June 21, 2025
During the Göttingen Night of Knowledge, scientific institutions open their doors to the public, providing insights into their work. It offers the opportunity to engage in conversations with researchers and participate in various activities and experiments.
The Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies participated in this event for the first time since its establishment on April 1, 2024.
Scientists from the fields of “Better Hearing with Light” and “Fighting Vision Loss with Light” informed their audience in the lecture hall with exciting presentations about the state of research and new therapeutic approaches.
How Hearing Works, Breaks down, and Can be Restored
Experience the impressive world of hearing! Learn how hearing loss occurs and what possibilities and advances exist in its treatment. We explain how sound waves are converted into nerve impulses and how modern gene therapy and the innovative optical cochlear implant can improve the quality of life for people with hearing impairments.
Prof. Dr. med. Tobias Moser
Institute for Auditory Neuroscience, University Medical Center Göttingen
Speaker of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies
Photos: UMG/EKFZ
Seeing with all Sensory Cells – is Optogenetics the Answer to Blindness?
The human retina is central to vision: light-sensitive photoreceptor cells capture light and process it in the brain to create visual impressions. Many forms of blindness lead to the degeneration of photoreceptors. In optogenetics, viral vectors introduce genetic information into cells, making them light-sensitive. But can humans actually see with other retinal cells?
Dr. med. Dorothea S. Laurence
Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Göttingen
Clinician Scientist at the Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies
Photos: UMG/EKFZ
The Audiovisual Art Project “SOUNDLIGHT”
Photos: UMG/EKFZ
Photo: Boris Seewald
What does it sound like when someone hears again for the first time after years of profound hearing loss or deafness? How does it feel when new technologies make the world of sound clearer and more differentiated than ever before? At the end of the lecture, the audience was able to experience this in the form of the audiovisual art project “KLANGLICHT – sound of light”, a hand-animated video created under the direction of the award-winning video director Boris Seewald.
