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Archive Research 2022

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  • New UZH Magazin

    Climate Change, Wars and Insatiable Data Dredgers

    The challenges facing the global community today are complex and manifold: climate crisis, war, poverty, inequality, digitalization, a new political world order. The new issue of the UZH Magazin analyzes some of the problems and points to possible solutions.
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  • Behavioral Economics

    The Costs of Rationality

    Paul Glimcher, co-founder of the field of neuroeconomics and professor at New York University, recently held a keynote speech at UZH. In his lecture titled "Efficiently Irrational", he showed why seemingly irrational decisions are economical and how too much choice leads to worse decisions.
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  • Environmental Virology

    Acids against viruses

    A new study by various Swiss universities shows that aerosols in indoor air can vary in acidity. This acidity determines how long viruses remain infectious in the air – with profound implications for virus transmission and strategies to contain it.
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  • Academic Career Development

    Lecturers

    Under Next Generation @ UZH, the University of Zurich is creating permanent positions for lecturers and senior lecturers, with a clear focus on either teaching or research, from 2023. This step opens up attractive new career paths for highly qualified junior researchers.
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  • The LOOP Zurich

    Precise Treatment

    The LOOP Zurich research center combines expertise from UZH, ETH Zurich and the four university hospitals in Zurich with the aim of developing more personalized therapies. Two new projects supported by The LOOP Zurich target urinary tract infections and obesity respectively.
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  • 2022 Science Barometer Switzerland:

    2022 Science Barometer Switzerland: Majority of Swiss Trust Science, Some Remain Skeptical

    Swiss people’s interest and confidence in science increased during the pandemic but has now returned to pre-Covid levels, the 2022 edition of the Science Barometer Switzerland has shown. Online sources and instant messaging have become the preferred sources for people seeking information on science topics.
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  • Virology

    New Virus Discovered in Swiss Ticks

    The Alongshan virus was discovered in China only five years ago. Now UZH researchers have found the novel virus for the first time in Swiss ticks. It appears to be at least as widespread as the tickborne encephalitis virus and causes similar symptoms.
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  • Neuroeconomics

    Conflicting Motives Govern Sense of Fairness

    Researchers at UZH have investigated the motives influencing our perception of justice in resource distribution. They found that although people feel an aversion to inequality, they are also reluctant to harm others and to upend existing social hierarchies.
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  • Medicine

    Commercial Dishwashers Destroy Protective Layer in Gut

    Residue from rinse agents is left behind on dishes after they are cleaned in professional-grade dishwashers. This damages the natural protective layer in the gut and can contribute to the onset of chronic diseases, as demonstrated by researchers.
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  • UZH Center for Crisis Competence

    Crisis Mode

    The new UZH Center for Crisis Competence (CCC) opened its doors this week with a public launch event. Alexander Wagner, professor of finance and co-head of the CCC, tells us about the center’s purpose and how it will contribute to improved crisis competence.
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  • NCCR Evolving Language

    Genes and Languages not Always Together

    Does the history of our languages match the history of our genes? A team of scientists at the University of Zurich and the Max-Planck-Institute have revealed a large number of matches – but also widespread mismatches in around 20 percent of cases, including in Malta, Hungary and Namibia.
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  • Vulnerable Prehistoric Giants

    The remains of glyptodonts, a group of extinct giant armadillos, indicate that humans spread to South America earlier than previously assumed. Found in northwestern Venezuela, the fractured skulls could represent evidence of hunting by humans, says UZH paleontologist Marcelo Sánchez. Skilled human hunters are also likely to have contributed to pushing the large, heavily armored animals over the brink.
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  • Cardiology

    A Fountain of Youth for Blood Vessels

    Vascular aging is the most common cause of fatal cardiovascular diseases. Can blood vessels be rejuvenated using fat cells? Cardiologist Soheil Saeedi is developing a novel method to do just that.
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  • Biomedicine

    Immune System Reboot in MS Patients

    Blood stem cell transplantation is a radical but highly effective therapy for multiple sclerosis. An UZH study has now examined in detail the way in which the treatment curbs the autoimmune disease and how the immune system regenerates afterwards.
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  • Climate Research

    Vegetation Regulates Energy Exchange in the Arctic

    Global warming is changing the Arctic by causing permafrost thaw, glacier melt, droughts, fires and changes in vegetation. Different plant communities in the tundra play a key role in the energy exchange between land and the atmosphere but are not taken into account in climate models.
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  • Addictive Behavior

