Recent High-Impact Publications

• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Quantum beats of exciton-polarons in CsPbI3 perovskite nanocrystals
• Short description: An international team of researchers has reported a major advance in understanding quantum dynamics in semiconductor materials. They directly observed how excitons and phonons evolve together in perovskite nanocrystals, revealing a fully coherent quantum dance between light-induced electronic excitations and crystal lattice vibrations. The results show that crystal vibrations, which are often considered a source of noise in quantum systems, can also be used as a useful quantum resource.
• Authors: Artur V. Trifonov, Mikhail O. Nestoklon, M. Alex Hollberg, Stefan Grisard, Dennis Kudlacik, Elena V. Kolobkova, Maria S. Kuznetsova, Serguei V. Goupalov, Jan M. Kaspari, Doris E. Reiter, Dmitri R. Yakovlev, Manfred Bayer, Ilya A. Akimov (all from the Department of Physics)
• Partner institution: Jackson State University (Mississippi, USA), St. Petersburg State University
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73506-1

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• Journal: Sociological Theory
• Publication title: The Mediodoxy: A Bourdieusian Third Logic of Practice between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Lived Experience of Anti-Muslim Racism and Antisemitism
• Short description: In this contribution, Dr. Fatih Bahadir Kaya develops the concept of Mediodoxy as a theoretical extension of Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeology. Drawing on qualitative reconstructive research on antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism, the article reconstructs a third logic of social practice situated between orthodoxy and heresy.
• Author: Fatih Bahadir Kaya (Department of Social Sciences)
• DOI: 10.1177/07352751261448520 

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• Journal: Nature Chemistry
• Publication title: Alkali-Ion-Modified Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Glasses
• Short description: The team developed a new concept to chemically modify glasses derived from metal-organic frameworks in a controlled manner. The study shows how alkali modifiers tune the structure, processing temperature and porosity of these emerging glass materials, opening new design opportunities for functional porous glasses.
• Authors: Pascal Kolodzeiski, Benjamin M. Gallant, Lennard Richter, Mario Antonio T. Ongkiko, Carlo Franke, Aleksander Kostka, Wen-Long Xue, Chinmoy Das, Jan-Benedikt Weiß, Elena Kolodzeiski, Thomas Kress, Gregor Kieslich, Tong Li, Andrew J. Morris, Dominik Kubicki, Sebastian Henke (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
• Partner institutions: University of Birmingham, Ruhr University Bochum, SRM University-AP, Technical University of Munich, University of Cambridge
• DOI: 10.1038/s41557-026-02115-8

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• Journal: Nature Astronomy
• Publication title: The dark and featureless surface of rocky exoplanet LHS 3844 b from JWST mid-infrared spectroscopy
• Short description: For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope provides a direct view of a rocky exoplanet’s surface in the mid-infrared. Observations of LHS 3844 b reveal an old, dark, heavily weathered surface, with no signs of volcanic gases.
• Authors: Sebastian Zieba, Laura Kreidberg, Brandon P. Coy, Aaron Bello-Arufe, Kimberly Paragas, Xintong Lyu, Renyu Hu, Aishwarya Iyer, Edwin S. Kite, Daniel D. B. Koll, Kay Wohlfarth (Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology), Emerson Whittaker, Heather Knutson, Robin Wordsworth, Caroline Morley, Laura Schaefer
• Partner institutions: Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (federführend), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (federführend), University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, Peking University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of California Los Angeles, Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, Pennsylvania State University
• DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02860-3

