2018

Congratulations to David Martínez Martín who has been awarded the Innovation Award of the Alberto Elzaburu Foundation for his efforts in transforming scientific creativity into intangible assets that contribute to the progress and well-being of humankind.

On 19 September, University of Basel and ETH Zurich co-founded the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) in Basel. The Foundation Botnar will support the BRCCH with 100 Mio CHF. In a team, Urs Frey, Director of the Childrens Hospital, and Daniel Müller worked out the BRRCH concept, which brings together top scientists and clinical researchers from a variety of disciplines to develop new methods, systems engineering principles, and digital innovations for global use in paediatrics.  

CONGRATULATIONS SOPHIE!!! This weekend (Sep 1/2) while we were all enjoying the Swiss rain, Sophie Herzog was making history at the Ironman World Championship, South Africa. Sophie made it to place 3 (age group 25-29)!!! Pictures will follow. And a big PARTYYYY!

Using time‐lapse AFM at high temporal and spatial resolution, Estafania Mulvihill unravelled the mechanisms of how gasdermin-D assembles and forms pores in lipid membranes. Dynamic structures of arc‐ and slit‐shaped protein oligomers that transform into larger thermodynamically stable ring‐shaped oligomers were observed. The insights highlight the mechanism by which gasdermin-D self‐assembles and forms transmembrane pores.

Hopp Sophie! Sophie qualified for the prestigious 2018 IRONMAN World Championship at Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, at Sept 1/2, 2018. Sophie qualified among 130’000 athletes to participate. We cross our fingers for a fantastic championship and success - thumbs up!!!  

Congratulations to Gotthold Fläschner and Rajib Shhubert, each receiving the “Swiss Nanoscience PhD Prize 2018” for their fantastic publications appearing in Nature (2017) and in Nature Biotechnology (2018). The two prizes have been sponsored by Bühler AG and Carl Zeiss AG, Switzerland.  

Rajib Schubert from the Biophysics Group headed by Professor Müller was awarded the distinction at the 2018 SNSF Scientific Image Competition for his image “Lessons in the land of snows” and the video “Neuron ballad”. This video is particularly impressive as it demonstrates the neuronal response of a mouse’s brain while listening to classical music. Rajib’s work was selected from 350 entries submitted to the Swiss National Science Foundation and will be displayed at various festivals and exhibitions.

During the past few years Rajib Schubert and colleagues have developed a new and efficient and very simple method to target virus transfection. Basically it guides the virus (electro)mechanically to single cells or cellular regions in vitro and in vivo. The method was published as cover story in Nature Biotechnology.