wire - news in brief

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and Apollo Health Ventures launched Focal Biosciences.

The three FMI internal science prizes are awarded yearly and recognize respectively the best thesis, the best postdoc study and an ingenious new method or tool.

Scientists have a duty to initiate a dialogue with the public on cellular engineering, says Daniel Müller.

It has long been proven that daylight has a positive influence on physical and mental health. Nevertheless, this knowledge is still little used in everyday life and in the clinic.

It has long been proven that daylight has a positive influence on physical and mental health. Nevertheless, this knowledge is rarely used in everyday life or in clinical practice.

On 1 September 2022, a new research group led by Dr Arianna Baggiolini began its activities at the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Bellinzona.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method to explore the possibilities of how the pandemic virus could evolve. Thanks to their work, it may be possible to develop antibody therapies and vaccines that are more likely to be effective also against future viral variants. SARS-CoV-2 is constantly mutating and each new variant often catches the world by surprise.

Project will push the boundaries of real-time brain-to-speech decoding with artificial intelligence algorithms and a miniaturized, wireless device.

Zebrafish eggs are among the most commonly used model organisms in genetic, developmental and toxicology research.

Throughout Switzerland, infections with bacteria of the genus Legionella are increasing significantly. Researchers at Eawag have now outlined how the growth of these microbial inhabitants of drinking water systems could be curbed with the help of other organisms. Legionella are bacteria that live in water and can be found in many water pipes, shower heads, ventilation systems, boilers and cooling towers.

It is known that memory B cells persist throughout life and rapidly differentiate into antibody-producing plasma cells when they encounter antigens.

A study conducted by Federica Sallusto's Laboratory (IRB-USI, Bellinzona and ETH Zurich) and David Veesler's Laboratory (University of Washington, Seattle), recently published in Science , describes

The growth in demand for fish and seafood is harming stocks and valuable ecosystems. In response, food technologist Lukas Böcker and food chemist Severin Eder are developing microalgae-based seafood substitutes in their joint Pioneer Fellowship project.

Open Philanthropy, a foundation based in California, USA, will support animal welfare scientist Michael J Toscano of the University of Bern and industrial collaborators.

More than 250 million metric tons of sugar beet were harvested worldwide in 2020 and processed into table sugar.

FMI researchers developed an imaging approach that allowed them to visualize individual molecules involved in the cell's response to stress. When a cell is exposed to stressors such as toxins, it switches on pathways aimed at repairing damage. One of these pathways is called the 'unfolded protein response', which senses unfolded or misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum — a cell organelle designated for folding proteins destined to other organelles or to be secreted by the cell.

EPFL spin-off Alithea Genomics has developed a system that allows scientists to easily tag bulk RNA samples with molecular barcodes so they can be processed by the hundreds in one single tube. The technology promises to dramatically shorten and streamline sample preparation for RNA sequencing, which will enable new applications for this technology, such as biomarker discovery and drug development.

The Swiss National Science Foundation has awarded Advanced Grants to make up for the loss of European support.

At first glance, Caenorhabditis elegans , or C. elegans for short, isn't exactly awe-inspiring.

The Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases (UNIGE / HUG) shares the first sequencing results of the monkeypox genome from Switzerland.

Nature is not a -nice to have it-s our life support system. Dwindling biodiversity endangers the very foundation of our existence.

As of 1 May 2022, Andrin Krähenbühl will head the FIBER fisheries advisory service at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in Kastanienbaum.

Responsible digitalisation is one of the key themes chosen by USI for 2022, which we explore in depth thanks also to Dr Rosalba Morese 's neuroscientific studies on cyberbullying and isolation.

Dozens of EPFL lab rats will embark on new lives as domestic pets. The initiative, the first of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland, comes under a recently signed rehoming agreement with national animal welfare organization Swiss Animal Protection.

Researchers at EPFL have made strides in computer-aided animal tracking by expanding their software, DeepLabCut, to offer high-performance tracking of multiple animals in videos. The ability to capture the behavior of animals is critical for neuroscience, ecology, and many other fields. Cameras are ideal for capturing fine-grained behavior, but developing computer vision techniques to extract the animal's behavior is challenging even though this seems effortless for our own visual system.

Each person has their own individual sleep profile which can be identified by the electrical brain activity during sleep. Researchers at the University of Bern have now demonstrated that the brain waves during periods of deep sleep in a specific area of the brain can be used to determine the extent of an individual's propensity for risk during their everyday life.

Researchers from Bern, Geneva, Berlin and Riems are developing two vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2.