Neurons, nerve cells in the brain, are central players in brain function. However, a key role for glia, long considered support cells, is emerging. A research group at the University of Basel has now discovered two new types of glial cells in the brain, by unleashing adult stem cells from their quiescent state. These new types of glia may play an important role in brain plasticity and repair.
Metastases can develop in the body even years after apparently successful cancer treatment. They originate from cancer cells that migrated from the original tumor to other organs, and which can lie there inactive for a considerable time. Researchers have now discovered how these “sleeping cells” are kept dormant and how they wake up and form fatal metastases.
Some Covid-19 patients develop diabetes in the course of their infection. An international study with participation by the University of Basel has mapped how coronavirus attacks and destroys insulin-producing pancreatic cells. The researchers also identified a way to protect these cells.
Fields of opium poppies once bloomed where the Zurich Opera House underground garage now stands. Through a new analysis of archaeological seeds, researchers at the University of Basel have been able to bolster the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers throughout the Alps participated in domesticating the opium poppy.
A premature start in life can cause problems even into teenage years. A study by the University of Basel and the University Children's Hospital Basel (UKBB) indicates that training motor skills in these children helps even when they are older.
Some pathogens persist in the body causing chronic infections. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered a mechanism of highly selective targeting of host proteins by a bacterial toxin that is critical for the bacteria to establish chronic infection. The study recently published in PNAS provides new insights into the activity and function of bacterial toxins.
Quantum systems consisting of several particles can be used to measure magnetic or electric fields more precisely. A young physicist at the University of Basel has now proposed a new scheme for such measurements that uses a particular kind of correlation between quantum particles.
Yesterday the Senate elected neurobiologist Professor Nicole Schaeren-Wiemers to the newly created post, which has been established as part of the reorganization of the President's Board. The Senate-designated University Councillor Professor Ottfried Jarren also reported on his work in the strategic committee. Jarren will step down at the end of the year; his successor will also be designated by the end of the year.
Snow cover in the Alps has been melting almost three days earlier per decade since the 1960s. This trend is temperature-related and cannot be compensated by heavier snowfall. By the end of the century, snow cover at 2,500 meters could disappear a month earlier than today, as simulations by environmental scientists at the University of Basel demonstrate.
