ETH News

ETH pharmaceutical sciences graduate Nicole Stoffel has shown that iron deficiency reduces vaccine efficacy. Her research is now helping to improve the health of children in developing countries – yet becoming a researcher was not originally part of her plans.

ETH alumna Therese Adam spent 28 years in the diplomatic service working for peace and development. Now she shares her knowledge as a lecturer.

River flow has changed significantly worldwide in recent decades. An international research team led by ETH Zurich has now demonstrated that it is climate change, rather than water and land management, that plays a crucial role at a global level.

Is it possible to boost sales of locally produced solar energy by allowing households to trade it through a peer-to-peer platform? The year-long Quartierstrom research project in Walenstadt is investigating how energy markets might operate in the future.

The ETH alumnus Aeneas Wanner is dedicated to the environment as a CEO, politician and board member. The foundation for this commitment was laid by his studies at ETH.

Herbert Bay has done what others only dream of: the ETH alumnus sailed a yacht halfway round the world with his family. Now, he is immersing himself in foreign worlds on a professional basis – at Magic Leap, a company specialising in augmented reality.

Scientists look to fossils and evolutionary trees to help determine the rate of evolution – albeit with conflicting results. A new model by ETH researchers has helped to resolve these contradictions.

Whether dormant bacteria begin to reproduce is no accident. Rather, they are simply waiting for a clear signal from a single protein in the cell interior. ETH researchers have now deciphered the molecular mechanisms behind this.

Nicole Seitz has found her dream job as deputy commander 
of the fire department at University Hospital Zurich. The ETH alumna never wavered from her chosen path – even when it 
took her in unexpected directions.

To make progress in personalised medicine, researchers and doctors need access to health data. However, as a study by ETH researchers shows, comprehensive guidelines for the exchange of such data are lacking, being one of the primary factors why health data are still shared so infrequently.

In future, patients will be able to see the outcome of dental treatment even before the dentist starts working on their teeth. This is made possible by a “virtual mirror” developed by Kapanu, an ETH spin-off.

Patients with age-related retinal disease need regular injections in the eye. At the moment, these must be given by specially trained medical doctors, but a robot may well handle this task in the near future.

At the age of 29, biotechnologist Randall Platt has already achieved a lot: more than 1,000 research laboratories around the world use a method that he developed. But he is also the family man who recently took on a professorship at ETH.

Researchers at ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture (D-ARCH) have developed a concrete floor system that does not require steel reinforcement and is 70 percent lighter than conventional concrete floors. Their design was inspired by historical construction principles.

In remote villages in Peru, pneumonia is one of the most common causes of death in children. Now researchers from ETH Zurich are in the process of developing an app to help identify the illness early on.

A special type of phagocyte cells in the lungs plays an important role during infection with flu viruses by preserving the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide despite massive virus-induced lung tissue damage, as researchers from ETH have demonstrated.