Coronavirus

NICEdrug.ch, a new database developed by a group of researchers from EPFL, may help scientists assess potential drugs more quickly, including how they are metabolized by the body and their potential side effects.

Why do some people get sick and die from COVID-19 while others seem to be completely unaffected? EPFL’s Blue Brain Project deployed its powerful brain simulation technology and expertise in cellular and molecular biology to try and answer this question.

The Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and EPFL teamed up to develop a new test that’s sensitive enough to measure the amount of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies present in the bloodstream. The scientists’ discovery, published in the prestigious Science Translational Medicine, opens promising new avenues for tracking immunity acquired by infection or vaccination. With this test, experts can measure the level of protection against variants of the virus and monitor their prevalence over time.

In the laboratories of PSI, researchers are producing proteins of the novel coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. The University Hospital of Zurich is using these in a long-term study to investigate how many people in Switzerland have actually been infected with the virus.

Niko Beerenwinkel, a Professor at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel, is working with colleagues from other research institutions to examine wastewater for traces of the coronavirus. He has detected the Delta variant in five out of six Swiss wastewater treatment plants examined, including ones in Zurich and Bern. Recently he spoke with ETH News.