news 2020
Life Sciences
Results 101 - 120 of 212.
Life Sciences - Health - 05.08.2020
Discovery shows promise for treating Huntington's Disease
Scientists at EPFL's Brain Mind Institute have identified an enzyme that can play a central role in developing a new route of treatment for Huntington's Disease. Huntington disease is a progressive and aggressively debilitating brain disorder that causes uncontrolled movements, psychological problems, and loss of cognition.
Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 04.08.2020

In a study led by EPFL, scientists have developed a synthetic blood-thinner that, unlike all others, doesn't cause bleeding side-effects. The highly potent, highly selective, and highly stable molecule can suppress thrombosis while letting blood clot normally following injury. Patients who suffer from thrombosis, pulmonary embolism or stroke are usually put on drugs that help their blood flow more smoothly through their body.
Life Sciences - Materials Science - 04.08.2020

Researchers have succeeded in measuring the tension of the membrane of an organelle forming inside a cell. The tension in the outer membrane of cells plays an important role in a number of biological processes. A localised drop in tension, for example, makes it easier for the surface to be bending inward and form invaginations that will become free vesicles inside the cell.
Health - Life Sciences - 30.07.2020

A Swiss-German team presents a test that determines the amount of neutralising antibodies within a short period of time. The test was developed at the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) of the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Office for Food Safety and Animal Health, and evaluated in cooperation with colleagues from the Ruhr-University Bochum using serum samples from COVID-19 patients.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 27.07.2020
The amazing travels of small RNAs
Biologists have known for some time that RNA interference can silence genes in far-off cells. They suspected that a messenger substance "transmits" RNA interference. Now, ETH researchers have definitively shown that these messengers in plants are short double-stranded RNA fragments. In most organisms, small bits of RNA play a key role in gene regulation by silencing gene expression.
Life Sciences - 24.07.2020

Primates with large brains can master more complex hand movements than those with smaller brains. However, fine motor skills such as using tools can take time to learn, and humans take the longest of all. Large-brained species such as humans and great apes do not actually learn more slowly than other primates but instead start later, researchers at the University of Zurich have shown.
Life Sciences - 21.07.2020

The group of Helge Grosshans characterized the " C. elegans oscillator", over 3,700 genes that are rhythmically expressed during the larval development of C. elegans . They demonstrated the coupling of the oscillator with molting and got insights into how it is wired. Their findings suggest that the oscillator functions as a developmental clock with a developmental checkpoint function.
Life Sciences - Health - 20.07.2020

Partial mobility can be restored in rodents with impaired spinal cords. Using AI, scientists can now determine the cellular mechanisms responsible - a technique that may be applicable to many biomedical problems. Researchers at EPFL are able to get paralyzed rodents walking again by stimulating the animals' damaged spinal cords.
Environment - Life Sciences - 17.07.2020

Biodiversity and thus the state of river ecosystems can now be predicted by combining environmental DNA with hydrological methods, researchers from the University of Zurich and Eawag have found. Using the river Thur as an example, the approach allows areas requiring conservation to be identified in order to initiate protective measures.
Life Sciences - Computer Science - 17.07.2020

In the Medical Image Processing Lab, Dimitri Van De Ville and Thomas Bolton have studied the impact that computational imaging has on cognitive and clinical neuroscience by reviewing more than one hundred articles. How are human behavior and brain activity linked? That question has been eating away at Thomas Bolton ever since he started his PhD.
Life Sciences - Innovation - 15.07.2020

Researchers at ETH Zurich and ZHAW present a simple method to precisely map resistance exercise on machines and record missing comparative figures. This could help to develop optimised training strategies in the future, such as for age-associated muscular atrophy. Muscles play a critical role in life.
Environment - Life Sciences - 14.07.2020

The diversity of bird communities in the Swiss Alps is declining more and more, a joint study of the University of Zurich and the Swiss Ornithological Institute has found. An analysis of data from the past two decades has revealed a loss of functional and compositional diversity in Alpine bird communities.
Life Sciences - Health - 13.07.2020

People with schizophrenia and their healthy siblings share patterns of brain activity that are different from those seen in individuals with no family history of the disorder, scientists from EPFL have found. Because the siblings do not show schizophrenia symptoms, this brain 'signature' could serve as a marker for the early diagnosis of the disorder.
Physics - Life Sciences - 13.07.2020

Metal-based nanoparticles are a promising tool in medicine - as a contrast agent, transporter of active substances, or to thermally kill tumor cells. Up to now, it has been hardly possible to study their distribution inside an organism. Researchers at the University of Basel have used a three-dimensional imaging method to take high-resolution captures inside zebrafish embryos.
Health - Life Sciences - 13.07.2020

By demonstrating the key role of Vav3 protein, UNIGE researchers highlight how the protein Vav3 creates bacterial docking stations to facilitate lung infections in cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis, one of the most common genetic diseases in Switzerland, causes severe respiratory and digestive disorders.
Life Sciences - 10.07.2020

Venus flytraps are known for the fact that their catching leaves close in a flash when unsuspecting prey touch highly sensitive trigger hairs twice in a row. A team of researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich has now discovered a new snap mechanism. The Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula ) is perhaps the most well-known carnivorous plant.
Health - Life Sciences - 10.07.2020

A liver organoid developed at EPFL offers new promise in transplantation and the study of liver disease. Biologists and bioengineers at EPFL have designed a new method for growing simplified human mini-livers. Their process is a potentially important breakthrough in the quest for transplantable lab-grown tissues.
Life Sciences - 10.07.2020

Venus flytraps catch spiders and insects by snapping their trap leaves. This mechanism is activated when unsuspecting prey touch highly sensitive trigger hairs twice within 30 seconds. A study led by researchers at the University of Zurich has now shown that a single slow touch also triggers trap closure - probably to catch slow-moving larvae and snails.
Life Sciences - Health - 08.07.2020
The IRB discovers the activation mechanism of the "police patrol" cells of our immune system
Nearly 200 billion naïve T cells continuously patrol the human body in a dormant state, prepared to respond to potential threats. An international group of researchers, led by Dr. Roger Geiger of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI), demonstrated how these cells sustain a constant state of preparedness.
Environment - Life Sciences - 07.07.2020

Organisms exposed to challenging environments face evolutionary pressure to adapt, which could lead to modifications in a variety of traits, such as morphology, physiology and behaviour. Katja Räsänen from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Eawag holds a deep interest in mechanisms of adaptation in natural populations.
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