    Wodka, Benzos & Co: Gefährliche Mischung für Jugendliche

    At least 33 young people have died from polydrug use in Switzerland since 2018. Polydrug use refers to taking two or more psychoactive substances at the same time. The young adults are often unaware of the associated risks and rarely use the available services to minimize the risks.
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  • Paleobiology

    Vocal Communication Originated over 400 Million Years Ago

    Acoustic communication is not only widespread in land vertebrates like birds and mammals, but also in reptiles, amphibians and fishes. According to researchers at the University of Zurich, the evolutionary origin of vocal communication dates back more than 400 million years.
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  • Media Research

    Rising News Deprivation Has Negative Consequences for Democracy

    News media is reaching fewer and fewer people. Young adults consume just seven minutes of news per day on their smartphones. This poses a problem for democracy: news-deprived people are less interested in politics, have lower rates of participation in the political process and have less trust in political institutions.
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  • Neurolinguistics

    Literacy Influences Understanding of Speech

    Do people who can read and write understand spoken language better than those who are illiterate? Research carried out by a UZH researcher with collaborators in India has found that handwriting, specifically the type of writing system used for a language, influences how our brains process speech.
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  • Behavioral economics

    Early Self-Regulation Boosts Children’s Educational Success

    A study by the universities of Zurich and Mainz has shown that teaching children how to manage their attention and impulses in primary school has a positive long-term effect on their later educational success.
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  • Evolutionary Biology

    Threatened Aldabra Giant Tortoise Genome Decoded

    They can live for more than 100 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms – Aldabra giant tortoises. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now decoded the genome of Aldabrachelys gigantea, one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. The findings will help to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened species.
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  • The Art of Learning

    Happy Hormones for the Brain

    Good teaching is when learners can make their own connections to knowledge they already have, says Kai Niebert. The education researcher is looking at how teaching is being conducted today and how it can be improved, especially at high school level.
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  • Exhibition

    Collecting and Selling as a Business Model and Relationship Building

    A workspace exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum examines the commercial collecting practices of Borys Malkin, using objects and contemporary documents that came to Zurich in 1969.
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  • Parabolic Flights

    New Flight Platform Increases Flexibility in Research

    The 6th Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign, run by the UZH Space Hub and the Swiss Sky Lab Foundation, takes place at the Air Base Dübendorf from 3 to 14 October. It is the first time a campaign is featuring a Cessna Citation II research aircraft, operated by the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). The airplane will carry four research projects into weightlessness.
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  • Abuse in the Catholic Church

    “We are not judges”

    Historians Monika Dommann and Marietta Meier are working on cases of abuse on behalf of the Catholic Church. Their project exemplifies how historical scholarship can engage in the public discussion of a controversial topic.
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  • Dental Medicine

    Genetic Defects Lead to Enamel Malformations

    Mutations in a certain molecule result in severe damage in the structure and mineral composition of tooth enamel in mice, according to a study conducted at the UZH Center of Dental Medicine. The researchers combined genetic, molecular and imaging techniques.
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  • 10 years of the UZH Foundation

    Fueling New Ideas

    For 10 years, the UZH Foundation has been successfully raising funds for research, teaching and innovation – including for the Digital Entrepreneur Fellowship.
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  • Art of learning

    Workouts for the Brain

    While learning new things seems to come naturally to children and young people, the older we get the more difficult we find it to acquire new skills. But it’s like sailing – you can make progress even with a headwind, you just have to know how.
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  • Medicine

    Immunotherapy Reduces Lung and Liver Fibrosis in Mice

    Chronic diseases often lead to fibrosis, a condition in which organ tissue suffers from excessive scarring. UZH researchers have now developed an immunotherapy that specifically targets the cause – activated fibroblasts – while leaving normal connective tissue cells unharmed.
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  • New UZH Magazin

    The Art of Learning

    Learning is itself a skill that must be learned. The best ways to do this and the requirements for success are current topics of research at UZH. The new UZH Magazin examines how our ability to learn changes over the course of our lives, how good teaching works, and what goes on in our brains when we learn. The current issue is published jointly by the University of Zurich and UZH Alumni.
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  • Swiss Science Prize Latsis

