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Tumor metabolism helps classify hepatoblastoma
Looking at cell metabolism instead of histology, EPFL scientists have identified new biomarkers that could help more accurately classify the two main subtypes of hepatoblastoma, a liver cancer in children. Hepatoblastoma is a rare pediatric liver cancer, usually diagnosed in the first three years of life.

A new approach to high insulin levels
Congenital hyperinsulinism is a serious yet poorly understood condition. Research funded by the SNSF has discovered how it is caused by a genetic mutation. Diabetes is characterised by a deficiency of insulin. The opposite is the case in congenital hyperinsulinism: patients produce the hormone too frequently and in excessive quantities, even if they haven't eaten any carbohydrates.

Life Expectancy Increases in Switzerland
Countries have saved more lives over the past decade according to the annual Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study published yesterday. In Switzerland, life expectancy has increased to 85 years for women and to 81 years for men. The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute contributed to the GDB, the world's largest scientific collaboration on population health.

Unexpected facets of Antarctica emerge from the labs
Six months after the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition ended, the teams that ran the 22 scientific projects are hard at work sorting through the many samples they collected. Some preliminary findings were announced during a conference in Crans Montana organized by the Swiss Polar Institute, who just appointed Konrad Steffen as new academic director.

A drone for last-centimeter delivery
A new drone developed at EPFL uses cutting-edge technology to deliver parcels weighing up to 500 grams.

How Liver Cancer Develops
Liver cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death and represents the fastest rising cancer worldwide. In most cases, the tumor develops in patients with chronic liver disease. Such diseases include chronic infections with hepatitis viruses or a so-called fatty liver due to nutritional or genetically caused lipometabolic disorders or an excessive consumption of alcohol.

Apety - the app that makes eating out a piece of cake
Students from EPFL and HEC have just launched an app that streamlines how you organize a meal out with friends.

The 13 factors for a successful career
What determines career success' This question has occupied career research, career counseling, organisations and private persons for decades. With the help of a new questionnaire, Bern researchers from the department of work and organisational psychology have now identified the important resources for a successful career.

Trigger for Fatty Liver in Obesity
In Switzerland, about every tenth adult suffers from morbid obesity. Such corpulence can not only lead to diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but also to fat accumulation in the liver. Worldwide, about 25 to 30 percent of all adults and increasingly children are affected by such steatosis - becoming the most frequent liver disease in recent years.

New microscopy method offers one-shot 3D imaging of nanostructures
EPFL scientists have developed a scanning transmission electron microscopy method that can quickly and efficiently generate 3D representations of curvilinear nanostructures. Image caption: Superposed, tilt-less electron microscopy stereo image (color-filtered) of carbon nanospheres decorated with nanoparticles.

The STING of death in’T cells
EPFL scientists show that the STING signaling pathway, which helps coordinate the innate immune system, causes cell death in T cells of the adaptive immune system. This "killing" effect includes cancerous T cells, and has implications for treating T cell-derived cancers. The cells of the innate immune system use a signaling pathway comprising STING (Stimulator of interferon genes) to detect DNA from invading viruses and fight them.

First Detailed Decoding of Complex Finger Millet Genome
Finger millet has two important properties: The grain is rich in important minerals and resistant towards drought and heat.

Combating Japanese Beetles with Fungi
Zurich-Reckenholz, 05.09.2017 - In June of this year, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) was detected for the first time in Switzerland, in the canton of Ticino. Considered to be a quarantine pest, it is subject to obligatory control. Agroscope researchers are testing whether this quarantine pest can be controlled with fungi that are effective against May and June beetles.

Carving diamonds for optical components
Thanks to a new technique developed at EPFL, optical diffraction gratings can now be made out of pure diamond, with their surfaces smoothed down to the very last atom. These new devices can be used to alter the wavelength of high-powered lasers or in cutting-edge spectrographs. A team of EPFL researchers has developed an unconventional way of microscopically cutting diamonds into a particular shape and smoothing them at an atomic level.

A cancer therapy that inhibits the Notch signaling pathway
EPFL spin-off Cellestia Biotech has just been given the regulatory go-ahead to start clinical testing a molecule it has developed to treat cancers involving mutations of the Notch gene. The molecule is a ray of hope for the 250,000 patients diagnosed every year with this mutation, which sharply reduces their chances of recovery.

New soft robots really suck
EPFL scientists have created the first functional robot powered entirely by vacuum: made up of soft building blocks, it moves by having air sucked out of them.

An unusual delivery service
Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Is it better to produce locally or to import? That can be a crucial question for simple lifeforms as well. Mitochondria, the power plants of the cell, have their own protein factories although the cell apparatus could easily do the job for them.

Worm infection reveals cross-talk in the lymph nodes
By studying a worm infection, EPFL scientists have discovered how lymphatic vessels grow within lymph nodes, with major implications for cancer and inflammation. Lymph nodes are small, kidney-shaped organs found throughout the body. Full of immune cells, their function is to clear out foreign objects and support the immune system.

Chronic Lack of Sleep Increases Risk-Seeking
Young adults have a natural sleep requirement of about 9 hours a day on average, older adults 7.5 hours.

Expectations for all-day schools are too high
Children in the German-speaking part of Switzerland who utilise extended education offerings in the first two years of primary school generally perform no better in school than other children, an SNSF-funded project has found. Overall, the research shows that all-day schools do not fulfil all the expectations people place in them.