At PSI, several projects are dedicated to important research questions concerning the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus and the resulting diseases. We provide information on activities and projects, for example on investigations of lung tissue, on the production of proteins and antibodies or on ideas for new research on Covid-19.
Useful links
CHRISP — All the key results in one place
A specialSciPost volume, entitled “Review of Particle Physics at PSI”, has recently been completed.
Novel and emerging medical radionuclides
Better treatment for disseminated cancer.
The ICE MEMORY program
As an international initiative, ICE MEMORY aims at collecting heritage ice cores from the world’s key endangered glaciers to store them under safe conditions and international governance in Antarctica for future generations of scientists.
Unpaired Weyl Point observed for the first time in crystalline solid
Flows need sources and sinks. That’s why, in a new class of exotic materials called Weyl semimetals, the sources and sinks of Berry curvature – dubbed Weyl points – were believed to exist only in pairs. Now researchers at PSI have observed unpaired Weyl points for the first time in a crystalline solid. This discovery, which upends conventional thinking and the so-called Nielson-Niomiya no-go theorem, demonstrates the unique properties of "nodal wall" Weyl semimetals in comparison to conventional Weyl systems having only zero-dimensional Weyl nodes.
CHRISP — All the key results in one place
A specialSciPost volume, entitled “Review of Particle Physics at PSI”, has recently been completed.
Europameisterschaften in Österreich
PSI-Elektroniker Mario Liechti vertritt die Schweiz an den EuroSkills in Graz.
Swiss startup Award 2021: Araris ranks TOP 11!
Araris Biotech AG is a spin-off company from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich pioneering a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-linker technology.
At the this year’s edition of the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award, where Switzerland’s best startups are celebrated, Araris ranks TOP11! What a great success for Araris, after positions 13 in 2020 and 95 in 2019.
We congratulate Philipp Spycher (CEO) and his team for this great achievement!
Berufsschau 2021 in Wettingen
"Wir waren mit Freude dabei"
Vom 7. – 12. September 2021 fand in Wettingen im Tägi die Aargauische Berufsschau ab’21 statt. Das PSI war wieder mit einem Stand vertreten. Mit Freude stellten wir unsere Lehrstellen und das iLab vor.
«Price tags» of the Swiss energy transition
NZZ am Sonntag has picked up this highlight in its issue on March 7th, 2021: The highlight refers to the analysis performed in SCCER Joint Activity Scenarios and Modelling, where PSI-LEA performed the analysis of the energy transition pathways.
EXCITE Summer School at TOMCAT
In the framework of the 15th EXCITE Summer School in Biomedical Imaging which took place in Zürich on 6-17 September 2021, we were pleased to host 8 students at the beamline for a hands-on session. During this practical on “Synchrotron based X-ray tomographic microscopy”, the students had the chance to see and learn about the beamline infrastructure, scan a few test samples, reconstruct the tomographic volumes and discuss different aspects of tomographic microscopy at a synchrotron.
Challenge at the Energy Data Hackdays 2021
Chris Mutel, a scientist at PSI's Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis who specialises in life cycle and sustainability analyses, prepared a challenge for the Energy Data Hackdays happening on the 24th and 25th of September 2021 in Brugg
Congratulations Mario!
Our PhD student Mario Veicht has recently contributed to the success of "EPFL Xplore's space rover, Argos" taking third place in this year’s European Rover Challenge, held in Poland on 10–12 September. The team also won best performance in both the science and probing tasks.
The X-ray optics design and fabrication team has a new member
The X-ray Tomography group welcomes Craig Lawley as Postdoc in the X-ray optics design and fabrication team. He will contribute to developing the microfabrication process of hard X-ray gratings in silicon substrates suitable for preclinical testing with pitch size in the micrometer range and aspect ratio higher than 100.
The mystery of the flexible shell
Why the shell of a marine animal is soft in water but hard in air.
"I wanted to do something concrete that I could be proud of"
Apprenticeship in the ETH Domain: PSI polymechanic Rohat Sihyürek tells.
Swiss Science Today (SCIENA)
Die Berufslehre – das verborgene Gesicht der Schweizer Forschung.
Lernende spielen eine wenig bekannte, aber wichtige Rolle in der Schweizer Wissenschaft. SCIENA wirft einen Blick auf junge Menschen, die in den Institutionen des ETH-Bereichs ausgebildet werden.
Hierarchical imaging and computational analysis of three-dimensional vascular network architecture in mouse brain
An international team involving researchers from the University and University Hospital Zürich, the Krembil Research Institute and the University and University Hospital in Toronto (Canada), the Department of Physics of Jyväskylä (Finland), the University of Leuven (Belgium), the Johannes Kepler University in Linz (Austria), the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Emeryville (USA), the ETH Zürich and the Paul Scherrer Institute has developed a protocol that enables hierarchical imaging and computational analysis of vascular networks in entire postnatal- and adult mouse brains, enabling direct and quantitative comparisons of the morphological brain vascular network architecture between different postnatal and / or adult developmental stages. The results have been published on Nature Protocols on September 3rd, 2021.
Watch them growing: New mechanistic insights into catalytic methane coupling
Methane valorization is a promising technology to utilize this platform compound to produce aromatics and hydrocarbons. Researchers from PSI and ETH Zürich unveiled this reaction mechanism and observed the molecular growth from the ground up. Besides stepwise CH3 addition, novel routes involving the dimerization of resonantly stabilized propargyl (C3H3) radicals to benzene (C6H6) were identified. These mechanistic insights will aid the development of valorisation strategies.