    “Improved access to medicine and innovative technologies”

    Lawyer and medic Kerstin Noëlle Vokinger has been awarded the Swiss Science Prize Latsis, worth CHF 100,000. The award is made annually to a junior researcher under the age of 40. The professor of public law and digitalization at the University of Zurich is a woman of many talents. She studied law and medicine in parallel and earned doctorates in both disciplines.
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  • Strategic Partnerships

    Different Approaches to Healthy Longevity Around the World

    The aging population is a global challenge that requires local solutions – to help people lead healthier lives for longer. In the Healthy Longevity Innovation Cluster, researchers from UZH and the University of Queensland are developing innovative approaches to provide targeted support to older people.
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  • Climate change

    Longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves in Swiss cities

    Hot days followed by sweltering nights without any temperature relief in between might become a new norm towards the end of the 21st century. Researchers from the University of Zurich have analyzed the frequency, intensity and length of such extreme events for five Swiss cities. Lugano and Geneva would be most affected.
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  • Medicine

    High Cholesterol, Overweight and Reduced Physical Stamina Are Long Covid Sequelae in Young Adults

    Healthy young people with just a mild Covid infection can sometimes suffer temporary post-infection consequences such as tiredness, loss of smell and taste or reduced fertility. They usually recover well. In the longer term, metabolic disorders and cardiovascular complications are possible.
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  • Medical genetics

    Genetic Testing Before Pregnancy Detects up to Half of the Risk

    Are would-be parents carrying a genetic risk of serious illnesses that they could potentially pass on to their children? Researchers at the University of Zurich have now shown that a maximal variant of this test detects the risk in 44 percent of couples who are related by blood, and in just 5 percent of other couples.
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  • Medicine

    Artificial Intelligence Improves Treatment in Women with Heart Attacks

    Heart attacks in women are more likely to be fatal than in men. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now developed a novel artificial-intelligence-based risk score that improves personalized care for female patients with heart attacks.
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  • Portrait

    Catching Butterflies

    Church membership is declining, but there is a proliferation of religious themes and practices in the online space. Theologian Thomas Schlag heads up the new University Research Priority Program Digital Religion(s), which examines faith in the digital realm..
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  • Eating Plants

    Weeding, Mulching, Sowing, Reaping

    Students garden on the Irchel Campus, and a literary scholar gets involved in a farming cooperative: the act of growing one's own vegetables contributes to food security, brings people together, makes them healthier and promotes sustainability.
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  • Evolutionary Biology

    Frogs Use Brains or Camouflage to Evade Predators

    How do frogs protect themselves from predators? Some species rely on cognitive predator evasion, using their large brains and strong hind legs. For species exposed to high predation pressure, effective camouflage to avoid being detected in the first place may be preferable.
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  • Paläontology

    New 3D Model Shows: Megalodon Could Eat Prey the Size of Entire Killer Whales

    International researchers in collaboration with UZH used an exceptionally preserved fossil to create a 3D computer model of the full body of a megadolon. Their results suggest that the megalodon could fully consume prey the size of today’s killer whales.
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  • Research Policy

    Seeds for All

    Important patents for gene-edited seeds are held by universities. While this presents an opportunity for farmers in developing countries, we are unlikely to see speedy deregulation of this new technology anytime soon.
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  • Climate Change

    Extreme Heat and Drought Require More Systematic Risk Assessment

    Simultaneous extreme heat and drought have consequences in a variety of areas – for example the economy, health and food production. In addition, due to complex socio-economic connections, such extreme events can cause knock-on effects.
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  • Plant Biology

    Global Spread of Powdery Mildew through Migration and Trade

    The worldwide distribution of one of the most important cereal pathogens is the result of human activity. Researchers at the University of Zurich have traced the history and spread of wheat powdery mildew along wheat trade routes and found that mixing of genetic ancestries of related powdery mildew species played a central role in the evolution and adaptation of the pathogen.
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  • Anthropology

    Communication Makes Hunting Easier for Chimpanzees

    Chimpanzees use communication to coordinate their cooperative behavior – such as during hunting. When chimpanzees produce a specific vocalization, known as the “hunting bark”, they recruit more group members to the hunt and capture their prey more effectively.
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  • UZH Summer Quiz

    did you know

    New findings are emerging from UZH research all the time, and UZH is also constantly evolving as an institution. Our summer quiz will take you on a tour of some topics that we’ve covered over the past several months. Have fun trying to guess the answers.
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  • Psychology

