The inflammasome plays an important role in our body‘s immune defense. This protein complex initiates an emergency program in the immune cells when invaded by a pathogen. In “Nature Communications”, a research team from the University of Basel’s Biozentrum reports that a specific inflammasome protein forms long filaments to amplify the inflammatory reaction.
Reliable information can be obtained on the progression of dementias by measuring specific proteins in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid. A test of this kind is especially significant to the development of new therapies.
An international consortium led by researchers at the University of Basel has developed a method to precisely alter the quantum mechanical states of electrons within an array of quantum boxes.
Computer scientists at the University of Basel have developed a new method for conducting image and video database searches based on hand-drawn sketches. The user draws a sketch on a tablet or interactive paper, and the system searches for a matching image in the database.
Learning leaves its mark on the brain. Scientists from the Biozentrum at the University of Basel have now discovered that the protein Copine-6 strengthens the connections between nerve cells, accelerating the flow of information and thereby forming the basis for learning and memory.
Maternal stress and depression during pregnancy may activate certain protective mechanisms in babies. Psychologists from the University of Basel report that certain epigenetic adaptations in newborns suggest this conclusion.
Physicists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Basel have succeeded in measuring the very weak van der Waals forces between individual atoms for the first time. To do this, they fixed individual noble gas atoms within a molecular network and determined the interactions with a single xenon atom that they had positioned at the tip of an atomic force microscope. As expected, the forces varied according to the distance between the two atoms; but, in some cases, the forces were several times larger than theoretically calculated.
Predictions from quantum physics have been confirmed by countless experiments, but no one has yet detected the quantum physical effect of entanglement directly with the naked eye. This should now be possible thanks to an experiment proposed by a team around a theoretical physicist at the University of Basel. The experiment might pave the way for new applications in quantum physics.
Exercise can have a positive influence on certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis: Patients who do yoga and aquatic exercise suffer less from fatigue, depression and paresthesia, as reported by researchers from Basel.