Welcome to Antoine Roose
We warmly welcome Antoine Roose as Postdoc in the Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry. He joined the Surface Chemistry group on 1 September 2021.
Where will the electricity come from in 2050?
Net-zero goal for CO2 emissions is technically achievable.
TOMCAT welcomes on board two scientists
The X-ray Tomography group welcomes on board Mariana Verezhak and Goran Lovric as members of the TOMCAT beamline crew. They will both contribute to the further development and realization of TOMCAT 2.0 (S- and I-TOMCAT branches on SLS2.0).
Exploring the practical benefits of exotic materials
Niels Schröter receives an award from the Swiss Physical Society (SPG).
First direct observation of the oxygen transport in polymer electrolyte water electrolysis
PSI researchers have developed a new methodology for studying the complex transport processes in polymer electrolyte water electrolysis (PEWE). Using advanced operando X-ray tomographic microscopy, we were able to observe for the first time the formation of oxygen pathways in the porous transport layer, in three dimensions. Understanding oxygen transport is crucial for improving PEWE technology and this work provides precious insights for the design of future, better-performing PEWE cells.
Welcome Man Guo
A new colleague, Ms. Man Guo, started on September 1, 2021 as a PhD student in the van Bokhoven group under Luca Artiglia's supervision and we would like to welcome her.
A strong commitment for science communication
PSI is engaging in public outreach at a major event in Zürich, the "Scientifica" Science Days September 4 and 5.
Nanobodies against SARS-CoV-2
In a study published in EMBO Journal, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, developed nanobodies that efficiently block the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. The high resolution structural characterization was performed at the X10SA crystallography beamline at the Swiss Light Source.
Creating novel quantum phases via the heterostructure engineering
Within this synergetic collaboration, PSI scientists have investigated the correlation between magnetic and electronic ordering in NdNiO3 by tuning its properties through proximity to a ferromagnetic manganite layer. The main outcome is that the stray magnetic field from the manganite layer causes a novel ferromagnetic-metallic (FM-M) phase in NNO. This work demonstrates the utilization of heterostructure engineering for creating novel quantum phases.
The MagnoCell Team
Performing PhD research is generally focused on answering key questions in basic sciences. However, sometimes, these projects find real-world applications. To do so, out-of-the- box thinking and innovation are crucial. To put these to the test, the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) of the University of Basel organized a workshop called: “Innovation Workshop: From Lab to Start-up” for SNI PhD students. During this workshop, the PhD students had the opportunity to develop ideas for a possible future start-up and present them in a short, but powerful pitch to convince potential investors. The three SNI students from the team Magnocell, including three from the Paul Scherrer Institute took part and were awarded first prize. The winning team was consisted out of: Thomas Mortelmans of the Laboratory of Micro-and Nanotechnology, Shichao Jia of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology and Antonia Ruffo of the Electrochemistry Laboratory and Tamara Aderneuer of CSEM Basel. Their idea was to create a company that has the potential to revolutionize modern fuel cells and could make an impact on a billion dollar landscape.
When Shichao was asked about his opinion concerning the workshop, he said the following:
‘In general, dissemination of the advances in basic sciences to the public is never easy. It is even more so in a business context where you would probably have to sell your scientific idea to potential investors. In my opinion, this workshop was deliberately organized to train and prepare us for such a scenario. While the scientific idea itself is undoubtedly essential for a science/engineering-driven start-up, the preparation for the pitch made me realize that it is equally important, if not more, to convey to the potential investor the public interest brought by our idea, our grasp of the target market and our vision for the growth of the start-up. Last but not least, it was so much fun to work with Antonia, Tamara and Thomas “against the clock”.’
PRN 2021 Best talk award
At the end of May 2021, the Fachhochschule Nordwerstschweiz hosted the Polymer Replication on Nanoscale conference (prn-conference.com/program). The conference aims to provide an up-to-date overview on the state of the art and newest findings in R&D on polymer replication on the micro- and nanoscale. The virtual conference was attended by members from both academia as well as industry. Here, Thomas Mortelmans, PhD-student in the Laboratory of Micro-and Nanotechnology, had the honor to give an invited talk entitled: Thermoplastic 3D nanofluidic devices for biosensing. The presentation explained how different nanofabrication methods can be simultaneously used to achieve 3D nanoscale topography control in a cost-effective and up scalable manner. At the end of the conference, Thomas was awarded with the best talk award in the category of young scientists.
Lehrabschlussfeier 2021
Am Freitag, 13. August 2021 konnten wir den schönen Sommerabend nützen, um unsere neuen Berufsleute mit der Lehrabschlussfeier zu verabschieden. Erneut erreichten sie einen tollen Noten-Durchschnitt und eine sensationelle Höchstnote von 5.9. Wir sind sehr stolz auf sie und gratulieren ganz herzlich. Karsten Bugmann (Leiter Personalmanagement) führte gekonnt durch den Abend. David S. präsentierte uns seine Erfahrungen an den SwissSkills und Alex Amato (Bereichsleiter a.i. NUM) erklärte uns auf charmante Weise was wichtig ist im Leben und übergab die Fähigkeitsausweise! Das wunderbare Essen und der tolle Service des Oase-Teams rundeten den schönen Abend ab.