News EPFL

Predicting the unpredictable

Published:17.04.13 — EPFL scientists have developed the first system to issue early-warning alerts for landslides. Early-warning systems like this are already in place for other natural disasters such as tsunamis and tornadoes.

Peptides for the treatment of severe diseases

Published:15.04.13 — A new class of drugs for the treatment of severe diseases such as cancer and autoimmune diseases is developed by the start-up Bicycle Therapeutics. The company is generating bicyclic peptides that can selectively bind disease-related proteins and to modulate their function without affecting other proteins in the body.

"Tapping into the vast potential of satellites"

Published:12.04.13 — Satellites can be used in many applications, such as identifying micromovements in a dam, managing a fleet of vehicles, and monitoring logging operations in a protected forest or a coffee plantation. Helping Swiss companies and communities make better use of space technology is the mission of José Achache, the European Space Agency’s EPFL-based Ambassador.

Glass-blowers at a nano scale

Published:10.04.13 — EPFL researchers are using the electrical properties of a scanning electron microscope to change the size of glass capillary tubes. Their method has already been patented as it could pave the way to many novel applications.

Nanowires Have the Power to Revolutionize Solar Energy

Published:08.04.13 — Capture up to 12 times more light to produce more energy? Nanowires do just that and surpass expectations on solar energy production.

Another step towards free electricity

Published:04.04.13 — Superconductors can radically change energy management as we know it, but most are commercially unusable because they only work close to absolute zero. A research group at EPFL has now published an innovative approach that may help us understand and use superconductivity at more realistic temperatures.

High speed cancer profiling

Published:02.04.13 — Identify the type of cancer for patients with breast cancer in a few minutes. This is the challenge that EPFL researchers successfully met by presenting their new “microfluidic chip.” Their research is written up in the American journal, PNAS.