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Discovery of an Endonuclease G-inhibitory Ku80-peptide protecting against leukemogenic rearrangements at the MLL breakpoint cluster
• Short description: Endonuclease G (EndoG) is an enzyme that cleaves a DNA region known as Mixed Lineage Leukemia breakpoint cluster region (MLLbcr). This cleavage occurs at sublethal chemotherapeutic doses of anti-tumoral compounds like doxorubicin, causing leukemogenic chromosomal changes. Using computational techniques, the team discovered a Ku80-derived peptide that binds the human Endonuclease G (EndoG). This peptide inhibits the non-specific, pro-tumorigenic activity of EndoG during chemotherapy, which improves the cytotoxic effect of the treatment.
• Authors: Julia Eberle, Ahmed Salem, Mara Hofmann, Anja Reisser, Yasser B. Ruiz-Blanco, Yasser Almeida-Hernandez (Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering), Boris Gole, Melanie Rall-Scharpf, Jessica Angulo-Capel, Thomas Monecke, Elsa Sanchez-Garcia (Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering), J. Christof M. Gebhardt, Lisa Wiesmüller
• Partner institutions: University of Ulm
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-72034-2

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Dbf4-dependent kinase finetunes Ino80 function at chromosome replication origins
• Short description: Cell biologists investigated how chromatin structure at DNA replication origins is regulated during the cell cycle. Using proteomic and biochemical analyses, they show that the kinase DDK phosphorylates the Arp8 subunit of the INO80 chromatin‑remodeling complex, which stabilizes the complex and enhances its nucleosome‑spacing activity at replication origins. This modification promotes efficient initiation of DNA replication and helps cells cope with replication stress. The results indicate that DDK not only activates core replication proteins but also prepares chromatin regulators for their role during DNA replication.
• Authors: Priyanka Bansal, Shibojyoti Lahiri, Chandni Natalia Kumar, Jessica Furtmeier, Lorenz Spechtenhauser, Lorenzo Galanti, Juan de Dios Barba Tena, Erika Chacin, Garp Linder, María Ángeles Ortíz-Bazán, Marisa Müller, Petra Vizjak, Tobias Straub, Felix Mueller-Planitz, Johannes Stigler, Andrés Aguilera, Belen Gómez-González, Boris Pfander (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology), Philipp Korber, Axel Imhof, Christoph F. Kurat
• Partner institutions: Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (lead institution), CABIMER Seville (Spain), Dresden University of Technology
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-70698-4

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• Journal: Nature
• Publication title: Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres
• Short description: Researchers have reconstructed how yeast evolved its unusually small, genetically defined “point centromeres” from much larger, repeat-rich centromeres. By mapping centromeres across related yeast species, they identified previously unknown “proto-point” centromeres embedded in retrotransposon DNA, showing that these mobile genetic elements provided the DNA that was repurposed for modern centromeres. The study reveals a concrete mechanism for how an epigenetically defined centromere can become genetically encoded and illustrates how selfish DNA can be domesticated to perform essential chromosome functions.
• Authors: Max A. B. Haase, Luciana Lazar-Stefanita, Lyam Baudry, Aleksandra Wudzinska, Xiaofan Zhou, Antonis Rokas, Chris Todd Hittinger, Boris Pfander (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund University), Andrea Musacchio & Jef D. Boeke
• Partner institutions: MPI of Molecular Physiology and NYU Langone Health (lead partners)
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10092-0

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Coherence transfer from optically induced THz magnons to charges
• Short description: By optical pumping a large number of coherent magnons is excited which make themselves felt as a Larmor precession of the antiferromagnetic magnetization. The precessing magnetization shifts the electronic levels due to relativistic spin-orbit coupling. These shifts in turn change the optical transition frequencies so that the detected transmittivity is modulated periodically. This groundbreaking observation shows a possible path to energy-efficient data processing based on magnons.
• Authors: Moritz Cimander, Volker Wiechert, Julian Bär, Takuya Satoh, Jörg Bünemann, Götz S. Uhrig (Department of Physics, TU Dortmund University) & Davide Bossini
• Partner institutions: Universität Konstanz (lead institution), Institute of Science Tokyo
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69261-y

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: On-surface synthesis platform for highly branched oligomers based on sequential C—C coupling and C—H activation of carbenes
• Short description: The team produced and characterized highly branched zero-dimensional oligomers on a metal surface using carbenes as building blocks. The study combined experimental techniques and ab initio theoretical modeling.
• Authors: Yunjun Cao, Joel Mieres-Perez (Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering), Julien Frederic Rowen, Akshay Hemant Raut, Paul Schweer, Anran Bao, Wolfram Sander*, Elsa Sanchez-Garcia (Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering) & Karina Morgenstern
• Partner institutions: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67604-9

