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Health - Life Sciences - 27.10.2022 
The major chord that cures nightmares
A team from the UNIGE and the HUG has developed a promising method for treating people whose negative dreams are pathological. Oppressive, frightening, nerve-wracking: nightmares are particularly disturbing dreams. They are considered pathological when they occur frequently (>1 episode per week) and cause daytime fatigue, mood alteration and anxiety.
Health - Life Sciences - 26.10.2022 
Fighting tumours with magnetic bacteria
Researchers at ETH Zurich are planning to use magnetic bacteria to fight cancerous tumours. They have now found a way for these microorganisms to effectively cross blood vessel walls and subsequently colonise a tumour. Scientists around the world are researching how anti-cancer drugs can most efficiently reach the tumours they target.
Life Sciences - Health - 26.10.2022 
A key regulator of cell growth deciphered
A team from the University of Geneva has identified the structure of a protein complex controlling the activity of the major regulator of cell growth. The mTOR protein plays a central role in cell growth, proliferation and survival. Its activity varies according to the availability of nutrients and some growth factors, including hormones.
Life Sciences - Paleontology - 25.10.2022 
Vocal Communication Originated over 400 Million Years Ago
Acoustic communication is not only widespread in land vertebrates like birds and mammals, but also in reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. Many of them are usually considered mute, but in fact show broad and complex acoustic repertoires. According to researchers at University of Zurich, the evolutionary origin of vocal communication dates back more than 400 million years.
Life Sciences - Health - 25.10.2022 
How a key immune protein is regulated in the cell
Scientists at EPFL have determined how a protein that is critical in our first line of immune defense is regulated in the cell to prevent autoinflammatory diseases. How does a cell "know" that it's infected? This is a key question for innate immunity, our first line of defense to any infection or injury, made up of cells that quickly identify pathogens, like viral DNA.
Life Sciences - Pharmacology - 24.10.2022 
A revolutionary method to observe cell transport
A team from the University of Geneva, in collaboration with the UZH, has developed an innovative strategy for studying membrane proteins, the targets of many drugs. Membrane proteins are key targets for many drugs. They are located between the outside and inside of our cells. Some of them, called ''transporters'', move certain substances in and out of the cellular environment.
Life Sciences - 18.10.2022 
Literacy Influences Understanding of Speech
Do people who can read and write understand spoken language better than those who are illiterate? Research carried out by researchers from Zurich with collaborators in India has found that handwriting, specifically the type of writing system used for a language, influences how our brains process speech.
Life Sciences - 13.10.2022 
How is laughter triggered?
Laughter is a form of vocal communication that can interfere with speech: who hasn't had a fit of laughter that prevented them from speaking? Thanks to functional imaging, a research team from the University of Fribourg was able to locate the areas of the brain in which these two systems interact. The results highlight the importance of brain stem circuits for the control of laughter .
Life Sciences - 13.10.2022
Life Sciences - 12.10.2022
Life Sciences - Health - 12.10.2022 
How genes, sex, growth and age impact lifespan
Scientists led by groups at EPFL and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) explore the elaborate interplay between genes, sex, growth, and age and how they influence variation in longevity. Their results point at fundamental processes of aging that help in improving human healthspan.
Life Sciences - Health - 11.10.2022 
Discovery of a new antibiotic against resistant pathogens
For a long time, antibiotics were considered a silver bullet against bacterial infections. Over time, many pathogens have adapted to resist antibiotics, so the search for new drugs is becoming increasingly important. An international team of researchers including scientists at the University of Basel, has now discovered a new antibiotic by computational analysis and deciphered its mode of action.
Life Sciences - 10.10.2022 
Recycling, a way for plants to survive in case of shortage
In order to secure a place in the sun and to guarantee their growth, plants have developed different strategies. But what happens when plant density is so high that resources, especially light, run out? Plants go into survival mode and activate a recycling mechanism: autophagy. This process is at the heart of a study published on October 10, 2022 in "Nature Communications" by the team of Prof. Christian Fankhauser at the Integrative Genomics Center of UNIL .
Environment - Life Sciences - 07.10.2022 
Alpine fish biodiversity is amazingly young
A high fraction of the endemic biodiversity of the Alps is very old. The endemics - species found only in a confined area - have developed over the past millions of years during the cycles of glacial and interglacial periods or even before these cycles began. Fish, however, are an exception: most endemic fish species emerged only after the end of the last ice age about 15,000 years ago.
