special page several times a year takes many forms: From the so-called "transfer via heads" - for example by a scientist from a Helmholtz Centre changing to a commercial enterprise - to policy advice and dissemination of socially relevant findings - for...more
