news 2019

Tiny particles that can fight cancer or that can easily pass through any interface within our body are a great promise for medicine. But there is little knowledge thus far about what exactly will happen to nanoparticles within our tissues and whether or not they can cause disease by themselves. Within an international research consortium, Empa scientists have now developed guidelines that should enable the safe development of nanoparticles for medical use.

By linking DNA replication failures in cancer cells to their genetic instability, researchers at UNIGE unveil a mutation mechanism that is essential for cancer development. When a cell divides into two daughter cells, it must replicate its DNA according to a very specific scenario. In the presence of some disruptive elements, however, cancer cells are unable to perform this operation optimally; replication then takes place more slowly and less efficiently.

The first results of the NAMSAL study, conducted by Swiss, French and Cameroonian teams, have enabled WHO to revise its AIDS treatment recommendations to better adapt them to the most diverse contexts. Until very recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended two drugs  - dolutegravir and efavirenz  - for the treatment of HIV infection.

Brooding heat, hot fumes and noisy machines - asphalting roads is hard work. Empa researchers have analysed whether and how much harmful emissions are produced when regular "hot asphalt" or so-called warm asphalt is laid. The result: the more ecological warm asphalt also outperforms the conventional method in terms of emissions.

Markus Niederberger's team of researchers at ETH has used stretchable materials to develop a battery that can be bent, stretched and twisted. For applications in bendable electronic devices, this is precisely the kind of battery they need. Today's electronics industry is increasingly focusing on computers or smartphones with screens that can be folded or rolled.

Most recreational fishermen do not take notice of the little threespine stickleback fish - it is too small and spiny to make a good meal. In Lake Constance however, the professional fishermen involuntarily became acquainted with it a few years ago. That's because the stickleback population has exploded in the lake, resulting in half of the fish biomass belonging to this species and them often clogging the fishermen's gill nets.

A pioneering study carried out at EPFL shows that the amount of daylight in a room can influence our thermal comfort and how well we tolerate heat or cold. The findings could be used to improve existing building standards and decrease energy consumption. The difference between reality and our perception of reality has long intrigued Western philosophers.

Most recreational fishermen do not take notice of the little threespine stickleback fish - it is too small and spiny to make a good meal. In Lake Constance however, the professional fishermen involuntarily became acquainted with it a few years ago. That's because the stickleback population has exploded in the lake, resulting in half of the fish biomass belonging to this species and them often clogging the fishermen's gill nets.

UNIGE researchers have demonstrated how the harsh sounds used in alarm systems hold the brain's attention by stimulating its aversion networks. Why do the harsh sounds emitted by alarms or human shrieks grab our attention? What is going on in the brain when it detects these frequencies' Neuroscientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Switzerland, have been analysing how people react when they listen to a range of different sounds, the aim being to establish the extent to which repetitive sound frequencies are considered unpleasant.

An international team of researchers led by ETH has shown that antimicrobial-resistant infections are rapidly increasing in animals in low and middle income countries. They produced the first global of resistance rates, and identified regions where interventions are urgently needed. The world is experiencing unprecedented economic growth in lowand middle-income countries.

A fast and reliable machine learning tool, developed by the ARTORG Center, University of Bern and the Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital brings Artificial Intelligence (AI) closer to clinical use in Ophthalmology. The novel method published in Nature Scientific Reports on September 19, 2019 presents a tool that reliably extracts meaning from extensive image data.

Globe magazine , News By: Michael Keller To safeguard the long-term future of agricultural production in Switzerland, ETH and Agroscope are investigating how resistant the country's crop­ping systems are to drought. The heatwave of 2018 was yet another warning to both farmers and the public on the effects of climate change: in the future, Switzerland will see less and less rain during the summer months.

The political leeway for carbon taxes is greater than commonly assumed. Political scientists at ETH have shown how carbon taxes could find acceptance in Germany and the US. What matters most is the intended use of the tax revenues and that all industrialised nations implement the taxes. Useful to fight climate change, but politically risky: carbon taxes are widely regarded as a double-edged sword.

In classical, Newtonian theory, causality, the connection between cause and effect, is considered to sit at the core of physics: Causal thinking, together with the idea that absolute time and space are the pre-given stage for all physical events, have been dominating classical physics well into the twentieth century.

Scientists at EPFL's Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research and University of Bern have discovered a signaling pathway that breast tumors exploit to metastasize to the brain. In 2018, breast cancer was the most common cancer in women worldwide, accounting for about a quarter of all reported cancers.

Scientists at EPFL's Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research have discovered a signaling pathway that breast tumors exploit to metastasize to the brain. Image: Breast cancer cells (blue) associate with glutamate-secreting neurons (red) to stimulate NMDA receptor-mediated signaling (green) of tumor growth (STED super-resolution microscopy).

Early combination treatment strategy with vildagliptin (Galvus ) and metformin was superior to standard of care in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients ,   The landmark VERIFY study is the first to investigate the long-term clinical benefits of this early combination strategy in type 2 diabetes (T2DM)   Novartis is committed to optimizing patient management of T2DM to achieve better glycemic control and favorable long-term clinical outcomes 

A reliable prognosis for coma patients in the intensive care unit is crucial. Improved transparency will boost the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support end-of-life decisions. For the first time, a research team has succeeded in identifying specific patterns in Electro-Encephalogram (EEG) analyses that the deep-learning network uses for making prognosis decisions.

A team of physicists and computer scientists at ETH Zurich has developed a new approach to the problem of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Using machine learning tools, they programmed computers to teach themselves how to extract the relevant information from maps of the universe. Understanding the how our universe came to be what it is today and what will be its final destiny is one of the biggest challenges in science.

Electronics built from molecules could open up new possibilities in the miniaturization of circuits in the future. Empa researchers, together with partners from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Israel, and the UK, succeeded in solving a crucial detail in the realization of such circuit elements: A molecular bridge for electrons that remains mechanically and electronically stable at room temperature.