Biology

EPFL biophysicists have developed control software that optimizes how fluorescence microscopes collect data on living samples. Their control loop, used to image mitochondrial and bacterial sites of division in detail, is released as an open source plug-in and could inspire a new generation of intelligent microscopes.

Zebrafish eggs are among the most commonly used model organisms in genetic, developmental and toxicology research. A device developed by EPFL spin-off Bionomous cuts the time it takes to sort these embryos from several hours to just a few minutes.

A new technique keeps cells alive during extraction to track the activity of thousands of genes across time. The breakthrough method is called Live-seq and was jointly developed by scientists at EPFL and ETH Zurich.

It has recently been supposed that humans could trace their ancestry back to a strange microscopic creature with a mouth and no anus. Thanks to analysis of 500 million year old fossils at the Swiss Light Source SLS, we can be relieved to find out this is not true: Saccorhytus is not a deuterostome like us, but an ecdysozoan. The findings, published today in Nature, make important amendments to the early phylogenetic tree and our understanding of how life developed.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and EPFL are expanding the emerging field of single-cell analysis with a ground-breaking method: Live-seq makes it possible to measure the activity of thousands of genes in a single cell without having to isolate and destroy it.

Throughout Switzerland, infections with bacteria of the genus Legionella are increasing significantly. Researchers at Eawag have now outlined how the growth of these microbial inhabitants of drinking water systems could be curbed with the help of other organisms.