Leaving the comfort zone November 2019 Leaving your own comfort zone can sometimes be quite daunting but above all it is one thing, enriching and in any case a chance to try something completely new. Catherine Brun speaks…

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.…

Evolution of viruses and bacteria We want to understand the dynamics of evolution and the forces that drive it. Evolution of plants and animals tend to happen over centuries of even longer time-scales. Microbial organisms,…

Jump in at the deep end December 2015 With her Master’s in Biochemistry still warm in her hand, market analyses, pricing strategies and product launches were already waiting for her. Gabriela Güntherodt, at that time a…

Regulators of gene expression from stem cell differentiation to aging Our group is interested in the mechanisms that control gene expression from very early to very late in human life. In eukaryotes, gene expression is a…

Research Projects Biophysical Principles of Chaperone Function Molecular chaperones play a key role in cellular processes, including protein homeostasis, but also in membrane protein transport and biogenesis. We employ…

Alumni Portrait Anna Seelig, Titular Professor Emerita, Biozentrum December 2025 “Have the courage to follow your own path.” Anna Seelig spent five decades researching side by side with her husband, Joachim Seelig, at the…

Speaking from the soapbox November 2014 Brisk and sometimes bracing walks from his flat to and from the Biozentrum - this is the first thing that comes to mind to the famous Californian. In the early 1980ies the Nobel Prize…

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.…