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Acute exercise rewires the proteomic landscape of human immune cells
• Short description: The mechanistic study on molecular principles investigates the influence of exercise on the human immune system. Specifically, the question is to what extent a single training session changes the proteostasis of immune cells in a biologically significant way and to what extent this process depends on the intensity of training.
• Authors: David Walzik (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University), Niklas Joisten (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University), Alan J. Metcalfe, Sebastian Proschinger (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University), Alexander Schenk (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University), Charlotte Wenzel (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University), Alessa L. Henneberg, Martin Schneider, Silvia Calderazzo, Andreas Groll (Department of Statistics, TU Dortmund University), Carsten Watzl, Christiane A. Opitz, Dominic Helm & Philipp Zimmer (Department of Arts and Sports Sciences, TU Dortmund University)
• Partner institutions: German Sport University Cologne, German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg, King's College London
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-68101-9

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• Journal: Nature Reviews Physics
• Publication title: Global tuning of hadronic interaction models with accelerator-based and astroparticle data
• Short description: The publication presents an approach to systematically investigate common questions in particle and astroparticle physics. The authors shed light on how event generators - programs for simulating hadron collisions - can be used both in accelerator experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and in astroparticle experiments.
• Authors from TU Dortmund University: including Johannes Albrecht, Kevin Kröninger, Felix Riehn, Wolfgang Rhode (all from the Department of Physics)
• Partner institutions: Ruhr University Bochum, University of Wuppertal
• DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00897-3

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• Journal: Small
• Publication title: Correlation-Driven d-Band Modifications Promote Chemical Bonding at 3d-Ferromagnetic Surfaces
• Short description: A single atomic oxygen layer on an iron surface is generally expected to passivate the surface and strongly weaken or even suppress the formation of chemical bonds with other atoms and molecules. Combining experimental methods with theoretical calculations, this work shows, however, that this very oxygen layer enhances electron correlation in iron and thereby modifies the electronic states in such a way that the passivating effect is partly lifted: as a result, a prototypical organic molecule such as pentacene binds much more strongly than expected. The findings thus provide new insights into the fundamental principles of chemical bonding at complex metal/organic interfaces and open up new perspectives for understanding catalytic activity at ferromagnetic 3d-metal surfaces.
• Authors: David Maximilian Janas (Department of Physics), Andreas Windischbacher, Alessandro Sala, Vitaliy Feyer, Iulia Cojocariu, Manuel Gruber, Mehdi Bouatou, Andrea Droghetti, Peter Puschnig, Giovanni Zamborlini (Department of Physics; in addition, the University of Graz), Mirko Cinchetti (Department of Physics)
• Partner institutions: TU Dortmund University (leading), University of Graz (leading), CNR – Istituto Officina dei Materiali (IOM), Jülich Research Center, University of Duisburg–Essen, Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202508952

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Widespread ilmenite contributions to the surface water cycle in lunar Procellarum KREEP Terrane
• Short description: The importance of the widespread mineral ilmenite in the volcanic mare regions of the Moon for the abundance and time-of-day-dependent variations of OH/H2O in the surface material has been controversial until now. In this work, the content of water and hydrogen isotopes in the outer rims of ilmenite grains from soil samples returned by the Chang'e-5 spacecraft is determined using an ion microprobe. The results indicate that ilmenite plays a crucial role in the surface water cycle of lunar mare areas in the Procellarum KREEP Terrane. This is also critical to assessing the region's potential for in-situ resource utilization, highlighting the need to re-evaluate ilmenite as a resource for future exploration of the Moon.
• Authors: Yuchen Xu, Liyu Shan, Heng-Ci Tian, Jialong Hao, Yangting Lin, Christian Wöhler (Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology), Lixin Gu, Zhuang Guo, Ruiying Li, Tianxin Zhang, Wei Yang, Yang Liu, Xu Tang, Sheng Gou, Huaiyu He, Yongliao Zou, Xianhua Li
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62914-4

