Overview of research projects

Funding: BMBF, 122.004 EUR

Project Details:
Every year, about 750,000 people die from mosquito-borne diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, rift valley fever and chikungunya fever. The incidence of these diseases is expected to increase significantly over the next few decades, as the ranges of several mosquito species are expanding due to climate
change. Mosquitoes not only transmit diseases, but can also influence the severity of the diseases they transmit. It has been shown in experimental infections of animals, the transmission of arboviruses by mosquito bites compared to artificial infection can lead to an increase in the severity of the disease. In
addition, it is known that the saliva of insects and ticks can promote the progression of vector-borne diseases. The skin is the first organ to be exposed to an arbovirus infection, thus the initial infection events also significantly determine the course of the disease. It is therefore essential for many to investigate a natural infection of the skin via a mosquito bite. So far, this could only be achieved by in-vivo experiments (animal experiments). In this project, an alternative is to be developed by replacing animal models with human skin explants for ethical and physiological reasons. The challenge of this study will be to establish an assay in which mosquitoes can use the skin implants as potential hosts. The goal is a successful biting of the skin explants by mosquitoes. Exemplarily, in a second step the skin explants should be infected via bite of Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV) and/or Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV)-infected mosquitoes. If
successful, the project results will allow to choose from different models for future research questions.

Funding: Europa-Programm des Niedersächsischen Ministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kultur aus Mitteln von SPRUNG, 79.770 EUR

Project Details:
The focus is on studying the evolution of viruses in the two hosts arthropods (mosquitoes, ticks) and mammals and the implications for host receptor usage.

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Dr. Félix Rey, Institut Pasteur, Paris, Frankreich

Funding: Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, 46.497 EUR

Project Details:
The aim of the project is to establish he first agricultural skills lab to improve practical skills in training in order to promote better animal welfare in education. New social and political demands in agriculture, which may require new practical skills, can be implemented in the skills lab and learned and deepened in a protected learning environment. The agricultural skills lab is intended to address different target groups (trainees to become farmers/animal keepers, trainees to become master craftsmen, obtain relevant additional qualifications (e.g. insemination technicians) and students of agricultural science / livestock science) and encourage exchange and learning from one another and with one another between the different groups improve audiences.

Cooperation Partners:

Lehr- und Versuchszentrum Futterkamp, Landwirtschaftskammer Schleswig-Holstein

Dr. Sophie Diers

Gutshof 1, 24327 Blekendorf

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (MWK), 30.000 EUR

Project Details:
The first step in the albuminous degeneration of cells leading to cancer, is the loss of polarity of a cell. Without polar orientation, cells start to grow into any direction and start forming a tumor. Scientists all over the world are trying to identify the genes that are responsible for this process. Up to now without success, as the genetics behind is unknown and hardly decipherable in complex human cells.
We want to use the simplest animal model organism, the placozoan Trichoplax in order to identify the responsible genes. Those placozoans do not have any organs or symmetry; they only have a clear polarity of top and bottom. The signaler for polarity is gravity. We can switch it off naturally in space (sounding rockets) or simulately in the lab (via clinostat experiments) in order to study the effects on gene expression patterns. With placozoans as a subject of examination and gene studies in zero gravity we are now able to break new grounds with regards to interdisciplinary and experimental cancer research.
We have formed an international project entity of cancer scientists, space researchers, geneticists and evolutionary biologists in order to be able to launch this new research approach.

Cooperation Partners:

1) Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum (DLR) Köln

2) LaTrobe University, Medical School, Melbourne, Australia

3) Yale University, Yale Genomics Center, New Haven, USA

4) Prof. Robert DeSalle; Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, AMNH, New York)

Funding: Drittmittelprojekt, gefördert durch die Fritz-Ahrberg-Stiftung., 100.000 EUR

Project Details:
(Deep)freezing is a process for preserving fat. Both the duration and the temperature of the freezing treatment influence the physicochemical and sensory quality of the fat and also the quality of the products made with this fat (Flavia et al. 2014). In our opinion, there have been no studies that have related the influence of the freezing duration and temperature of fat to the quality of the cooked sausage produced with it. For this reason, in the project pork and turkey fat will be stored after freezing for up to 24 weeks at -18 °C and approx. -80 °C. After 12 and 24 weeks, the fat will be processed to cooked cured sausages. The products will be directly characterised with regard to physicochemical (e.g. colour, pH value, aw value, antioxidative capacity), microbiological (e.g. total bacterial count) and sensory properties (following the DLG 5-point scheme). The products will then be cut, packaged in a protective gas atmosphere and stored according to the storage time, which is typical for the product in retail. The control products contain fat that was frozen overnight (for technological reasons).

Funding: #

Project Details:
The decline in insect biodiversity with negative consequences for food webs and the loss of ecosystem services is currently dramatic. The causes of the decline in insect diversity are manifold, the qualitative deterioration of their habitats, whether on land or in water, light pollution, habitat loss, competition from invasive species and environmental toxins are just some of the factors. As part of this pilot project, flowering areas and nesting aids for insects are being created on the grounds of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation. The results of a species inventory serve as the basis for targeted measures to improve the habitat. The optimizations, e.g. the creation of flowering areas with regional wildflowers, deadwood areas and insect nesting aids, are only the first steps.
Through these measures to promote key species groups, such as wild bees and butterflies, other groups of organisms can also be promoted through deadweight effects due to the improved structural offer, in order to achieve a sustainable optimization of the entire TiHo site.
Further steps are planned as part of the project, which will be scientifically supported by Bachelor's and Master's theses. The TiHo grounds, which are near-natural in many areas, already provide important habitats for numerous rare animals and plants in the urban environment. These habitats are to be recorded in detail, protected and optimized. Other planned measures include improving the ecological condition of the Bünte pond in the park, creating an interactive insect trail and an exhibition with measures to promote biodiversity in urban areas.

Funding: Verein der Förderer der Wildtierforschung e.V., 5.800 EUR

Project Details:
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Cooperation Partners:

Chadi Touma, Abteilung Verhaltensbiologie, Universität Osnabrück

Project Details:
Bisher existieren in der veterinärmedizinischen Lehre keine 3D- gedruckten Simulationsmodelle für Reptilien. Um die klinische Ausbildung der Studierenden zu verbessern soll ein praxisnahes Schildkröten-Simulationsmodell entwickelt und angefertigt werden. Im Rahmen einer Dissertation soll anschließend evaluiert werden, inwieweit das Modell in der praktischen Anwendung von Studierenden im Rahmen von Wahlpflichtkursen an toten Tierkörpern erfolgreich umgesetzt werden kann.

Project Details:
Meerschweinchen werden häufig mit Urinabsatzbeschwerden oder Schmerzen beim Urinabsatz in der tierärztlichen Praxis vorgestellt. Häufig liegen in diesen Fällen bakterielle Infektionen als Ursache vor. Dieses Projekt wertet die mikrobiologischen Untersuchungsergebnisse von Harnuntersuchungen bei Meerschweinchen mit Zystitis aus, welche in den letzten 10 Jahren in der Klinik für Heimtiere, Reptilien und Vögel durchgeführt wurden.

Project Details:
Diese Projekt analysiert Vorstellungsgründe, Symptome, Therapie und den Krankheitsverlauf sowie Spätfolgen von Kaninchen mit einer Enzephalitozoon cuniculi (E.c.)-Infektion. Dazu werden die Untersuchungsergebnisse von Kaninchen mit einem positiven Antikörpertiter gegen E.c. ausgewertet.