Press releases
World AIDS Conference: Interview with local co-chair Prof. Christoph Spinner
“The virus does not care about borders”
The World AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024) will be held in Munich from July 22 to 26. For five days, experts from science, politics, affected groups, and counseling organizations will gather to discuss HIV. Prof. Christoph Spinner, an infectious disease specialist at the Technical University of Munich’s Klinikum rechts der Isar, serves as the local co-chair. In this interview, he explains why the conference remains essential after more than 40 years of AIDS and highlights some of the latest encouraging research findings.
Hepatitis B: Liver cells switch off the immune response
"Sleep timer" for immune cells discovered
In chronic hepatitis B, the liver contains immune cells that could destroy hepatitis B virus-infected cells but are inactive. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered that cells in blood vessels in the liver start a “sleep timer” that switches off immune cells. Targeting this mechanism could be a starting point for immunotherapies.
Artificial intelligence: Current research and future visions
Munich AI Day brings together leaders in the field
The first-ever Munich AI Day was dedicated to the latest developments and research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Outstanding German and international researchers came together for the summit in the Munich Werksviertel district. It was organized by the Munich Center for Machine Learning (MCML), a joint initiative of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).
Science & Study Center Raitenhaslach
The place where ideas fly
At the Science & Study Center Raitenhaslach, TUM promotes the creative exchange of students and researchers from all disciplines – a report from a visit to the site.
Global discourse series “One Topic, One Loop“: Alyssa Gilbert
Promoting climate innovation alone is not enough
How can universities integrate sustainability into their infrastructure and daily activities? In the global discourse series “One Topic, One Loop”, we present the perspectives of four universities from four different countries. Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, answers the question posed by Werner Lang, TUM's Vice President for Sustainable Transformation.
Interview with Prof. Martin Bichler on electricity pricing
“Splitting Germany into several price zones on the day-ahead power market might not achieve the intended goals”
The energy transition is a challenge for the power market: Temporal and locational variations in power generation result in relatively large fluctuations in the power supply and power prices. Grid infrastructure providers are increasingly forced to intervene in order to balance supply and demand and avoid power outages. Consequently, the EU Commission is assessing a possible split of the German uniform price zone and the day-ahead market into smaller price zones. Researchers have shown that smaller price zones would have little effects on the power price or re-dispatch measures. By contrast, the use of nodal pricing would reduce overall costs for providing energy by 9 percent.
NewIn: Allister Loder
“We don’t want to get rid of the car”
As a professor of mobility policy, Allister Loder is studying a topic of great current interest – but one that stirs up strong emotions. In the new issue of NewIn, he explains how an engineer ended up working in the social sciences, what Munich could learn from London, and how he plans to learn more about people’s everyday mobility needs.
TUM part of newest German Center for Health Research
Center for Child and Adolescent Health launched
The newly founded German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ) will promote and network research on child and adolescent health throughout Germany. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) will be heavily involved at the DZKJ site in Munich. Julia Hauer, Professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is the vice spokesperson. This makes TUM one of only two German universities involved in all German Centers for Health Research.
Compression standard for haptics published
Transmitting the sense of touch via the Internet
What JPEG, MP3 and MPEG are for images, audio and video, haptic codecs are for transmitting the sense of touch via the Internet. After eight years of standardization work under the consortium leadership of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a standard for the compression and transmission of the sense of touch has been published for the first time under the name "Haptic Codecs for the Tactile Internet" (HCTI). It lays the foundation for tele-surgery, tele-driving and new online gaming experiences.
Newly discovered subtypes and sex differences create new approaches for drugs
Insight into the molecular mechanisms of ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS for short, is a mysterious neurodegenerative disease that is almost always fatal. A consortium of researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has systematically investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms of ALS. Among other things, the team discovered that ALS can be divided into subtypes. Depending on the subtype, different drugs could be effective. There are also clear differences in the molecular processes when comparing men and women.