Large parts of the human genome do not contain protein-coding genes. Now, however, a research team with participation from the University of Basel has discovered the cause of a severe hereditary defect in such a "gene desert". The study in the scientific journal Nature shows that a single genetic change in the "junk DNA" long thought to be useless can have serious consequences.
Researchers from the University of Basel have developed a virtual reality app for smartphones to reduce fear of heights. Now, they have conducted a clinical trial to study its efficacy. Trial participants who spent a total of four hours training with the app at home showed an improvement in their ability to handle real height situations.
Money laundering, failed speculation and sexism: financial industry scandals keep causing uproar. Gender studies scholar Anika Thym is investigating how men in the finance sector experience this world and what we can learn from their self-reflection.
Researchers at the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum have developed a source of single photons that can produce billions of these quantum particles per second. With its record-breaking efficiency, the photon source represents a new and powerful building-block for quantum technologies.
Professor Prisca Liberali of the University of Basel receives the Friedrich Miescher Award 2021 for her research on design principles of tissue organization. She shares the award with EPFL Professor Andrea Ablasser.
Researchers from the University of Basel have identified cells in the immune system that are able to attack a wide range of cancer cells. Through a start-up, they are now aiming to use their discovery to develop clinically applicable treatments that will mark the next milestone in cell-based cancer therapy.
The absence of monsoon rains at the source of the Nile was the cause of migrations and the demise of entire settlements in the late Roman province of Egypt. This development has been compared with environmental data for the first time by professor of ancient history, Sabine Huebner of the University of Basel.
The university’s new quality strategy was approved by the President’s Board on 22 December 2020. The strategy reflects the basic elements of the university’s quality assurance and development system and defines goals and measures for its ongoing development. The Quality Strategy 2020 is thus an important element of the university’s preparations for the institutional accreditation process in 2022 in accordance with the Federal Act on the Funding and Coordination of the Higher Education Sector (HEdA).
To perform calculations, quantum computers need qubits to act as elementary building blocks that process and store information. Now, physicists have produced a new type of qubit that can be switched from a stable idle mode to a fast calculation mode. The concept would also allow a large number of qubits to be combined into a powerful quantum computer, as researchers from the University of Basel and TU Eindhoven have reported in the journal “Nature Nanotechnology”.