Life Sciences - Health - 07.10.2022 
Zinc could treat a rare genetic disorder
By deciphering mutations in the GNAO1 gene, which cause severe mental and motor disabilities, a team from the University of Geneva is showing how zinc could improve the brain defects at stake. Paediatric encephalopathies of genetic origin cause severe motor and intellectual disabilities from birth. One of these diseases, first identified in 2013, is caused by mutations in the GNAO1 gene.
Life Sciences - Chemistry - 07.10.2022 
Mapping human brain development
Researchers at ETH Zurich are growing human brain-like tissue from stem cells and are then mapping the cell types that occur in different brain regions and the genes that regulate their development. The human brain is probably the most complex organ in the entire living world and has long been an object of fascination for researchers.
Health - Life Sciences - 06.10.2022 
Discovering New Cancer Treatments in the ’Dark Matter’ of the Human Genome
Researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital, University Hospital Bern, have developed a screening method to discover new drug targets for cancer treatment in the so-called -Dark Matter- of the genome. They applied their method to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the greatest cancer killer for which effective therapies are urgently sought.
Life Sciences - 05.10.2022 
Group size enhancement explains cooperation in fishes
The survival chances of group members are often greater in large than in small groups. In some species, non-reproducing group members therefore help raising offspring, even if they are unrelated. In an experimental study, researchers at the University of Bern investigated this seemingly altruistic behavior in cooperatively breeding fishes.
Life Sciences - Health - 04.10.2022 
The cell sentinel that neutralises hepatitis B
A team from the University of Geneva deciphers the three-step mechanism that allows our body to defend itself against hepatitis B. Confocal microscopy images showing in the cell nucleus (blue), the recruitment of Smc5/6 (green) by SLF2 (red) into PML bodies. UNIGE - Laboratory of Professor Michel Strubin - Regulation of hepatitis B virus gene expression - Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine.
Life Sciences - Mathematics - 28.09.2022 
Better understanding of cellular metabolism with the help of AI
Metabolism is essential to all living organisms, and modeling the chemical reactions that sustain life is no easy task. Now, scientists have released REKINDLE, paving the way for more efficient and accurate modeling of metabolic processes thanks to deep-learning. The way an organism metabolizes nutrients is a complex process.
Life Sciences
Results 41 - 60 of 1208.
A team from the UNIGE and the HUG has developed a promising method for treating people whose negative dreams are pathological. Oppressive, frightening, nerve-wracking: nightmares are particularly disturbing dreams. They are considered pathological when they occur frequently (>1 episode per week) and cause daytime fatigue, mood alteration and anxiety.
Researchers at ETH Zurich are planning to use magnetic bacteria to fight cancerous tumours. They have now found a way for these microorganisms to effectively cross blood vessel walls and subsequently colonise a tumour. Scientists around the world are researching how anti-cancer drugs can most efficiently reach the tumours they target.
A team from the University of Geneva has identified the structure of a protein complex controlling the activity of the major regulator of cell growth. The mTOR protein plays a central role in cell growth, proliferation and survival. Its activity varies according to the availability of nutrients and some growth factors, including hormones.
Acoustic communication is not only widespread in land vertebrates like birds and mammals, but also in reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. Many of them are usually considered mute, but in fact show broad and complex acoustic repertoires. According to researchers at University of Zurich, the evolutionary origin of vocal communication dates back more than 400 million years.
Scientists at EPFL have determined how a protein that is critical in our first line of immune defense is regulated in the cell to prevent autoinflammatory diseases. How does a cell "know" that it's infected? This is a key question for innate immunity, our first line of defense to any infection or injury, made up of cells that quickly identify pathogens, like viral DNA.
A team from the University of Geneva, in collaboration with the UZH, has developed an innovative strategy for studying membrane proteins, the targets of many drugs. Membrane proteins are key targets for many drugs. They are located between the outside and inside of our cells. Some of them, called ''transporters'', move certain substances in and out of the cellular environment.
Do people who can read and write understand spoken language better than those who are illiterate? Research carried out by researchers from Zurich with collaborators in India has found that handwriting, specifically the type of writing system used for a language, influences how our brains process speech.