    How to Quarrel Constructively

    Happy couples clash over the same issues as unhappy ones, and have just as many conflicts – but they argue differently, shows a large-scale long-term psychological study from UZH.
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  • Medicine

    When the Heart Stops Beating

    Hereditary diseases often play a role when young people succumb to sudden cardiac death. Genetic analysis may prevent further suffering in the affected families, as a study at the Institute of Forensic Medicine has shown.
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  • Biochemistry

    Individual Cells Are Smarter Than Thought

    Humans make decisions based on various sensory information which is integrated into a holistic percept by the brain. But how do single cells make decisions? Much more autonomously than previously thought, as researchers from the University of Zurich have now shown. Cells base their decisions not only on outside signals like growth factors, but also on information they receive from inside the cell. This can even lead to treatment-resistant cancer cells.
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  • Communication science

    High-Quality Media Coverage of Ukraine War

    In times of war, the media fulfill a vital function as information providers. The quality of coverage about the war in Ukraine has been relatively high, a study by the University of Zurich has now shown. Swiss media have been offering reports on the war from various perspectives, providing background information and using images carefully. However, the media depend on external sources and have failed to cover some regions indirectly affected by the conflict.
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  • Developmental Psychology

    Social Development of Infants Unaffected by Covid-19 Pandemic

    Health issues and loss, social isolation and mental health problems – the pandemic has had a drastic effect on our society. But how have the youngest members of society been coping with these changes? Researchers at the University of Zurich have found that the presence of parents and caregivers is enough to mitigate the pandemic’s negative effects on the social development of infants.
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  • WTO Moot Court Competition

    Fab Four Dazzle in Moot Court

    Four UZH students emerged victorious from the international John H. Jackson Moot Court, which simulates a hearing of a fictitious case between two World Trade Organization members. The successful students, the first winners ever from UZH, had to present their arguments before a panel of experts at the WTO.
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  • Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute

    Looking at the Bigger Picture

    Covid infections are on the rise again. Time for UZH epidemiologists Milo Puhan and Viktor von Wyl to take stock and look ahead. With video.
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  • Language Science

    Gestures Can Improve Understanding in Language Disorders

    When words fail, gestures can help to get the message across – especially for people who have a language disorder. An international research team has now shown that listeners attend the gestures of people with aphasia more often and for much longer than previously thought. This has implications for the use of gestures in speech therapy.
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  • Veterinary Medicine

    Dangerous Bites

    Mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting many disease-causing pathogens. In Switzerland, biting midges in particular make life difficult for sheep and horses. Entomologist Niels Verhulst researches methods to keep the unwanted insects away.
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  • Psychology

    New Sibling Diagnosis for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

    The World Health Organization (WHO) recently listed a new sibling diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), termed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). An international team with the involvement of the University of Zurich has now summarized the symptoms of the long-awaited new diagnosis and issued guidelines for clinical assessment and treatment.
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  • Research on Aging

    Living Healthily for Longer

    2021-2030 has been declared the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing by the World Health Organization. Research into healthy longevity and the development of innovative approaches to aging have been a strategic priority at UZH for several years now. The creation of the new Healthy Longevity Center provides an added boost and a firm footing for research in this increasingly important area.
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  • World Biodiversity Forum

    Reversing the Trend

    At the World Biodiversity Forum in Davos this week, the focus is on how to slow down species loss and protect ecosystems. The UZH-organized conference aims to inspire action by bringing together researchers and practitioners.
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  • SNF Grants

    Sebastian Jessberger and Nicola Serra Awarded SNSF Advanced Grants

    The Swiss National Science Foundation is supporting two University of Zurich projects with CHF 2.5 million each. Sebastian Jessberger is investigating the aging process in the brain, while Nicola Serra is on the trail of a sensational development in particle physics.
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  • Medicine

    Nitric Oxide Does Not Improve Babies’ Recovery after Heart Surgery

    Infants undergoing heart surgery are connected to a heart-lung machine and given nitric oxide as an anti-inflammatory. Researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Queensland have now conducted the world’s largest study of its kind, showing that using nitric oxide does not improve children’s recovery after surgery.
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  • UZH Magazin

    eating plants

    Researchers at UZH are exploring sustainable agriculture and the future of food, from transforming our eating habits and growing our own greens to breeding crops with new techniques, distributing seeds more fairly and farming with biodiversity in mind. The latest UZH Magazin explores how we can eat and produce food in a way that benefits both our own health and the health of our planet.
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  • Finance

