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Remdesivir was one of the first medications approved for treatment of COVID-19. Clinical studies evaluated its effectiveness, but did not generate conclusive results. A new analysis of the study data shows that a specific group of patients benefits the most from the drug. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and medical practitioners have made a massive effort to find effective treatments for the illness.

The autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis can take a variety of courses. Determining the current and future course of the disease is important in order to slow down its course as much as possible. Researchers at the University of Basel have presented a biomarker whose values in the blood allow such predictions.

A research group at the University of Basel has identified a gene that drives T lymphocytes to exhaustion. This finding opens up new approaches for more effective immunotherapies. A tough battle requires endurance. This is also true for white blood cells as they tackle cancer - or more specifically for T lymphocytes or T cells, a group of white blood cells involved in the immune system's fight against cancer cells.

Patients in Switzerland with supplementary private health insurance are more likely to undergo cardiac procedures than those with only basic health insurance. This has been demonstrated in a study by researchers from the University of Basel and the Cantonal Hospital of Aarau. Switzerland has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the world.

Environmental DNA analysis of microbial communities can help us understand how a particular region's water cycle works. Basel hydrogeologist Oliver Schilling recently used this method to examine the water cycle on Mount Fuji. His results have implications for Switzerland as well. Where does the water come from that provides drinking water to people in a particular region? What feeds these sources and how long does it take for groundwater to make its way back up to the surface? This hydrological cycle is a complex interplay of various factors.

Guilt is an uncomfortable feeling and can be burdensome. Researchers at the University of Basel have shown that placebos can help reduce feelings of guilt, even when the placebo is administered openly. People don't always behave impeccably in relationship to others. When we notice that this has inadvertently caused harm, we often feel guilty.

Researchers have long suspected a link between bed occupancy and mortality in hospitals. Now, a study by the University of Basel has provided the missing data, revealing that smaller hospitals reach their capacity limit much earlier.

For many people in Switzerland, holidays in the snow are as much a part of the end of the year as Christmas trees and fireworks. As global warming progresses, however, white slopes are becoming increasingly rare. Researchers at the University of Basel have calculated how well one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts will remain snow reliable with technical snowmaking by the year 2100, and how much water this snow will consume.

Rectal artesunate, a promising antimalarial drug, has no beneficial effect on the survival of young children with severe malaria when used as an emergency treatment in resource-constrained settings. These are the results of a large-scale study conducted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and local partners in three African countries.

Global warming is leading to longer growing seasons worldwide, with many plants growing earlier in spring and continuing longer in autumn thanks to warmer temperatures-so the general opinion. Now, however, plant ecologists at the University of Basel have been able to show that this is not the case for the most common type of alpine grassland in the European Alps, where an earlier start leads to earlier aging and leaves the grassland brown for months.

The introduction of the general right to vote for women in Switzerland contributed significantly to their emancipation. Researchers at the University of Basel have now retrospectively statistically evaluated and quantified the effects on employment, education and the family model. The anonymous petition by women in Zurich demanding women's suffrage in 1868 as part of the constitutional reform had no chance of success, as did many other initiatives to this end.

When people have the choice between two products, a third option can influence their decision by shifting their focus. Researchers from the University of Basel have shown, however, that whether one object is preferred over another depends on which visual features are being used to form an opinion. We know all too well that we can often be distracted by certain special offers as we shop.

In the macro world, friction doesn't depend on the speed at which two surfaces move past one another, but researchers from Basel and Tel Aviv have now observed precisely this effect in special graphene structures on a platinum surface. December 2022 Due to their low-friction properties, materials consisting of single atomic layers are of great interest for applications where the aim is to reduce friction — such as hard disks or moving components for satellites or space telescopes.

Previous research on social media has mainly focused on how often people use it. Researchers from the University of Basel and the University of Koblenz-Landau have developed a new construct for measuring why people spend so much time on these platforms - and what content they post. November 2022 Are you the sort of person who likes to post photos on Instagram or Facebook and tag people in them? Do you frequently add things like "#bestfriends" or "BFFs"- If so, you probably have a high level of DTBP, or desire to belong publicly.

Physicists at the University of Basel have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that there is a negative correlation between the two spins of an entangled pair of electrons from a superconductor. For their study, the researchers used spin filters made of nanomagnets and quantum dots, as they report in the scientific journal Nature.

Liver cancer is one of the most deadly types of cancer. A team of University of Basel researchers has now uncovered how a healthy liver cell turns into a tumor cell. Comprehensive metabolic changes convert mature liver cells into immature progenitor cells. These cells proliferate rapidly and tumors develop.

Although the complement system forms part of the innate immune system, it can cause damage to the body in some cases. This is because unwanted complement activation contributes to many autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Now, researchers have described molecular details of a recently approved class of drugs that can inhibit the complement system.

Although the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 does not infect nerve cells, it can cause damage to the nervous system. Researchers from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have studied the mechanisms responsible for this effect, known as -neuro-Covid-, and identified starting points for its prevention.

Researchers at the University of Basel have uncovered a cell-intrinsic mechanism that controls the appropriate number of T cells in the organism and thus ensures that the immune system functions properly. This mechanism has also been found in slime molds, suggesting that this regulation of cell density is evolutionarily conserved.

Cells can generate vesicles as a response to changes in their environment. Although such cell-derived vesicles have great potential for biomedical research, their membrane is fragile and they have tendency to cluster together. Researchers at the University of Basel have successfully introduced a strategy to overcome these issues by equipping the vesicular membrane with a stabilizing shell.