Laughter is a form of vocal communication that can interfere with speech: who hasn't had a fit of laughter that prevented them from speaking? Thanks to functional imaging, a research team from the University of Fribourg was able to locate the areas of the brain in which these two systems interact. The results highlight the importance of brain stem circuits for the control of laughter .
When dangerous toxins teach fundamental biology
Exploring the mechanics of anthrax infection, scientists at EPFL have discovered two proteins that are involved in controlling the levels of cholesterol in the membrane of our cells. "What our work shows is how a complex in the center of the cell, the ER-Golgi interaction region, controls plasma membrane cholesterol, which is essential for many cellular functions, if not essential for multicellular life," says Professor Gisou van der Goot at EPFL's School of Life Sciences.
Exploring the mechanics of anthrax infection, scientists at EPFL have discovered two proteins that are involved in controlling the levels of cholesterol in the membrane of our cells. "What our work shows is how a complex in the center of the cell, the ER-Golgi interaction region, controls plasma membrane cholesterol, which is essential for many cellular functions, if not essential for multicellular life," says Professor Gisou van der Goot at EPFL's School of Life Sciences.
Threatened Aldabra Giant Tortoise Genome Decoded
They can live for more than 100 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms - Aldabra giant tortoises. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now decoded the genome of Aldabrachelys gigantea, one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. The findings will help to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened species.
They can live for more than 100 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms - Aldabra giant tortoises. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now decoded the genome of Aldabrachelys gigantea, one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. The findings will help to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened species.
Scientists led by groups at EPFL and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) explore the elaborate interplay between genes, sex, growth, and age and how they influence variation in longevity. Their results point at fundamental processes of aging that help in improving human healthspan.
For a long time, antibiotics were considered a silver bullet against bacterial infections. Over time, many pathogens have adapted to resist antibiotics, so the search for new drugs is becoming increasingly important. An international team of researchers including scientists at the University of Basel, has now discovered a new antibiotic by computational analysis and deciphered its mode of action.
In order to secure a place in the sun and to guarantee their growth, plants have developed different strategies. But what happens when plant density is so high that resources, especially light, run out? Plants go into survival mode and activate a recycling mechanism: autophagy. This process is at the heart of a study published on October 10, 2022 in "Nature Communications" by the team of Prof. Christian Fankhauser at the Integrative Genomics Center of UNIL .
A high fraction of the endemic biodiversity of the Alps is very old. The endemics - species found only in a confined area - have developed over the past millions of years during the cycles of glacial and interglacial periods or even before these cycles began. Fish, however, are an exception: most endemic fish species emerged only after the end of the last ice age about 15,000 years ago.
By deciphering mutations in the GNAO1 gene, which cause severe mental and motor disabilities, a team from the University of Geneva is showing how zinc could improve the brain defects at stake. Paediatric encephalopathies of genetic origin cause severe motor and intellectual disabilities from birth. One of these diseases, first identified in 2013, is caused by mutations in the GNAO1 gene.
Researchers at ETH Zurich are growing human brain-like tissue from stem cells and are then mapping the cell types that occur in different brain regions and the genes that regulate their development. The human brain is probably the most complex organ in the entire living world and has long been an object of fascination for researchers.
Researchers of the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital, University Hospital Bern, have developed a screening method to discover new drug targets for cancer treatment in the so-called -Dark Matter- of the genome. They applied their method to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the greatest cancer killer for which effective therapies are urgently sought.
The survival chances of group members are often greater in large than in small groups. In some species, non-reproducing group members therefore help raising offspring, even if they are unrelated. In an experimental study, researchers at the University of Bern investigated this seemingly altruistic behavior in cooperatively breeding fishes.
A team from the University of Geneva deciphers the three-step mechanism that allows our body to defend itself against hepatitis B. Confocal microscopy images showing in the cell nucleus (blue), the recruitment of Smc5/6 (green) by SLF2 (red) into PML bodies. UNIGE - Laboratory of Professor Michel Strubin - Regulation of hepatitis B virus gene expression - Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine.
Metabolism is essential to all living organisms, and modeling the chemical reactions that sustain life is no easy task. Now, scientists have released REKINDLE, paving the way for more efficient and accurate modeling of metabolic processes thanks to deep-learning. The way an organism metabolizes nutrients is a complex process.
