Walking, breathing, or writing – these movements would not be possible without our muscles. The instructions are given by the nerves that communicate with the muscles through neuromuscular junctions. Damage to or loss of…

Our body keeps bacterial pathogens under control by restricting their access to essential nutrients such as iron. Iron is crucial for all living organisms. When bacteria are deprived of iron, they stop growing and…

G protein-coupled receptors are embedded in the cell membrane and transmit signals from the outside to the inside of the cell. Because of their vast diversity and crucial role in the body, GPCRs are targeted by many drugs,…

All organisms need energy to live. We get energy from various components of our food. Our body uses a part of this energy directly and stores the rest. While glucose serves as an immediately available energy source, fats are…

Autism occurs in about one percent of the population and is characterized by alterations in communication, repetitive behavior and social difficulties. There are numerous genetic factors involved in the development of…

Congenital muscular dystrophy is a rare hereditary disease which cannot be cured. The more than 30 known forms of this neuromuscular disease differ in the type of genetic defect and in the severity of disease progression.…

In response to last year’s call for SNSF Advanced Grants 232 researchers submitted applications. 24 of these projects were awarded the Swiss National Science Foundation grant, totaling 50 million Swiss francs in funding.…

Fats are highly diverse molecules that serve as fuel and energy storage, and they constitute the building blocks for cell membranes, hormones and messengers. Despite the diversity of fats, all the fatty acids contained…

With its hundreds of thousands of nerve cells, the vertebrate brain is the most complex organ in the animal kingdom. During vertebrate evolution not only have the number of neurons and consequently the volume of the brain…

Each living cell grows and divides, thus generating new offspring. This process is also known as the cell cycle. Strictly speaking, it describes a periodic repetition of two coordinated cycles: the duplication of a cell’s…