    Sustainable Investments by Private Banks Are Becoming Almost Standard Practice

    Private banks across Europe are meeting more client demands, new regulations and pressure from stakeholders with better qualified advisors. A new study carried out at the University of Zurich shows that banks are rising to the challenge of investing sustainably with varying degrees of success.
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  • Biodiversity

    Diverse Forests Outyield Monocultures

    Multispecies tree plantations are more productive than monocultures, according to a new study carried out in China. UZH environmental scientist Bernhard Schmid was involved in the research.
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  • Biodiversity

    Drought-Exposure History Improves Recovery of Grassland Communities from Subsequent Drought

    When a plant community is exposed to drought, the different species undergo evolutionary changes. An international study with UZH participation now shows that this leads to improved resilience to future drought stress over time.
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  • Call for Proposals: Open Research Data

    “Great opportunity for open science”

    As part of the national Open Research Data Action Plan, swissuniversities is providing CHF 32 million for projects in the area of open research data. UZH vice presidents Elisabeth Stark and Christian Schwarzenegger see this as a great opportunity to integrate UZH's Open Science Policy into research practices.
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  • Research Funding

    Boost for One Health and Quantitative Legal Research

    With its new funding instrument, TRANSFORM, UZH is laying the groundwork for innovation across the whole university. The Institute of One Health Research and the Center for Legal Data Science are set to receive seed funding of around CHF 2.7 million in total over the next four years.
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  • Medicine

    A World Premiere: for the First Time, a Human Liver Was Treated in a Machine and then Successfully Transplanted

    The multidisciplinary Zurich research team Liver4Life has succeeded in doing something during a treatment attempt that had never been achieved in the history of medicine until now: it treated an originally damaged human liver in a machine for three days outside of a body and then implanted the recovered organ into a cancer patient. One year later, the patient is doing well.
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  • Digital Society Initiative (DSI)

    From "Good" to "Ethical" Drones

    What is needed to turn "good" drones used for humanitarian purposes into "ethical" drones? And how can ethical values be integrated in the use and development of new technologies? Dr. Ning Wang reports on the role of the DSI in helping humanitarian organizations integrate ethical values into innovation practices.
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  • Biodiversity

    Satellite Monitoring of Biodiversity Moves Within Reach

    Global biodiversity assessments require the collection of data on changes in plant biodiversity on an ongoing basis. Researchers from the universities of Zurich and Montréal have now shown that plant communities can be reliably monitored using imaging spectroscopy, which in the future will be possible via satellite. This paves the way for near real-time global biodiversity monitoring.
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  • Anthropology

    Watch dolphins line up to self-medicate skin ailments at coral “clinics”

    If a human comes down with a rash, they might go to the doctor and come away with some ointment to put on it. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get skin conditions, too, but they come about their medication by queuing up nose-to-tail to rub themselves against corals. In the journal iScience on 19 May, researchers show that these corals have medicinal properties, suggesting that the dolphins are using the marine invertebrates to medicate skin conditions.
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  • Neuroinformatics

    Component for brain-inspired computing

    A new material enables creating electronic circuits that emulate the human brain. They are supposed to increase the efficiency of machine learning.
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  • Philosophy

    When Something Hurts

    Words used to describe pain often do not have the same meaning for patients as for medical professionals. That can lead to misdiagnoses, says philosopher Kevin Reuter. He conducts research into our understanding of pain.
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  • Palaeontolgy

    Previously Unknown Dolphin Species Was Present in Switzerland

    Twenty million years ago, the Swiss Plateau region, or “Mittelland”, was an ocean in which dolphins swam. Researchers at the University of Zurich’s Paleontological Institute have now discovered two previously unknown species related to modern sperm whales and oceanic dolphins, which they identified based on ear bones.
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  • UZH Space Hub

    Robot Dog on the Way to the Moon

    The robotic explorer GLIMPSE, created at UZH and ETH Zurich, has made it into the final round of a competition for prospecting resources in space. The long-term goal is for the robot to explore the south polar region of the moon.
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  • Evolution

