Miguel Palomino Segura awarded PhD
on November 8, 2018 Miguel Palomino Segura successfully defended his PhD thesis, which was presented at the University of Bern on October 30th, 2018. His thesis title was “Role of Innate Immunity in the Protection against Influenza Infection” and the work has been done in the Infection and Immunity lab group head by Dr. Santiago […]
10th EADV Dermatological Meeting in Ticino on November 29, 2018
on October 29, 2018 In addition to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the EADV in 2017, we are also delighted to reach another milestone in 2018 – one decade from the first Dermatological Meeting in Ticino, the region where the EADV has its headquarters. Thanks to the dynamic support and constructive collaboration that […]
Federica Sallusto President Elect of the European Federation of Immunological Societies
on October 25, 2018 Prof. Federica Sallusto has been elected to the Office of President Elect of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS). Federica Sallusto will formally assume her appointment on January 1, 2019, and will join incoming President Andreas Radbruch, Past President René van Lier, Secretary General Pablo Engel and Treasurer Winfried F. […]
New study from the Uguccioni’s lab revealing the activity of the CXCL12/HMGB1 heterocomplex in sustaining inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis
on October 23, 2018 The group of Dr. Uguccioni has revealed the mechanism by which an heterocomplex formed between the chemokine CXCL12 and the alarmin HMGB1, which was discovered in the past by the group, is maintained in chronic inflammation, and in particular in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The activation of mechanisms counteracting the oxidative stress […]
The Good, the Bad and the Neuroprotective – from IRB a computer-designed antibody to cure prions
on October 11, 2018 Prion diseases affect the brain, causing neurodegenerative problems that always lead to death. They attracted attention in the late 90s due to the “Mad Cow” scare. Today they are not only incurable but even largely not understood. Although Mad Cow disease is not a threat anymore due to veterinary control, human […]
IRB collaborates with CERBIOS on developing antibodies targeted at Leukemia Cells
on October 11, 2018 The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB-USI, Bellinzona, www.irb.usi.ch) and Cerbios-Pharma SA (Bargengo, Lugano), a company active in developing and producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), have started collaborating to develop Antibodies’ derivatives to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which makes it possible to target leukemia cells without attacking healthy ones, thereby […]
New paper from the Cejka lab published in Nature Communications
on October 11, 2018 When DNA gets broken, cells can utilize two main repair pathways. The first mechanism simply patches the two broken ends together at the cost of mutations in the vicinity of the break site. The second process, termed homologous recombination, is using a sister chromatid (a DNA molecule with the same sequence […]
New paper from the Cavalli Lab
on October 8, 2018 Pyruvate (PYR) dehydrogenase complex (PDC) is an enzymatic system that plays a crucial role in cellular metabolism as it controls the entry of carbon into the Krebs cycle. Recent experimental investigations highlighted its important role in cancer metabolism and indicated it as a potential target for the development of new anticancer […]
Narcolepsy, scientists unmask the culprit of an enigmatic disease
on September 22, 2018 Bellinzona-Berne- Patients with a rare disease, called narcolepsy, suffer of excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy (brief episodes of loss of muscle tone triggered by emotions). The disease, first described in 1877, depends on genetic and environmental factors and is caused by the loss in the brain of some neurons that produce […]
Alessandro Marazza received the Best Poster award at the Swiss Apoptosis Meeting 2018
on September 22, 2018 At the 10th Swiss Apoptosis Meeting organized by Thomas Kaufmann, Mario Tschan and Thomas Brunner at the University of Bern, Switzerland, the FEBS Journal editors awarded Alessandro Marazza for the best poster presentation. Over 200 participants from Switzerland, Europe and overseas, including a considerable number of young scientists, attended the Conference, […]
