news 2018

Bern, 30. Agroscope, the Swiss federal centre of excellence for agricultural research, is launching the first multiresistant white grape variety, Divona. The fruit of twenty years of research, Divona is resistant to fungal diseases, and well-suited for the production of high-quality wines - two characteristics that make it a popular variety for viticulture and winemaking.

Bern, 10. Do you remember what and how much you ate three days ago? This question, which people often struggle to answer accurately, must be addressed by researchers studying the influence of diet on our health. Agroscope has recently identified molecules indicative of dairy and soy product consumption in the blood and urine samples of volunteers taking part in nutritional studies.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and EPFL have discovered a new type of fat cell that suppresses the growth of new fat cells. This opens up new avenues for preventing obesity-related diseases. Obesity is the plague of our times. Some 80 percent of obese people will develop Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives, and being overweight is also a significant risk factor for cancer and heart attacks.