Blood platelets can be stored for only up to a week, and hospitals often run short of this life-saving resource. To help overcome this problem, an EPFL startup called HemostOD has developed technology that can produce blood platelets in large volumes and on demand.

Shrimps, flies and other animals shed their outer body covering at specific times of the year or at specific points in their life cycles through a process called molting. Working in worms, FMI researchers identified the mechanisms underlying a molecular 'molting clock' — as well as several of the clock's components. The findings may help to shed light onto skin development and regeneration in other animals, including mammals.

The Experimental Therapeutics group , directed by Prof. Carlo V. Catapano at the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR, affiliated to USI and member of Bios+), in collaboration with Prof. Jonathan Hall at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH, Zurich) identified a novel mechanism for the treatment of hepatic disorders of abnormal lipid deposition.

The USI-affiliated Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) has reached a licensing agreement with BIMINI Biotech, a startup from the Netherlands, to acquire and further develop a novel first-in-class Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp) activator.