Health Sciences

Brilliant medicines

In the service of health, scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI work with radionuclides and develop agents to treat cancer and to detect tumours. Their research provides support to hospitals and is of great interest to Swiss industry.

EPFL is developing next-generation soft hearing implants

Working with clinicians from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, a team of EPFL researchers has developed a conformable electrode implant that will allow people with a dysfunctional inner ear to hear again. This new device could replace existing auditory brainstem implants, which have a number of shortcomings.

Cancer cells under attack

At PSI, cancer patients receive a therapy that is unique in Switzerland. Bombardment with protons wipes out cancer cells – and does so more precisely than with any other form of irradiation.

On the road to safe nanomedicine

Tiny particles that can fight cancer or that can easily pass through any interface within our body are a great promise for medicine. But there is little knowledge thus far about what exactly will happen to nanoparticles within our tissues and whether or not they can cause disease by themselves. Within an international research consortium, Empa scientists have now developed guidelines that should enable the safe development of nanoparticles for medical use.

Better work climate in road construction

Sweltering heat, hot fumes and noisy machines - asphalting roads is hard work. Empa researchers have analysed whether and how much harmful emissions are produced when regular "hot asphalt" or so-called warm asphalt is laid. The result: the more ecological warm asphalt also outperforms the conventional method in terms of emissions.

The path of breast-to-brain cancer metastasis

Scientists at EPFL’s Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research have discovered a signaling pathway that breast tumors exploit to metastasize to the brain. The work is published in Nature.

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