1st Prize for Scientific Communication for Prof. Regina Fölster-Holst

Kiel, 10 June 2011 Prof. Regina Fölster-Holst, a dermotologist at the Schleswig-Holstein University Medical Center, Kiel Campus, and member of the Inflammation Research Excellence Cluster, along with her team, have won 1st Prize in the “Science Interactive Competition 2011”. Prizewinner is the project “The Skin, My Holly Shelter”: eight walk-in miniature houses that are each individually appointed, making the functionality and the structure of the skin a multi-sensory and interactive experience.  The competition is promoted by Science in Dialogue, an intitiative of the major German scientific organizations, which is involved with the dialogue concerning topics of research.

“The skin protects us, is a connection between the inside and the outside. It surrounds our body like a secure house, which is why we built eight little houses. The walls and roofs differ in material and construction. Interested visitors, and especially children, can have fun touching and handling everything. There are also charts with information about the functions and dysfunctions of our skin. Through this project, we have succeeded in finding a language and form of expression which makes the findings we have won in research understandable for everyone.”, explained Regina Fölster-Holst as to the reasoning behind the project. The project is conceived as a traveling exhibition and will now also be seen elsewhere in Germany.

“Science Interactive”

“Science Interactive” is a competition, whereby scientific teams and PR experts of their organizations or institutions develop ideas for an interactive exhibit, with which they can graphically present scientific ideas to the public. The motto for this year’s competition was “Hands-on Health” („Gesundheit zum Anfassen“). During the Summer of Science, which took place from 4 – 9 June in Mainz, Germany, the three finalists were presented. Visitors decided which project they liked best, thus selecting the winner. The prize was awarded at a festive evening event on 8 June 2011, where Regina Fölster-Holst and Matthias Buchner accepted on behalf of the whole team, which includes Anette Ströh and Oliver Grieve. The houses were built by Georg Wawerla of Studio 38 in Kiel, Germany. The award included 10,000 Euros in prize money, which will be poured back into the project, “The Skin, My Holly Shelter”.

The Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces"

The Inflammation Research Excellence Cluster follows a unique, interdisciplinary research approach in order to decode the causes of chonic inflammation and to develop therapies for healing. The research association brings together the competences of approximately200 geneticists, biologists, nutritionists and physicians from Kiel University and the University of Lübeck, the Research Institute Borstel and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön. In Germany alone, millions of people suffer from chronic inflammation of the lungs (asthma), the skin (psoriasis), the intestines (Crohn’s disease) and the brain (Parkinson’s disease). The trigger is a disorder of the immune system: it incessantly activates inflammatory mediators and defense cells, thereby destroying healthy tissue. The number of sufferers increases daily. This phenomenon of modern civilization has become the challenge for 21st Century medicine. Accordingly, in 2007 the German Federal Government and the German Research Foundation declared the decoding of the complex inflammation mechanism to be a national scientific priority.

Business Office of the Inflammation Research Excellence Cluster:
Dr. Helga Andree, Office Manager, Cluster of Excellence “ Inflammation at Interfaces”, Christian-Albrechts-Platz 4, 24118 Kiel, Germany
T: 0431/880-4850,
E: info@inflammation-at-interfaces.de

For information concerning the competition “Science Interactive”:
www.wissenschaft-im-dialog.de

Contact for press and marketing:
Susanne Weller,
T: 030/200 587-82,
M: 0172/308 41 36,
E: s.weller@weller-media.com