Insights and outlooks November 2016 It only takes the lift 36 seconds to zoom up to the 38th floor of the Roche Tower. Here, in the Pebbles Lounge, far over the rooftops of Basel, Alumninews meets with Barbara Geering,…

Prof. Médéric Diard on social interactions in bacterial communities To live at the expense of others is harmful to the common welfare. This is also true for the simplest of organisms − bacteria. Therefore, strategies have…

Structure, function, and evolution of genome-wide regulatory networks Most projects that we pursue concern the functioning and evolution of genome-wide regulatory systems in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. The…

ELN: Electronic Lab Notebooks We provide a wiki-based Electronic Lab Notebook solution (ELN-Wiki) to the research groups at the Biozentrum and other life science groups at the University of Basel. The spectrum of digital…

A philosophical perspective on science January 2023 “The stereotype of a thinker sitting in a room all alone with their brilliant ideas has never been true.” Biozentrum alumnus Marcel Weber must know. He is Professor of…

For about one hundred years it has been known that nutrient restriction and moderate stress can significantly prolong life. The researchers led by Prof. Mihaela Zavolan and Prof. Anne Spang, both at the Biozentrum of the…

Michelle Gut, PhD student, group Maria Hondele What inspired you to pursue a career in science? Already back in high school, I loved the STEM subjects. At fifteen, I took a bold step and moved out from home to pursue an…

Chromosomes in 3D The developmentally dynamic nucleus How are chromosomes organized within nuclei? And how does organization impact developmental events? The nucleus is very dynamic during embryogenesis, in part because…

To which extent is Nextstrain currently being used for research into the SARS-CoV-2 virus? We have more data on SARS-CoV-2 than ever before for a single virus. There are now six million fully sequenced virus genomes…

Prof. Anissa Kempf on sleep We do it every night and from time to time during the day, too. We sleep. But why actually? And what makes us fall asleep, how does the brain control our sleep? Prof. Anissa Kempf investigates…