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Aging muscles – uncovering the causes of sarcopenia

You are likely to lose around one third of your muscle mass over your lifetime. An excessive loss of muscle mass and muscle strength is known as sarcopenia. As life expectancy increases, so does the number of people…


Good times, bad times: Worms equip their offspring for the future

Food scarcity, toxins, or pathogens: to survive, organisms must be able to respond to diverse environmental conditions and adapt their behavior appropriately. Parents pass on information about the prevailing living…


Nanocontainers introduced into the nucleus of living cells

In order to combat diseases, different therapies strive to intervene in pathological processes that occur in the cell nucleus. Chemotherapies, for example, target biochemical reactions that are involved in the proliferation…


Architecture of cellular control center mTORC2 elucidated

The protein complex mTORC2 plays a crucial role in the regulation of cellular metabolism. It stimulates, for example, the production of lipids and fatty acids, but it also controls carbohydrate metabolism. In the past,…


Survival strategy of messenger RNAs during cellular sugar shortage

If a cell encounters a stress situation, whether it is due to nutrient restriction or osmotic shock, the cell reacts immediately to ensure its survival. Prof. Anne Spang’s research group at the Biozentrum of the University…


How does Parkinson's disease develop? Study raises doubts on a previous theory of Parkinson’s disease

The arms and legs tremble incessantly, the muscles become weaker and the movements slower − these are typical symptoms that many Parkinson's patients suffer from. More than six million people are affected worldwide. In these…


Like an assembly line: Molecular factories produce bioactive compounds

Cholesterol-lowering agents, antihypertensives or malaria medications, cancer drugs and antibiotics - many of our current drugs are based on natural products. Bacteria and fungi actually produce these chemical substances in…


Treating muscular disease – Santhera and Biozentrum join forces

Santhera Pharmaceuticals has started a collaboration with Prof. Markus Rüegg, who pioneered a novel gene therapy approach for the treatment of type 1 congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A). MDC1A is a severe form of…


Bacteria free themselves with molecular “speargun”

Tularemia is an infectious disease that mostly affects rabbits and rodents, but also humans can become infected. The cause of this serious disease is the bacterium Francisella tularensis . The infection biologists led by…


Not necessarily harmful: Protein aggregates in the brain

In the past, amyloids have mainly been associated with neurodegenerative diseases. These solid, insoluble protein clumps damage the nerve cells. The research group led by Prof. Martin Spiess at the Biozentrum of the…