Anna Kny received the Sigrid Peyerimhoff-Forschungspreis 2024 for her outstanding publication „Chiral self‐organized single 2D‐layers of tetramers from a functional donor‐acceptor molecule by the surface template effect “ (Nanoscale 15 (2023) 10319-10329). This award is intended to support a young scientist in the field of physical and theoretical chemistry at the University of Bonn who can demonstrate an outstanding publication in these fields.

Dr. Jan Niklas Hansen und Dr. Jan Ruland sind mit dem Klartextpreis für Wissenschaftskommunikation 2023 ausgezeichnet worden. Sieben Promovierte der Naturwissenschaften und der Informatik hat die Klaus Tschira-Stiftung für besonders gelungene Wissenschaftskommunikation ausgezeichnet, darunter die beiden Bonner Wissenschaftler. Dr. Jan Niklas Hansen forscht am Institut für angeborene Immunität der Universität Bonn. Dr. Jan Ruland war bis vor kurzem Doktorand am Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie der Universität Bonn und ist jetzt Mitarbeiter der Firma Biontech.

We still do not understand exactly how antibiotics kill bacteria. However, this understanding is necessary if we want to develop new antibiotics. And that is precisely what is urgently needed, because bacteria are currently showing more and more resistance to existing antibiotics. Therefore, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn used high-performance microscopes to observe the effect of different antibiotics on the cell division of Staphylococcus aureus. They found that the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan, core component of the bacterial cell wall, is the driving force during the entire process of cell division. In addition, they clarified how exactly different antibiotics block cell division within a few minutes. The results have now been published in the journal Science Advances.