Simon Virgo

By telling stories of women affected by the Zika epidemic, Debora Diniz has shown how the lack of a gender perspective in health emergency response leads to growing gender-based violence, loss of livelihoods, excessive unpaid care work and adverse mental, sexual and reproductive health outcomes for women and girls. As…

There are only twenty-three vaccine preventable diseases today despite hundreds of pathogens which could be vaccine targets and decades of work. Vaccines are very difficult, expensive, and time- consuming to create, develop and distribute. Since Vaxxilon has expertise in carbohydrate chemistry, polysaccharide conjugate vaccines (PCVs) which typically target bacterial pathogens…

The nominating institution HU Berlin on the breakthrough: In his groundbreaking social theory of late-modern society, Andreas Reckwitz works out the causes, structures and conflict-ridden consequences of the transformation from industrial modernity to a late-modern society of singularities. How do the practices and norms of uniqueness mould cognitive-cultural capitalism, digital…

Graphite as it occurs in pencils is a brittle material that does not exactly spur the imagination, but modified into a two-dimensional web of hexagonal structures, it gains extraordinary superpowers. Graphene, a nanomaterial discovered in 2004, is 200 times stronger than steel, conducts both electricity and heat, and is almost…

Chamikara Liyanage proposes using small proteins hiding inside prostate cancer cells as novel therapeutic agents that can overcome treatment resistance.

In this Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation, digital participants had the chance to engage in a live conversation with Frederick Fenter. He talked about his role as Chief Executive Editor at Frontiers, the role of academic publishing in fostering public trust in science, the importance of open access and open science.…

How Neuroscience Explains The Rise of Experience from the Brain Over the last years, much has been learned about the neuronal basis of consciousness in the brain. Together with a recently developed Integrated Information Theory of consciousness, this progress raises the possibility that science will soon come to grips with this most…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a fundamental part of modern medical research and practises, while the overall standards to regulate the use of AI are still being defined. This session will discuss the benefits of AI for research and healthcare, e.g., diagnostic accuracy, alongside the risks and obstacles related…

The MetaGait rehabilitation device, with its innovative combination of hardware (walk stimulation device) and software (virtual reality games), makes rehabilitation less stressful and more effective.

Students at schools for the deaf design their own sound experiences through Ontenna programming Ontenna is a user interface that can be attached to the hair, earlobe or neck to feel the characteristics of sound through vibration and light. As of June 2021, Ontenna has been installed in more than…