Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize 2018 to Sara Montagner
on September 22, 2018 Dr. Sara Montagner received the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize 2018 from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for her research on the function of immune cells conducted at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI Università della Svizzera italiana). The prize, worth 25,000 Swiss francs, will be awarded in […]
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, […]
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 […]
Young researcher at the IRB awarded with the “2018 Balli Prize”
on September 12, 2018 To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Dr. Ettore Balli Foundation – which since 1988 has been awarding grants to patients in need of medical care, scholarships to qualified doctors for training abroad, contributions to institutes of public interest for the purchase of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, and contributions to doctors […]
New paper by the Sallusto lab published in Nature Immunology
on September 10, 2018 T helper lymphocytes that produce IL-17 (TH17 cells) are pivotal in protection against extracellular bacteria and fungi. They exert this function by recruiting neutrophils and by secreting a wide range of pro-inflammatory cytokines and effector molecules. TH17 cells can also induce severe tissue damage and chronic inflammation, eventually leading to autoimmune […]
New paper from the Uguccioni’s lab on a study that reveals how a local anaesthetic can inhibit cell migration
on September 7, 2018 The group of Dr. Uguccioni has revealed the mechanism by which lidocaine, a well-known local anaesthetic, inhibits the ability of breast cancer cells to respond to chemotactic stimuli, thus suggesting how this drug can contribute to block metastases. The discovery is the result of the joint effort of a team of […]
New paper from the Molinari lab on ERLAD, a new degradative pathway for proteasome-resistant toxic polymers
on August 3, 2018 The EMBO Journal published a work by Ilaria Fregno, Elisa Fasana et al. of Maurizio Molinari group, describing a new inducible, receptor-mediated, vesicular transport route between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), an organelle producing about 40% of the eukaryotic cells proteome, and the lysosomes, the degradative compartments in our cells. This novel […]
Roger Geiger receives the prestigious ERC Starting grant to improve personalized adoptive T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer
on July 27, 2018 Dr. Roger Geiger has been awarded the prestigious ERC Starting grant (1.4 million Euros) from the European Research Council. The aim of the granted project, named TIL-FIT, is to develop methods to fully exploit the potential of tumor-infiltrating T cells (TILs), which can be used as a “living drug” to treat […]
New paper by the Perez Lab: IRB identifies the receptor of the virus responsible of the most common cause of permanent births defects, a study published in Cell
on July 26, 2018 A collaborative effort between the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) affiliated to the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Genentech, USA and the Institute of Molecular System Biology, ETH Zürich led to the identification of Neuropilin 2 as the central receptor for the pentameric complex of Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). This study […]
Rfx7: important transcription factor for natural killer cell-mediated immunity
on July 3, 2018 A collaborative project between Swiss teams from the University and the Ludwig Center for Cancer Research of Lausanne, the ETH and the University of Zurich, and a team of researchers from the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, led by Greta Guarda, from the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona, affiliated to […]
