It is impossible to predict the onset of schizophrenic psychosis. If factors linked to a risk of psychosis can be identified, however, these may yield significant insights into its underlying mechanisms.
Scientists at the University of Basel have developed nanoparticles which can serve as efficient contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging.
In psychiatric clinics with an exclusively open-door policy, the risk of patients committing suicide or absconding from treatment is no higher than in clinics with locked wards. This has been demonstrated in a study by the University of Basel and the University Psychiatric Clinics of Basel (UPK), in which around 350,000 cases were analyzed over a period of 15 years.
Brief, directed smartphone exercises can help quickly improve our mood. This is the latest finding from psychologists at the University of Basel and their international colleagues, reported in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
In a quantum computer, quantum states form the smallest information units and replace the binary code used by today’s computers. Until now, these so-called qubits were typically created in a semiconductor using individual electrons, but these were vulnerable to dephasing. Now, an international team of researchers led by physicists from the University of Basel has succeeded in using a missing electron to create a qubit.
A research team at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum has discovered that the choroid plexus, a largely ignored structure in the brain that produces the cerebrospinal fluid, is an important regulator of adult neural stem cells.
One day, quantum computers will perform rapid calculations and solve complex tasks for us. However, there are a few hurdles to overcome along the way. Basel-based physicist Dr James Wootton is searching for methods that allow information to be encoded and then decoded again using quantum mechanics. And a game for smartphones is going to help him do so.
Even single cells are able to remember information if they receive the order from their proteins. Researchers at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum have discovered that proteins form pairs to give the signal for storing information in the cell’s memory.
For some pathogens, attack is the best form of defense – they enter immune cells of the human body. However, if they are detected in their hidden niche, the infected cell kills itself to re-expose the pathogens. A research group at the University of Basel has reported that a protein called gasdermin forms permeable pores in the cell membrane and thus triggers the suicide of the immune cell.