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Copper is important for many processes in our body. Among other things, it supports the production of red blood cells, metabolism, and the formation of connective tissue and bones. Copper is also known to play a role in diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, we do not yet know exactly what that role entails. Researchers from Delft University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences have now discovered a new piece of the puzzle. In order to be able to do its work, copper binds to different types of proteins in the cell. And although the complexes that are formed in this process are not harmful in themselves, temporary 'intermediate forms' appear to arise during the binding, which can lead to damage to the cell. The results of the research have been published in Angewandte Chemie.

What can yeast teach us about ourselves? Quite a lot, says Werner Daalman, a PhD-candidate in the group of Liedewij Laan who is defending his thesis on Wednesday 13 May. Daalman has studied how baker’s yeast decides in which direction to grow. It turns out that random differences in the quantity of the proteins involved in cell growth play a key role in this process. Such random variations in protein quantity are likely to be an important factor in other cellular processes as well. Not only in yeast, but also in human cells.

The EU recently awarded €4Million to the MELODY consortium, to develop low cost, innovative batteries for large-scale energy storage, as part of the Horizon 2020 program ‘Advanced Redox Flow Batteries for stationary energy storage’. The MELODY consortium consists of small & medium enterprises (Elestor, PV3 Technologies, Vertech), industry (Shell) and academic leaders (TU Delft, Technion, University of Exeter, ETH Zurich), with coordination support provided by Hezelburcht. The collaborative project began in January 2020, and will run for 4 years, leading to a pilot facility that demonstrates the practical application, with each partner bringing required know-how and capabilities to complete the project.

Scientific research into the world-famous painting by Johannes Vermeer, known as the 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', has yielded new insights. TU Delft researchers played an important role in making discoveries about the brushwork, the use of pigments and how Vermeer built up his painting with various layers of paint.

Schmidt Futures has selected Andreas Wallucks of the Simon Groeblacher Lab (Quantum Nanoscience) as one of their 22 early-career interdisciplinary Fellows. Wallucks will receive a a $100,000 stipend that allows him to change topics as a postdoc. He will join a community of fellows and will be paired with an internationally accomplished and experienced senior scientist as a mentor.

Delft researchers demonstrate that microorganisms can work together and help each other and their future generations survive and replicate at high temperatures.

The European Commission has signed the grant agreement for WATER MINING, a 17 million euro project aimed at demonstrating innovative water resource solutions. As part of the project, demonstrations in Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Italy and The Netherlands will be built to show novel efficient ways to reclaim nutrients, minerals, energy and water from industrial and urban wastewater and seawater. The public-private consortium consists of 38 public and private partners and 4 linked third parties in 12 countries. It will be led by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).

"I memorize all the names of my students and speak to them during the lecture. Yes, even the names of the eighty students who take my bachelor's course!" laughs Bertus Beaumont. He specialises in evolutionary biology and teaches three subjects on behalf of BN/Bionanoscience. "I am committed to renewing education with a personal and multidisciplinary approach." This interview is part of a series of articles on innovation in education and was conducted before the start of the corona crisis.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford, Delft University and IBM Zurich have demonstrated that graphene can be used to build sensitive and self-powering temperature sensors. The findings pave the way for the design of highly sensitive thermocouples, which could be integrated in nanodevices and even living cells.