Young scientist from the University of Koblenz very successful at Jugend forscht

Ruhfus-Hartmann successfully took part in the competition for the first time back in 2016 as a primary school pupil. After further annual participations in Jugend forscht at regional, state and national level, she recently completed her Abitur. Initially with the aim of learning new methods, Ruhfus-Hartmann decided to do a research internship in biochemistry in the working group of JProf. Marie-T. Hopp at the University of Koblenz.

Fascinated by the versatility of amphibians and their ability to produce peptides with interesting functions, she decided to dedicate her last and thus 10th Jugend forscht project to peptides of the common toad (Bufo bufo) and their bioactivity in order to derive biomedical potential. To this end, she synthesized peptides known from the literature and tested them independently in various physiologically relevant systems. In addition to classical biochemical methods, she learnt bioanalytical and clinical-chemical techniques. The jury honoured this work with the second place in the subject area of biology. Ruhfus-Hartmann also received a scholarship from the German Museum Munich Travel Foundation and the Association for the Promotion of STEM Education (MNU) for a one-week scientific stay in Munich. She was also awarded the special prize from the ZONTA Club Koblenz for outstanding achievements in the field of science.

The project was supervised by JProf. Dr Marie-T. Hopp, head of the Bioorganic Chemistry group, and Lorena Kröner, PhD student in the Bioorganic Chemistry group and mentor of the Ada Lovelace project. This research internship was also made possible by the University of Koblenz and the Ada Lovelace project.