Lab News & Scientific Highlights
Catching Alzheimer's Toxin
Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy of a functional Aβ42 pore equivalent, created by fusing Aβ42 to the oligomerizing, soluble domain of the α-hemolysin toxin, offers new insights into structure and function of proteins forming amyloid aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease.
Cell cytoskeleton as target for new active agents
Using a combination of computer simulations and laboratory experiments, PSI researchers have identified new binding sites for active agents on the vital protein tubulin.
"Ultimately, we aim to understand how diseases start in single cells"
Imaging and sequencing techniques combined with machine learning offer researchers countless opportunities to look inside cells with greater precision than ever before. G.V. Shivashankar, lab head at PSI, describes how such information can be used to find answers to pressing questions.
PSI Thesis Medal 2021 for pioneering Structural Biology at SwissFEL
Dr. Petr Skopintsev received PSI Thesis Medal 2021 for his work on the sodium pump KR2.
A new generation of optogenetic tools for research and medicine
The European Research Council (ERC) is funding an interdisciplinary collaborative project with 10 million euros for the structural and biophysical analysis of selected photoreceptors and their development into "OptoGPCRs", light-controlled molecular switches with a wide range of applications in biology and medicine.
Elucidating the mechanism of a light-driven sodium pump
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have succeeded for the first time in recording a light-driven sodium pump from bacterial cells in action. The findings promise progress in developing new methods in neurobiology. The researchers used the new X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL for their investigations.
Cancer medicine using PSI’s neutron source
At the neutron source SINQ, PSI researchers are producing special radionuclides that aid in the development of new and more effectively targeted cancer therapies. In this they collaborate closely with the clinics in the surrounding area.
Bringing information into the cell
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have elucidated an important part of a siganalling pathway that transmits information through the cell membrane into the interior of a cell. This exists in all mammals and plays an important role, among other things, in the regulation of the heartbeat. The new findings could lead to new therapies.
Cristina Müller (CRS) receives the Marie Curie Award
The Marie Curie Award, the most prestigious price by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, has been awarded in 2018 for the project "Terbium-161 for PSMA-Targeted Radionuclide Therapy of Prostate Cancer", lead by Christina Müller in collaboration with Nick van der Meulen (LRC/NES) EANM-Website(link is external).