On behalf of social security institutions, psychiatrists assess to what extent people with mental health problems are still able to work. However, the work capability assessments tend to be far too dissimilar. A new training course has helped to reduce the differences. This confirms a study conducted by researchers at the University of Basel and the University Hospital of Basel and financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
An international team of researchers involving members of the University of Basel’s Biozentrum challenges the conventional understanding of the cause of Parkinson’s disease. The researchers have shown that the inclusions in the brain’s neurons, characteristic of Parkinson‘s disease, are comprised of a membranous medley rather than protein fibrils. The recently published study in “Nature Neuroscience” raises new questions about the etiology of Parkinson’s disease.
Sports scientists from the University of Basel found that providing telephone-based coaching over the phone is an effective method for getting people in Switzerland to adopt a physically active lifestyle.
When we train the reaching for and grasping of objects, we also train our brain. In other words, this action brings about changes in the connections of a certain neuronal population in the red nucleus, a region of the midbrain. Researchers at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum have discovered this group of nerve cells in the red nucleus. They have also shown how fine motor tasks promote plastic reorganization of this brain region.
Natural products, or their close derivatives, make some of our most potent medicines, among which macrocycles are one class. The size and complexity of macrocycles has made it difficult to emulate and build on Nature’s success in the laboratory. By completing a complex molecular synthesis of these compounds attached to a unique identifying DNA strand, the Chemists of the University of Basel have built a rich collection of natural product-like macrocycles that can be mined for new medicines.
T3 Pharmaceuticals AG wins the W.A. de Vigier Foundation’s highest endowed award for startup companies in Switzerland of 100,000 Swiss Francs. The spin-off from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel works in the field of immuno-oncology and convinced the jury with their innovative therapeutic approach to fighting cancer with live bacteria.
Physicists at the University of Basel are able to show for the first time how a single electron looks in an artificial atom. A newly developed method enables them to show the probability of an electron being present in a space. This allows improved control of electron spins, which could serve as the smallest information unit in a future quantum computer.
Santhera Pharmaceuticals and the University of Basel’s Biozentrum announce their collaboration to advance gene therapy research for the treatment of congenital muscular dystrophy. Innosuisse – the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency – and Santhera will jointly invest 1.2 million Swiss Francs into this research program.
The relay station of the brain, the substantia nigra consists of different types of nerve cells and is responsible for controlling the execution of diverse movements. Researchers at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum have now characterized two of these cell populations more precisely and has been able to assign an exact function to each of them.