Medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to recognise the biological activity of natural products in a targeted manner, as researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated. Moreover, AI helps to find molecules that have the same effect as a natural substance but are easier to manufacture. This opens up huge possibilities for drug discovery, which also have potential to rewrite the rulebook for pharmaceutical research.

In the laboratories of PSI, researchers are producing proteins of the novel coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. The University Hospital of Zurich is using these in a long-term study to investigate how many people in Switzerland have actually been infected with the virus.

Scientists from EPFL and University of Bern have successfully implanted – in vivo – their first artificial tubular muscle that augments the aorta and assists cardiac function in pumping blood. Based on these results, the Werner Siemens Foundation has provided the green-light for granting an extra 8 million CHF over 8 years to develop artificial muscles for human disorders.

Crystal structure analysis, computer models, cell cultures – to pursue research on Sars-CoV-2, PSI is exploring many avenues. An overview.

EPFL engineers have developed a neural interface that disappears harmlessly in the body after several months and allows natural tissue to grow back. What’s more, it can be implanted in a patient’s blood vessel rather than inside the brain, thereby avoiding the need for invasive surgery.

EPFL scientists in a European collaboration propose a personalized protocol for optimizing stimulation of optic nerve fibers, for the blind, which takes into account feedback from the viewer’s brain. The protocol has been tested on artificial neural networks known to simulate the physiology of the entire visual system, from the eye to the visual cortex. The stimulation protocol will be tested in clinical trials with partners in Rome.