The Chemistry of Life

In the past women could do their pregnancy test with the help of frogs in the chemist’s shop. For if one injects the morning urine of a pregnant woman into the clawed frog, Xenopisa laevis, the animal produces a mass of eggs within twelve hours. This frog, popularly called the “apothecaries frog” in Germany, is used today by the cell biologist Professor Thomas Mayer at the University of Konstanz. He does research on the foundations of cell division with the help of the frog’s eggs. His doctoral candidate, Johanna Kastl, studies how the chromosomes are exactly divided. The chemical tools are provided by the research group led by chemist Professor Andreas Marx. The departments of chemistry and biology are only separated by a safety door, which enormously facilitates cooperation. The third department in the alliance, informatics, is in the building next door. Good neighbourliness is part of the programme of the graduate school. Not only research on its own projects but also interdisciplinary thinking is promoted here. For this reason the doctoral candidates attend interdisciplinary seminars which enable them to win insights into the other disciplines.