    Complex Human Childbirth and Cognitive Abilities a Result of Walking Upright

    Childbirth in humans is much more complex and painful than in great apes. It was long believed that this was a result of humans’ larger brains and the narrow dimensions of the mother’s pelvis. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used 3D simulations to show that childbirth was also a highly complex process in early hominins species that gave birth to relatively small-brained newborns – with important implications for their cognitive development.
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  • Geriatric Medicine

    Three Simple Interventions for Cancer Prevention in Older People

    A combination of high-dose vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids and a simple home strength exercise program (SHEP) can cumulatively reduce the risk of cancer in healthy adults over the age of 70 by 61 percent, the international DO-HEALTH study led by the University of Zurich has shown. It is the first study to test the combined benefit of three affordable public health interventions for the prevention of invasive cancers. The results could influence the future of cancer prevention in older adults.
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  • Covid-19

    Tackling the Consequences of Long Covid

    A research team at the University of Zurich has helped people affected by Long Covid identify the problems they most urgently want scientists to tackle, through a collaborative citizen science approach. The topics identified as most pressing include the development and clinical testing of effective therapies, appropriate healthcare structures, increased awareness as well as better data on children and adolescents affected by the disease.
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  • FAN Award

    Antibiotic Resistance, Occupational Pensions and Secularism in Bangladesh

    Kira Schmitt, Michael E. Meier and Mascha Schulz have won this year's FAN Awards for their outstanding research work. The three junior researchers explored antibiotic resistance in small animal clinics, occupational pensions, and secularism and religion in Bangladesh.
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  • Deep Learning

    Automated analysis of animal behaviour

    Researchers have developed a new method that uses artificial intelligence to analyze animal behavior. This opens the door to longer-​term in-​depth studies in the field of behavioral science – while also helping to improve animal welfare. The method is already being tested at Zurich Zoo.
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  • Annual Report 2021

    Diverse Paths in Academia»

    Elisabeth Stark wants to provide junior researchers at UZH with a wide range of career paths. In the interview, the Vice President Research talks about good supervision, academic freedom for budding scholars, and the joy of being a researcher.n zu sein.
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  • Blockchain

    Distributed Trust

    Buying a car? Blockchain promises greater transparency and a revolution in business models. All you need is faith in the technology. Liudmila Zavolokina studies how users trust – or mistrust – these new applications.
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  • New Center of Competence

    Words that Work

    The new Center of Competence Language & Medicine Zurich connects disciplines and combines basic research with clinical application. We take a look at two of the new center’s projects fostering innovative collaboration between linguistics and medicine at UZH.
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  • Evolutionary Biology

    A Single Gene Controls Species Diversity in an Ecosystem

    To test if a single gene could affect an entire ecosystem, a research team of the University of Zurich conducted a lab experiment with a plant and its associated ecosystem of insects. They found that plants with a mutation at a specific gene foster ecosystems with more insect species. The discovery of such a “keystone gene” could change current biodiversity conservation strategies.
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  • Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich

    Fighting Cancer with Bacteria

    Some bacteria in the gut reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments, while others increase it. The Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich is exploring these remarkable abilities in a new flagship project.
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  • Ecology

    Bright Nights

    Our nights are losing their darkness. Artificial light is making them brighter and brighter. Light pollution is affecting people and wildlife – but there are strategies to limit it.
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  • Anthropology

    Popular Male Dolphins Produce More Offspring

    The reproductive success of male dolphins is not determined by strength or age, but via social bonds with other males. The better integrated males are in their social network, the more offspring they produce, a new study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Zurich has shown using long-term behavioral and genetic data.
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  • Developmental Psychology

    Frequent External Childcare Can Affect Children’s Behavior

    How does childcare outside of the family affect the development of children and adolescents? The survey suggests that the more time children spend in external daycare, the more likely they are to exhibit problematic behavior; however, this behavior generally disappears at the end of primary school.
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  • Neuroscience

    Astrocyte Networks in the Mouse Brain Control Spatial Learning and Memory

    Astrocytes form large networks of interconnected cells in the central nervous system. When these cell-to-cell couplings are disrupted in the brain of adult mice, the animals are no longer able to store spatial information. The astrocytes network is thus essential for spatial learning and memory formation, as neuroscientists of the University of Zurich now show.
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  • Medicine

