Scientists have discovered a new way of how bacteria can achieve nutritional exchange and published their results of research in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Lichtenberg-Professor Dr. Max Löhning and colleagues at the Charité, Berlin, have demonstrated that immune cells can 'remember' numbers. In the future, it may thus be possible to influence the intensity of a specific immune reaction. The results of their study have been published in the current edition of the journal Immunity.

The funding initiative "Europe and Global Challenges" is now supported jointly by the Wellcome Trust, the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Volkswagen Foundation.

The physicist Stefan Hell, who is associated with the Volkswagen Foundation since 2001, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the prize with Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner.

630 applications have been submitted in the second round of calls. From the many outstanding proposals, the Foundation selected 19 exceptionally innovative projects in the areas of the natural and life sciences and engineering.

On September 1, four new members were appointed to the 14-member Board of Trustees of the Volkswagen Foundation.