News and Scientific Highlights
Millions in funding for brain and quantum research
The European Research Council approves PSI projects for the development of a quantum computer and brain research worth about 5 million euros.
Biased signalling for better drugs
A dream drug would provide a targeted therapeutic effect without side effects. Biased signalling could make this a reality. Publishing in PNAS, PSI researchers present a platform for biased signalling-based drug discovery.
Fingerprint of Copper in Peptides Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
In an interdisciplinary project, researchers from the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology in BIO and the Laboratory for Condensed Matter in PSD have revealed the reaction between the nitrogen atoms of the amyloid-beta peptide and copper/zinc ions by using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
Protein distancing
PSI researchers have developed a new method to attach proteins to the surface of virus-like particles.
SGS award for Pooja Thakkar
Pooja Thakkar received the Shoulders-Gray-Spindt award at the 34th Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference for her paper "Voltage-controlled three-electron-beam interference by a three-element Boersch phase shifter with top and bottom shielding electrodes"
On-demand sample delivery article highlighted in "Applied Physics Letters"
An article on the on-demand sample delivery and protein crystallography using acoustic levitation has been selected in an Applied Physics Letters collection of papers on technology and application of acoustic tweezers.
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.
"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.