news 2021

In the largest worldwide pricing experiment to date, researchers have demonstrated that road users change their behavior when they must pay for the social and environmental effects of their transportation. The study was led by researchers from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich and ZHAW. Transportation causes a variety of costs that individual road users do not have to pay themselves.

Scientists at EPFL have shown that the powerful transient absorption spectroscopy technique can unravel ultrafast motion of electrons and nuclei in a molecule in real time and with atomic spatial resolution. The last few decades have seen impressive progress in laser-based technologies, which have led to significant advancements in atomic and molecular physics.

A team from the University of Geneva has identified a gene that is essential for regulating the sleep-wake cycles of Drosophila. All living organisms are subject to an internal biological rhythm, which controls many physiological processes. In humans in particular, this internal clock follows a 24-hour cycle and occurs even in the absence of external triggers, such as changes in light or temperature.

Under an initiative by EPFL's Center for Imaging, a team of engineers from EPFL and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have developed a plugin that makes it easier to incorporate artificial intelligence into image analysis for life-science research. The plugin, called deepImageJ, is described in a paper appearing today.

Reactive electrophilic drugs like Tecfidera, approved for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis, show a lot of potential but are also mystery. Their effects are notoriously difficult to study, which hampers progress testing and approving them. scientists have now used an innovative chemical method to uncover the biological mechanisms of Tecfidera, providing a powerful tool for exploring other reactive electrophilic drugs.

Researchers at the University of Geneva and the Clinique romande de réadaptation in Sion have mapped the biomarkers of different types of pain to categorise and better treat them in the future. Many people are confronted with chronic pain that can last for months or even years. How to best treat chronic pain? First, pain must be categorized for the right treatment to be prescribed.

Although the consequences of climate change are becoming more and more visible and tangible, the transition to climate-friendly energy systems is only proceeding slowly. In a field experiment, Eawag and the University of Groningen (NL) investigated what kind of measures could be used to better promote innovations such as heat pumps.

By cleverly combining different technologies, manufacturers can produce plastic that is climate neutral over its entire life cycle. A new study by an international team of researchers has shown that this combination requires less energy than alternatives and costs the same - or even less. Since the early 1950s, plastics have found their way into almost every area of modern life.

A revolutionary implant developed at EPFL allows neuroscientists to activate or inhibit specific spinal-cord neurons by applying light at a specific wavelength. It will give researchers insight into how the nervous system works and the chance to develop new ways of treating neurological disorders. Grégoire Courtine doesn't hesitate to use the word "revolutionary" when describing the emerging field of optogenetics - a technology that uses pulses of light to control individual neural activity - and what it could mean for neuroscience.

Teams from the UNIGE and EPFL have used for the first time the method of longitudinal network analysis applied to children, in order to detect the symptoms that herald the development of psychotic illness in the future. One third of children with a microdeletion of chromosome 22 will later develop a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia.

A sophisticated system guides the development of our limbs. Researchers at University of Basel have shed new light on the genetic toolkit used during evolution to create a range of different extremities such as fins, wings, hooves, toes and fingers. Much can go wrong when a fertilized egg develops into an embryo and ultimately gives rise to a newborn as mutations in the genome that affect development are relatively common.

Mercury released into the atmosphere by industry enters the sea and from there makes its way into the food chain. Now, an analysis by the University of Basel has revealed how the harmful substance enters seawater in the first place. This is not primarily via rainfall, as previously assumed, but rather also involves gas exchange.

Classic antidepressants could help improve modern cancer treatments. They slowed the growth of pancreatic and colon cancers in mice, and when combined with immunotherapy, they even stopped the cancer growth long-term. In some cases the tumors disappeared completely, researchers at UZH and USZ have found.

A new assay developed by EPFL spin-off Nanolive opens up promising avenues of research for immuno-oncology treatments. It allows scientists to directly see and quantify how T cells find, bind, stress and kill cancer cells. Immuno-oncology is a promising new field of research that involves boosting the capacity of a patient's own immune system to attack cancer cells.

A large-scale international study co-led by Inselspital and the University of Bern investigated the very rare adverse cerebral venous occlusion (sinus venous thrombosis) after administration of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Janssen/Johnson&Johnson vaccines. Neither vaccine has been used in Switzerland to date.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI are the first to have joined two proteins together by means of a free-standing, rigid link. The structural element holds the two protein molecules together at a defined distance and angle, much the way a barbell handle connects two weights. This type of linkage could help, for example, to develop so-called virus-like particles for vaccines.

Using a new mechanistic model of evolution on Earth, researchers at ETH Zurich can now better explain why the rainforests of Africa are home to fewer species than the tropical forests of South America and Southeast Asia. The key to high species diversity lies in how dynamically the continents have evolved over time.

A team from the University of Geneva has discovered the mechanisms that regulate the formation of the protective layer of plant roots. Plants adapt to their nutritional needs by modifying the permeability of their roots through the production or degradation of a cork-like layer called suberin. By studying the regulation of this protective layer in Arabidopsis thaliana , an international team, led by scientists from the University of Geneva , Switzerland, has discovered four molecular factors responsible for the genetic activation of suberin.

Empa researcher Peter Nirmalraj wants to image proteins with unprecedented precision - and thus gain insights into the molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer's. This should pave the way for an earlier diagnosis of the dementia disorder via a simple blood test. Together with neurologists from the Kantonsspital St.Gallen, a successful pilot study has now been completed.

The "gene scissors" CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to precisely modify genes in order to study their function in an organism. A researcher at Eawag has now succeeded for the first time in establishing the gene scissors for a fish cell line of rainbow trout. This means that, as of now, genetically modified cell lines can be produced.