Medicine

Cancer patients might one day benefit from being administered immune cells from healthy donors. But as things stand, receiving donor cells can cause severe or even fatal immune reactions. A researcher at ETH Zurich has now developed a technology that avoids these.

Since 2016, the Swiss Cancer Center Léman provides a space for scientists and clinicians from across the Lake Geneva region to pool their efforts, share insights and work together on innovative cancer treatments. The center, which has just renewed its leadership team, brings together the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, the EPFL, and the two hospitals, CHUV and HUG.

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL and the Swiss Light Source SLS to make a film that could give a decisive boost to developing a new type of drug. They made the advance in the field of so-called photopharmacology, a discipline that develops active substances which can be specifically activated or deactivated with the help of light. The study is being published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers at EPFL have found that infection with a common bacterium that is linked to periodontal disease, oral cancers, and bad breath may cause a small increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Up to now, the use of models to research the barrier that separates the circulatory from the nervous system has proven to be either limited or extremely complicated. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a more realistic model that can also be used to better explore new treatments for brain tumours.

The LOOP Zurich research centre is creating a central platform for the exchange of health data between the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the four university hospitals. This will allow data to be utilised quickly and easily to the benefit of patients.