News & Events

As antimicrobial resistance increases globally, infections with resistant bacteria pose a major public health threat. In a new study in Nature Catalysis, a team of researchers led by Adrian Bunzel from the Bioprocess Laboratory at D-BSSE and Christopher Frohlich from the Arctic University of Norway revealed a novel mechanism for how resistances can emerge alarmingly fast. The discovery may help create antibiotics that are less prone to resistance and guide personalized health care.

Many aspects of how cells organise in a tissue are still a mystery. Researchers from the Computational Biology group of Dagmar Iber use computer modelling to unravel the cellular organisation that gives rise to tissue shape and function in development and disease. A new powerful computer programme presented in Nature Computational Science is a big leap forward. The team hopes to be able to dig much deeper into the biophysics of the fundamental building blocks of life than was possible before.

Organoids grown from human stem cells can help provide answers to important medical questions. In a partnership that looks set to profit both sides, D-BSSE professor Barbara Treutlein has teamed up with pharma giant Roche to advance research in this area.

Yaakov Benenson, Professor of Synthetic Biology, leaves the D-BSSE at the end of March to become a full-time entrepreneur at a biotech startup.