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• Journal: Nature
• Publication title: The role of metabolism in shaping enzyme structures over 400 million years
• Short description: The researchers have used artificial intelligence to analyze the laws of enzyme evolution on a large scale. In the paper, they describe which enzyme areas change comparatively quickly and which remain practically unchanged over time. The findings are relevant for the development of new antibiotics, for example.
• Author from TU Dortmund University: Toni Ingolf Goßmann (Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering)
• Partner institutions: Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin (lead partner) and other international partners
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09205-6

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• Journal: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
• Title of the publication: Shades of Grey or Black and White? How Entrepreneurs' Use of Cognitively Complex Language Affects Investor Funding
• Short description: The study shows that cognitively complex language in start-up pitches leads to greater funding success. An increase in linguistic complexity by one standard deviation leads on average to 7.25 percent more funding, which corresponds to around 125,000 US dollars in additional investment.
• Author from TU Dortmund University: Lorenz Graf-Vlachy (Department of Economics)
• Partner institutions: University of Passau, Technical University of Munich
• DOI: 10.1177/10422587251347042

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• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Title of the publication: Distinct Terahertz Third-Harmonic Generation of Many-Body Excitonic States
• Short description: The team has observed how excitons in semiconductors are generated ultrafast and interact with each other. They have also succeeded in deciphering strong and sensitive nonlinear reactions of exciton dynamics.
• Authors from TU Dortmund University: Changqing Zhu, Anneke Reinold, Patrick Pilch, Sergey Kovalev, Julian Heckötter, Doris Reiter, Manfred Bayer, Marc Assmann, Zhe Wang (all from the Department of Physics)
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.196503

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Labelizer: systematic selection of protein residues for covalent fluorophore labeling
• Short description: The researchers have developed a computer-based method for fluorescence labeling of biomolecules in order to systematically select labeling sites using the “Labelizer” web server developed for this purpose.
• Author from TU Dortmund University: Thorben Cordes (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
• Partner institutions: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Utrecht University (Netherlands)
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58602-y

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Exploring nonlinear dynamics in periodically driven time crystal from synchronization to chaotic motion
• Short description: The team has periodically driven a time crystal and discovered a remarkable variety of nonlinear dynamic phenomena. These range from perfect synchronization to chaotic behavior within a single semiconductor structure.
• Authors from TU Dortmund University: Alex Greilich, Nataliia E. Kopteva, Vladimir L. Korenev, Philipp A. Haude, Manfred Bayer (all from the Department of Physics)
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58400-6

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• Journal: Agriculture and Human Values
• Publication title: Professional emotional neutrality and the role of background emotion work in the slaughterhouse
• Short description: The study provides insights into the inner world of slaughterhouse work - and shows the strategies employees use to control their emotions in order to make killing routine.
• Author from TU Dortmund University: Marcel Sebastian (Department of Social Sciences)
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-025-10713-4

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• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publication title: Ultrafast unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance driven by terahertz light field
• Short description: The team has developed a new method to determine magnetic states with light in just a few picoseconds - a thousand times faster than before. Among other things, the scientists used extremely short terahertz pulses for their experiments.
• Authors from TU Dortmund University: Anneke Reinold, Patrick Pilch, Ahmed Ghalgaoui, Max Koch, Zhe Wang, Sergey Kovalev (all from the Department of Physics)
• Partner institutions: Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57432-2

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• Journal: Science
• Publication title: Spiro-C(^sp3)-atom transfer: Creating rigid three-dimensional structures with _Ph2SCN2
• Short description: The team has developed a new reagent that can be used to insert a carbon atom into organic molecules to build three-dimensional structures.
• Authors from TU Dortmund University: Qiu Sun, Jan-Niklas Belting, Julian Hauda, David Tymann, Patrick W. Antoni, Richard Goddard, Max M. Hansmann (all from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ads5974

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