news 2022
Life Sciences
Results 101 - 120 of 173.
Life Sciences - Health - 07.06.2022
How animals reach their correct size
Adults of the same species usually differ very little in their size. A team from the University of Bern and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) in Basel has now discovered a mechanism that ensures such size uniformity. The research using nematodes showed that the speed of growth determines the speed of a genetic clock that times development.
Environment - Life Sciences - 30.05.2022
Unselfish behavior has evolutionary reasons
Altruistic behavior is often seen as an exclusively human characteristic. However, behavioral research has uncovered numerous examples of altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom. In a new study, researchers at the University of Bern show that animals that help others -selflessly- to raise their young generate an evolutionary advantage.
Life Sciences - 26.05.2022
Olfactory neurons adapt to the surrounding environment
A team from the UNIGE has highlighted the great variability and continuous adaptation of olfactory neurons. Olfactory receptors, present on the surface of sensory neurons in the nasal cavity, recognize odorant molecules and relay this information to the brain. How do these neurons manage to detect a large variability of signals and adapt to different levels of stimulation? A joint team from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva investigated the gene expression profile of these neurons in the presence or absence of odorant stimulation.
Health - Life Sciences - 24.05.2022
Cystic fibrosis: restoring airway integrity
A team from the University of Geneva reveals that hydrating the surface of the airways of people with cystic fibrosis restores their protective barrier against unwanted bacteria. Cystic fibrosis is a rare genetic disease which can cause very serious symptoms. In particular, patients suffer from chronic bacterial infections that can lead to respiratory failure.
Life Sciences - Computer Science - 19.05.2022
13 professors appointed
Researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and Empa have developed a new material for an electronic component that can be used in a wider range of applications than its predecessors. Such components will help create electronic circuits that emulate the human brain and that are more efficient at performing machine-learning tasks.
Computer Science - Life Sciences - 18.05.2022
A component for brain-inspired computing
Researchers from ETH Zurich, Empa and the University of Zurich have developed a new material for an electronic component that can be used in a wider range of applications than its predecessors. Such components will help create electronic circuits that emulate the human brain and that are more efficient than conventional computers at performing machine-learning tasks.
Life Sciences - 17.05.2022
Precursor of spine and brain forms passively | ETH Zurich
Researchers at have conducted a detailed study of neurulation - how the neural tube forms during embryonic development. They conclude that this happens less actively than previously thought. This also has implications for understanding defects such as spina bifida. In the human embryo, the neural tube forms between the 22nd and 26th day of pregnancy.
Health - Life Sciences - 17.05.2022
Change of temperature causes whole body reprogramming
Scientists have discovered that changes in temperature cause marked and organ-specific effects in all tissues. Human beings, like most organisms, are constantly exposed to alternating colder or warmer temperatures. These environmental variations cause striking metabolic effects and require constant adaptations.
Life Sciences - Computer Science - 16.05.2022
NeuroMechFly: a digital twin of Drosophila
Scientists have developed a digital model of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which realistically simulates the movements of the animal. The twin is a big step towards reverse engineering the neuromechanical control of animal behavior, and developing bioinspired robots. "We used two kinds of data to build NeuroMechFly," says Professor Pavan Ramdya at EPFL's School of Life Sciences.
Life Sciences - Mathematics - 13.05.2022
How cells correct errors under time pressure
How does a cell balance risk and speed when dividing? scientists have developed and experimentally tested the first mathematical theory that describes the cell's best strategy for dividing safely and efficiently. Cells go through a life cycle that includes growing to the right size, being equipped to perform its functions, and finally dividing into two new cells.
Life Sciences - 13.05.2022
Our cells take their ease in the curves
A team from the University of Geneva shows that cells that make up our tissues increase in volume when tissues bend. A key discovery for the culture of in vitro organs. "Sheet" of curved cells in the form of a tube: the cells initially organized flat were forced to curl. (c) Aurélien Roux How do our cells organize themselves to give their final shape to our organs? The answer lies in morphogenesis, the set of mechanisms that regulate their distribution in space during embryonic development.
Life Sciences - Health - 12.05.2022
When unconscious, the brain is anything but ’silent’
The cerebral cortex is thought to be the seat of conscious processing in the brain. Rather than being inactivated, specific cells in the cortex show higher spontaneous activity during general anesthesia than when awake, and this activity is synchronized across those cortical cells. Improving our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms of general anesthesia could lead to better anesthetic drugs and improved surgical outcomes.
Life Sciences - Agronomy / Food Science - 12.05.2022
The genetic origins of the world’s first farmers clarified
The genetic origins of the first agriculturalists in the Neolithic period long seemed to lie in the Near East. A new study published in the journal Cell shows that the first farmers actually represented a mixture of Ice Age hunter-gatherer groups, spread from the Near East all the way to south-eastern Europe.
Health - Life Sciences - 11.05.2022
Thwarting cellular enzyme can fight viral infections
Researchers from FMI have identified a synthetic protein that dampens the activity of a cellular pathway involved in viral infection. The findings could help to develop drugs that combat viruses such as influenza A and Zika. Influenza A virus affects millions of people worldwide and can have serious complications, including bacterial pneumonia, ear infections and the worsening of long-term medical conditions.
Health - Life Sciences - 11.05.2022
Precision oncology helps prostate cancer patients
Researchers at the University of Bern and University Hospital Bern have achieved a breakthrough in a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer. In tissue samples from advanced brain metastases, they were able to establish the genetic profile of the cancer cells. These findings show for the first time that affected patients could benefit from target treatment, from which they have so far not been eligible.
Life Sciences - Paleontology - 10.05.2022
Complex Human Childbirth and Cognitive Abilities a Result of Walking Upright
Childbirth in humans is much more complex and painful than in great apes. It was long believed that this was a result of humans- larger brains and the narrow dimensions of the mother's pelvis. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used 3D simulations to show that childbirth was also a highly complex process in earlier hominin species that gave birth to relatively small-brained newborns - with important implications for their cognitive development.
Life Sciences - 06.05.2022
The role of surface tension in biological symmetry
Researchers have discovered that symmetry in the human body is influenced by surface tension, the same mechanical phenomenon that allows lightweight insects to walk on water. A paper discussing this surprising finding, which is akin to a form of natural self-correction, has been published. In vertebrates, the arms, legs, fins and wings are neatly aligned on either side of the torso.
Life Sciences - Health - 29.04.2022
A new mutation behind synucleinopathies
Scientists at EPFL have carried out an extensive study of a newly discovered mutation that can uncover new insights into the molecular basis of pathology formation in a family of disorders that includes Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia belong to a family of neurodegenerative disorders called synucleinopathies because they are caused by the pathological accumulation of protein alpha-synuclein into structures called Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites in the brain.
Health - Life Sciences - 28.04.2022
Breakthroughs at IOR in the search for anti-metastatic therapies
The Molecular Oncology research group at USI has identified, through the use of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, a new way to selectively identify and kill a specific type of cells involved in metastasis dissemination. The problem Metastasis, the spreading of tumor cells from a primary site to their progressive outgrowth at a distant organ, is ultimately what kills almost 90% patients with cancer.
Environment - Life Sciences - 27.04.2022
Climate warming alters glacier-fed stream ecosystems worldwide
According to two recent studies carried out as part of the Vanishing Glaciers Project, the ecosystems of glacier-fed streams are undergoing profound change around the world. That could have major repercussions on the food chain and the natural carbon cycle. The ecosystems of glacier-fed streams have survived nutrient-poor and harsh environmental conditions over the course of thousands of years, yet they are now being transformed by climate change at unprecedented pace.
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