Oliver Mai-Kolerus, Benedikt Salmen

Cystic fibrosis remains one of the most common fatal genetic diseases, as well as the most common fatal hereditary lung disease worldwide. In recent years, medical scientists have made intensified attempts at understanding the disease mechanism at the core of cystic fibrosis, namely the defect in the CFTR protein. In…

PRESENTED BY Lev Maksimov NOMINATED BY Industrial University of Tyumen Tags: CleanTech, WaterTreatment

Despite a detailed understanding of the constituents of matter, we don’t yet know why matter exists. Precision measurements, able to provide potential answers, are limited by the size of data sets. High data rates are therefore needed in experiments but require exceptional computing power. Traditional CPU-based systems do not meet…

PRESENTED BY Michael Marthaler NOMINATED BY Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren e.V. Tags: Quantum Algorithms, Molecule Simulation, Quantum Physics, Quantum Tech, Materials Development, Structural Design

In a new normal after the pandemic as well as in the era of AI and trillion sensors, data traffic and related energy consumption will grow exponentially. Thus, for global sustainable development, a revolution in materials science is needed to lay the foundations for information technology that operates at a…

The nominating institute EPFL on the breakthrough: Reward-based learning underlies important aspects of human and animal behavior, and recent advances reveal detailed understanding of the underlying neuronal mechanisms in mice. Precise optical and electrophysiological measurements, optogenetic perturbations and computational analyses uncover fundamental mechanisms of brain function during simple forms of…

Günther Hasinger is one of the leading experts in astrophysical deep X-ray surveys and is currently focusing on the formation of the earliest black holes. He was speaking about planetary exploration, especially the missions that ESA are doing with NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

Giorgi Svanishvili is working on enhancing treatment options for neurological diseases linked to chronic inflammation, such as ALS and MS, by utilising stem cell therapy and a bioinformatics approach to analyse molecular changes and responses. The aim is to identify therapeutic targets and mechanisms of action, leading to the development…

Gerhard Widmer talked about what makes music come alive, what it means for a computer to learn fundamental principles of expressive (piano) performance, and how, by using this learned knowledge, it can contribute to expressive music making – not as a replacement for human pianists, but as a musical companion.

CRISPR-Cas9 is best known for genome editing, yet it derives from immune systems in bacteria. We discovered that the RNAs that guide DNA cutting by Cas9 can come from other RNAs in the cell. We learned how to dictate which RNAs become guide RNAs, thereby allowing us to connect an…