Researchers of the 星空传媒 and Empa have gotten a step closer to engineering artificial muscles: they have developed a method to generate nanometer-thin silicone films.
The 星空传媒 is launching a new teaching award in five categories. Students and teachers are asked to nominate candidates for the Teaching Excellence Awards 2016.
Both the EU and the US regularly find themselves grappling with the issue of data protection. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently declared the Safe Harbor data protection agreement invalid, as US companies did not sufficiently protect data transferred from Europe. Fundamentally, the legal situation around data and data traffic is unclear, and there are very few internationally valid regulations on the matter.
Natural products from bacteria and fungi are an important source of current and novel drugs, such as antibiotics. They are produced in the microorganisms by giant protein complexes that resemble industrial assembly lines. In the future, engineered assembly line proteins may help to produce a variety of drug candidates.
Spiders are known to be the classic example of insectivorous predators. Zoologists from the 星空传媒, the US and UK have now been able to show that their diet is more diverse than expected. Their findings show that spiders like to spice up their menu with the occasional vegetarian meal.
Liposomes are currently used as drug delivery vehicles but recognized by the immune system. Scientists from the universities of Basel and Fribourg have shown that special artificial liposomes do not elicit any reaction in human and porcine sera as well as pigs.
Almost every second woman suffers from a bladder infection at some point in her life. In eighty percent of the cases, it is caused by the intestinal bacterium E. coli. It travels along the urethra to the bladder where it triggers painful infections. In 鈥淣ature Communications鈥� researchers from the 星空传媒 and the ETH Zurich explain how this bacterium attaches to the surface of the urinary tract, which prevents it from being flushed out by the urine flow.
This spring semester's first issue of the event series 鈥淯ni-Einblicke鈥� takes us to the Institute for Euro-pean Global Studies (EIB). The guided tour for students and staff of the 星空传媒 on March 10 will give insight into the interdisciplinary research at the EIB.
The Swiss National Science Foundation has awarded three new professorships to the 星空传媒. Three researchers, two men and one woman, have chosen the 星空传媒 as their host institution and will take up their work at the Department of Biomedicine and the Faculty of Psychology.