PSI

Under the motto “Ecosystem Restoration”, the theme of Word Environment Day on 5 June 2021 is the restoration of the planet’s ecosystem. The only way to achieve this is through climate protection – one of the most hotly debated topics of our time. It is becoming increasingly obvious that this not only requires a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but additional measures for reducing the level of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. Unless this happens, it will be impossible to achieve the primary goal of the Paris agreement: to restrict global warming to no more than two degrees.

The next scientific mission to safeguard the heritage of the Valais Alps has started. After the challenges posed by increased melting on Grand Combin last year, the Italian-Swiss team of the international project Ice Memory now sets out again to save the valuable glacial archive in the Alps. If the team is successful, one of the ice cores will be taken to Antarctica for future generations of scientists.

In accelerators, strong magnets keep elementary particles on course and supply experiment stations with the beams needed to look deep inside materials. With the knowledge gained in this way, PSI researchers develop new applications for technology and medicine.

"Trust in Science" is the motto of the International Day of Light. For Luc Patthey, head of the Laboratory for Advanced Photonics, transparency and usefulness to society are also important goals of research at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI.

Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt, in cooperation with PSI, have probably discovered another, previously unknown mechanism of action of the antiviral remdesivir. Using structural analyses, they have discovered that a decomposition product of the virostatic agent remdesivir binds to the viral protein nsP3 of Sars-CoV-2. This protein helps the virus suppress host cell defence mechanisms. The discovery may be important for the development of new drugs to combat Sars-CoV-2 and other RNA viruses.

Through a unique combination of computer simulations and laboratory experiments, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have discovered new binding sites for active agents – against cancer, for example – on a vital protein of the cell cytoskeleton. Eleven of the sites hadn’t been known before. The study is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.