Changes in the genetic make-up of tissue samples can be detected quickly and easily using a new method based on nanotechnology. This report researchers from the Swiss Nanoscience Institute, the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ and the University Hospital Basel in first clinical tests with genetic mutations in patients with malignant melanoma.
Researchers at the University and University Hospital of Basel succeed in imaging microscopically small structures of the human brain in three dimensions and automatically detecting the number of Purkinje cells in this tissue.
The University Council has named Prof. Mohamed Bentires-Alj as professor of Experimental Surgical Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine. He will take up his position at the Department of Biomedicine on September 1, 2016.
Scientists at the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½, ETH Zurich in Basel, and NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering have developed an artificial metalloenzyme that catalyses a reaction inside of cells without equivalent in nature. This could be a prime example for creating new non-natural metabolic pathways inside living cells, as reported today in Nature.
People are often excluded from social groups. As researchers from the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, whether uninvolved observers find this acceptable or not may depend on the facial appearances of those excluded. The exclusion of cold and incompetent looking people is more likely to be accepted.
Researchers at the universities of Basel and Oxford have for the first time identified all genes regulated by the protein Foxn1. The results show that Foxn1 not only plays a crucial role in development of the thymus in the embryo, but it also regulates vital functions in the developed, postnatal organ.
To date, it has been assumed that the differentiation of stem cells depends on the environment they are embedded in. A research group at the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ now describes for the first time a mechanism by which hippocampal neural stem cells regulate their own cell fate via the protein Drosha.
Physicists at the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ have succeeded in watching a silver catalyst at work for the first time with the aid of an atomic force microscope. The observations made during an Ullmann reaction have allowed the researchers to calculate the energy turnover and, potentially, to optimize the catalysis.
It is impossible to predict the onset of schizophrenic psychosis. If factors linked to a risk of psychosis can be identified, however, these may yield significant insights into its underlying mechanisms.