    Patients Share Their Experiences

    What do people with multiple sclerosis, dementia or chronic pain go through? What are their experiences of medical practices or hospitals like? What kind of support do they find helpful? The new dipex.ch platform launched by Zurich researchers makes patient experience reports publicly available.
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  • Immunology

    Multiple Sclerosis: Study with Twins Untangles Environmental and Genetic Influences

    Researchers at the University of Zurich and Munich’s LMU Klinikum hospital have studied the immune system of pairs of monozygotic twins to identify the influence of the environment and of genetics in cases of multiple sclerosis. In the process, they may have discovered precursor cells of the disease-causing T cells.
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  • Wyss Zurich Translational Center

    New Foundation for Translational Research and Technology Transfer

    The University of Zurich and ETH Zurich have established the Wyss Zurich Foundation. With this step, the two Zurich universities aim to put the Wyss Zurich Translational Center, a joint accelerator for translational research specializing in regenerative medicine and robotics, on a stable long-term footing.
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  • Neuroscience

    Illuminating Real-Time Brain Dynamics of Neuropeptides with a Fluorescent Biosensor

    Neuropeptides play fundamental roles in modulating cellular and circuit functions within the brain. One such signaling molecule – orexin – regulates arousal and wakefulness, and its failure can lead to constant daytime sleepiness (narcolepsy). University of Zurich researchers have now developed a fluorescent orexin biosensor to observe this molecule "live" in the living mouse brain.
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  • Climate Change

    Arctic Winter Warming Causes Cold Damage in the Subtropics of East Asia

    Due to climate change, Arctic winters are getting warmer. An international study by UZH researchers shows that Arctic warming causes temperature anomalies and cold damage thousands of kilometers away in East Asia. This in turn leads to reduced vegetation growth, later blossoming, smaller harvests and reduced CO2 absorption by the forests in the region.
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  • Research Involving Animals at UZH

    «Tierversuche bleiben in absehbarer Zukunft unverzichtbar»

    Research involving animals is crucial when it comes to achieving scientific and medical progress, and is also very important for UZH, emphasizes Elisabeth Stark. The Vice President Research believes maintaining exemplary standards of animal welfare and an open dialogue with society is key.
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  • Covid-19

    Immunological Memory Provides Long-Term Protection against Coronavirus

    Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 by infection or vaccination generates immune cells that provide long-term immunity. These long-lived memory T cells play a key role in preventing severe cases of Covid-19. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered how these memory T cells form.
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  • Delinquency

    Understanding Who Commits Which Crimes

    Why do some young men turn to crime, while others don’t? An international study shows that preferences such as risk tolerance, impatience and altruism as well as self-control can predict who will commit crime. Risk-tolerant, impatient young men are more likely to commit property crime, while people with low self-control tend to commit violent, drug and sexual offenses.
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  • Anthropology

    Cracking Chimpanzee Culture

    Chimpanzees don’t automatically know what to do when they come across nuts and stones. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used field experiments to show that chimpanzees thus do not simply invent nut cracking with tools, but need to learn such complex cultural behaviors from others.
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  • UZH Spin-Offs in 2021

    Levelling Up

    Every year, innovative UZH researchers launch their own businesses – in 2021, four new spin-offs were founded. Spin-offs play a key role when it comes to transferring scientific findings into industry practice
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  • Successful innovation

    “We have created a stable active ingredient”

    Molecular Partners, a spin-off from the University of Zurich, has developed a drug against Covid-19 and is applying for approval, together with Novartis, in Switzerland and the US. Phase 2 clinical trials have already demonstrated efficacy in Covid patients. Andreas Plückthun of the UZH Department of Biochemistry was involved from the start.
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  • Top of the Press Pops

    Screams of Joy and Modern People

    Health, psychology and technology were the most popular topics covered by media releases on the University of Zurich’s research projects in 2021. Worldwide, news that the modern human brain evolved in Africa and that we perceive shrieks of joy more intensely than roars of rage were the two most reported stories out of UZH.
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  • Covid-19

    School Closures Led to More Sleep and Better Quality of Life for Adolescents

    The school closures in spring 2020 had a negative effect on the health and well-being of many young people. But homeschooling also had a positive flipside: Thanks to sleeping longer in the morning, many teenagers reported improved health and health-related quality of life.
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