If evolutionary biologist Carolin Sommer-Trembo is not in her office, it is often because her work has taken her to a place others might think of as a holiday destination: Zambia. She is researching cichlids, which exhibit extraordinary diversity there, and investigating how curious the fish are. Working as a scientist involved turning her back on a career in dance.
The steadily worsening climate crisis caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere makes the search for ideas to store CO2 increasingly important. Prof. Ben Engel's team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel together with colleagues from the Universities of Frankfurt and Marburg, has now shed light on the structure of an enzyme that reveals a new way of storing CO2.
Cancer immunotherapy is a successful form of treatment in oncology, but it doesn't work for every patient. One problem may be the lack of a specific type of immune cell in the tumor, researchers in the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel have found. The researchers were able to partially replace the cell's function using a signaling molecule. This may make it possible to overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy.
In her doctoral thesis, Julia Wartmann examines gender equality efforts in North and East Syria. Her field research provided her with insight into a war-torn society seeking to establish new ways to coexist.
From pandemics to nuclear energy – the world is full of risks. Psychologists at the University of Basel have developed a new method of determining how risk is perceived within a society..
Protecting sensitive information and personal data is fundamentally important for our society. The University of Basel is strengthening this area of research with the appointment of Professor Isabel Wagner as a new professor of cybersecurity.
In no other stage of life does sleep change as much as in adolescence. Low-intensity morning exercise can have a positive effect on adolescents’ sleep patterns – as discovered by researchers at the University of Basel and Flinders University in Adelaide.
Even before carbohydrates reach the bloodstream, the very sight and smell of a meal trigger the release of insulin. For the first time, researchers from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have shown that this insulin release depends on a short-term inflammatory response that takes place in these circumstances. In overweight individuals, however, this inflammatory response is so excessive that it can impair insulin secretion.
NextImmune, a spin-off from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, has received financial support of 150,000 Swiss francs from the Venture Kick funding initiative. The start-up develops a new generation of immunosuppressive drugs for autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation.
