news 2017

Coral reefs that can survive global warming, an expedition around Antarctica, a booster for genetic research, a personnal virtual heart, a National Center for Data Science. Some of the EPFL's research and milestones that marked the year 2017.

Research led by scientists at the University of Birmingham has revealed a new cause of high blood pressure which could lead to major changes in managing the disease. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, often goes unnoticed but if left untreated can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Researchers at the UCLouvain have made a major new discovery in the research on bacteria. Jean-François Collet, professor at UCL's de Duve Institute, and his team have shown that when you change the structure of a bacterium, you decrease its ability to detect environmental stress and to activate stress responses against antibiotics.

EPFL researchers have created nanoparticles that attract viruses and, using the pressure resulting from the binding process, destroy them. This revolutionary approach could lead to the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. HIV, dengue, papillomavirus, herpes and Ebola - these are just some of the many viruses that kill millions of people every year, mostly children in developing countries.

Cystic fibrosis is a severe hereditary disease of the lung, for which there is currently no cure. The underlying cause of the disease is a malfunction of the chloride channel CFTR, which prevents the secretion of chloride in certain body cells.

Investigational therapy crizanlizumab (SEG101, formerly SelG1) approximately doubled the time to first on-treatment sickle cell pain crisis, according to new subgroup analysis of Phase II SUSTAIN data Results were consistent across patient subgroups despite differences in disease severity, genotype or background therapy New findings for crizanlizumab, a potential disease-modifying, preventive treatment option for patients with sickle cell diseas

Less than one per cent of UK children born with congenital heart disease are enrolled in clinical trials looking to improve treatments, research funded by the British Heart Foundation and led by the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children's Hospital has found. The study, published in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery today, is the first systematic review of its kind into clinical trials in children's heart surgery.

Lipid, also known as fat, is an optimal energy source and an important cell component. Much is required for the rapid and uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. Researchers from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and from the University of Geneva have now discovered that the protein mTOR stimulates the production of lipids in liver tumors to satisfy the increased nutrient turnover and energy needs of cancer cells among other functions.

Researchers are calling for a randomised clinical trial to investigate the potential role of vitamin D supplementation in improving live birth rates following assisted reproduction treatment (ART). This follows a review and meta-analysis published today in Human Reproduction, which shows a strong link between low vitamin D concentrations in women and lower live birth rates after ART compared to women who have the right amount of vitamin D in their bodies.

Deactivating pumps could make antibiotic-resistant bacteria treatable again The Laboratory's supercomputers were able to perform the first atomistic simulations of the entire MexAB-OprM pump embedded within a double membrane system on a microsecond time scale. LOS ALAMOS, N.M. Dec. 4, 2017 -New supercomputer simulations have revealed the role of transport proteins called efflux pumps in creating drug-resistance in bacteria, research that could lead to improving the drugs' effectiveness against life-threatening diseases and restoring the efficacy of defunct antibiotics.

Three years ago, Pierre Sonveaux, a researcher at the UCL Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, and his team discovered that when the mitochondria (the power plants) of tumour cells are impaired, they promote the formation of metastases. Subsequently, the researchers verified a molecule, MitoQ, as capable of preventing these impairments and thus tumour metastases.

The HIV-1 mosaic vaccine in the trial was originally designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory by theoretical biologist Bette Korber and her team. My life's work has been devoted to developing strategies to create a global HIV vaccine; mosaics were a realization of one such strategy. Bette Korber Novel viral analysis approach leads to potential 'global vaccine' LOS ALAMOS, N.M. Nov.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have identified new mechanisms used by bacteria to resist infection-fighting antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria evolve mechanisms to withstand the drugs which are used to treat infections. The team of experts at the University's Institute of Microbiology and Infection focussed their research on E. coli, which can cause urinary and blood stream infections.

One of the UK's leading microbiologists is concerned that confusing language and a lack of specific objectives are hampering the global fight against antibiotic-resistant infections. Professor Laura Piddock , of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection, at the University of Birmingham, and her collaborators have written a report for the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics.

Charity Cancer Research UK has awarded the University of Birmingham £1.5 million to fund a five-year research programme aimed at finding new treatments for bowel cancer. The pioneering research, the first of its kind in the UK, will see scientists taking samples of 200 patients' bowel cancer in order to then grow avatars - or mini tumours - in the laboratory.

Most people in Switzerland die in hospitals and nursing homes. Their specific needs are often not adequately met.

A delayed neurological response to processing the written word could be an indicator that a patient with mild memory problems is at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, research led by the University of Birmingham has discovered. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) - a test that detects electrical activity in a person's brain via electrodes attached to their scalp - researchers studied the brain activity of a group of 25 patients to establish how quickly they processed words shown to them on a computer screen.

Adopting a lying down position rather than being upright in the later stages of labour for first-time mothers who have had a low dose epidural leads to a higher chance of them delivering their baby without any medical intervention, a study has found.

With a new method for modifying antibodies, drugs are developped showing more stability and, thus, having fewer side-effects. At the time Spycher, a postdoctoral radiopharmaceutical researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, was concerned with the question of how active agents could be bound to antibodies more efficiently.