ETH News

Organoids grown from human stem cells can help provide answers to important medical questions. In a partnership that looks set to profit both sides, ETH professor Barbara Treutlein has teamed up with pharma giant Roche to advance research in this area.

Bioengineer Randall Platt engineers bacteria that can assess the state of our guts. It is hoped this non-invasive technique could eventually be used to develop more effective interventions against malnutrition among children in the Global South.

Studying at ETH Zurich is demanding, and all students have their own personal hurdles to overcome. This video series portrays ETH students.

The loss of myelin sheaths in the brain is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed an MRI method that maps the condition of this nerve insulation layer more accurately than before.

Professors Tanja Stadler and Barbara Treutlein awarded the Cloëtta Jubilee Prize for their outstanding achievements in biomedical and developmental biology research.

Microbiologists at ETH Zurich have developed computational models that use nutrients and metabolism of plant-associated bacteria to predict how the microbes interact on the surface of leaves and ultimately form the microbiome.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have analysed the bird flu epidemic caused by the H7N9 strain that affected China from 2013 to 2017. New phylogenetic trees will help to improve monitoring of future bird flu epidemics.

Computer simulations have helped researchers understand in detail how pharmaceutically active substances cross cell membranes. These findings can now be used to discover new drug candidates more efficiently.

New research offers potential benefits for those affected by the hereditary metabolic disease methylmalonic aciduria. By combining the results of multiple molecular analyses, scientists can better diagnose this rare and severe disease. In the future, an improved understanding of the disease might also improve treatment options.

We posed this question to ETH Zurich researchers. In return, we got five intriguing answers from the perspectives of biomedicine, computer science, biology, robotics and philosophy.

Mathematician and biostatistician Tanja Stadler will receive this year’s Rössler Prize for her achievements. Worth 200,000 Swiss francs, it is ETH Zurich’s most generous research award.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have conducted a detailed study of neurulation – how the neural tube forms during embryonic development. They conclude that this happens less actively than previously thought. This also has implications for understanding defects such as spina bifida.

Researchers from ETH Zurich, University Hospital of Bern and the University of Bern have equipped gut bacteria with data logger functionality as a way of monitoring which genes are active in the bacteria. These microorganisms could one day offer a noninvasive means of diagnosing disease or assessing the impact of a diet on health.

Politicians and the media struggle with predictions. This is more a problem resulting from a poor understanding of uncertainties than from the reliability of models, argues Reto Knutti.

Bacteria show great promise as a source of active ingredients. Using computer-based genome analysis, researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered a new class of natural products that might one day serve as antibiotics.

A study under co-leadership of the ETH Zurich has shown that computer algorithms can determine antimicrobial resistance of bacteria faster than previous methods. This could help treat serious infections more efficiently in the future.

Skintegrity.CH is a transdisciplinary consortium for the largest organ of humans, the skin.

Artificial intelligence can help predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins. Beat Christen describes how such algorithms should soon help to develop tailored artificial proteins.

Niko Beerenwinkel, a Professor at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel, is working with colleagues from other research institutions to examine wastewater for traces of the coronavirus. He has detected the Delta variant in five out of six Swiss wastewater treatment plants examined, including ones in Zurich and Bern. Recently he spoke with ETH News.

We look for certainty in uncertain times. But that is not something statistics can necessarily provide. Tanja Stadler explains why it is important to consider statistical uncertainty through describing the COVID-19 R value estimation which she performs for Switzerland.

ETH Zurich researchers can predict how tightly a cell’s protein synthesis machinery will bind to RNA sequences – even when dealing with many billions of different RNA sequences. This binding plays a key role in determining how much of a specific protein is produced. The scientists are developing their prediction model using a combination of synthetic biology experiments and machine learning algorithms.

As the world anxiously awaits a remedy for the novel coronavirus, ETH Zurich is also involved in the search for active substances and vaccines. This overview sets out the therapeutic approaches pursued by ETH researchers.

ETH researchers are developing and improving methods to detect the pandemic virus or virus-specific antibodies. With the help of such tests, the scientists are also investigating the details of how the pathogen is spreading. A project overview.

The “lockdown light” decreed by the Swiss Federal Council has led to each person infected with Sars-CoV-2 going on to infect only one person on average instead of two or three prior to the lockdown, as calculations by a team from ETH Zurich have shown. This means the situation is stable, but the epidemic has yet to be contained.

Analyses of publicly available genome data provide clues to the beginnings of the coronavirus epidemic in China. Researchers from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel used a statistical model they had developed in recent years.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a new method that greatly simplifies the production of large DNA molecules containing many hundreds of genes. With this method, they have built the first genome of a bacterium entirely designed by a computer algorithm. The method has the potential to revolutionise biotechnology.

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.

When scientists at ETH Zurich analysed huge amounts of genetic cancer data, they found previously unresearched molecular changes. These could help in developing new personalised cancer treatments.

A team of ETH researchers led by Julia Vorholt and Jörn Piel have discovered new antibiotic substances in bacteria that colonise the leaf surfaces of a local wild plant.

Science and technology have the potential to stop future epidemics in their tracks, says Tanja Stadler. But this requires better collaboration between scientists and the authorities.

At the start of the epidemic in West Africa, the Ebola virus did not change as rapidly as thought at the time. ETH researchers explain why scientists misjudged it at the time.

ETH Professor and computer scientist Joachim Buhmann works intensively on healthcare issues. In an interview with ETH News, he explains how computer models will make their way into the world of medicine, and talks about models that are so complicated that humans can no longer process them alone.

Experts see great opportunities in the field of personalised medicine, but it will require the widespread exchange of patient data. This is one of the key lessons to emerge from this year’s Latsis Symposium at ETH Zurich. The researchers called on politicians to formulate data protection legislation so that it does not hinder progress in the field of personalised medicine.

Genetic sequencing is in widespread use today, but until now has not been accurate enough to identify an antibody immune response. Now, thanks to a new control system based on genetic barcodes, the technique is far more reliable – and ready for use in the development of vaccines and antibody drugs.

Founded in 2015, the new Turing Centre at ETH Zurich brings together researchers and students of science, engineering and humanities. In an interview with ETH News, Managing Director Giovanni Sommaruga and his New Zealand co-directors Diane Proudfoot and Jack Copeland explain why the Centre inspires blue skies research and what it all has to do with ‘child machines’.

Vartan Kurtcuoglu crosses the border between medicine and mechanical engineering: at the University of Zurich, the ETH Zurich graduate develops medical computer models for the heart and kidneys. Anyone who studies under him soon learns what to be aware of in interdisciplinary projects.