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…

From block course to cooking class. July 2018 In the block course they were simply known as the Nirvanas. Twenty years on, in a cooking class, their hair now short, yet each slipped back into his old role. The Biozentrum…

Well prepared for life July 2018 What a coincidence. Shortly, after we sent out our request for an interview, Harvard Professor Anna Mandinova replied that she is currently traveling through Europe and Switzerland.…

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…