Fighting superbugs with nets and light switches

Hydrogel reduces resistant bacteria by 95 percent

04-Feb-2026 - A new gel could combat resistant bacteria in wounds and around implant sites, while also supporting healing. The hydrogel, which is inspired by natural immune defences, has produced highly promising results in animal models. Each year, bacterial infections are responsible for roughly 7.7 million ...

ETH Zurich researcher aims to prevent urinary tract infections with a vaccine

Her start-up Baxiva is developing a vaccine that makes bacteria visible to the immune system

03-Feb-2025 - Every second woman and every eighth man suffer from urinary tract infections. These are painful and can recur with serious health consequences. Pioneer Fellow Giorgia Greter has a solution. Giorgia Greter could have been sitting in one of these minimalist, but elegant offices of a venture capital ...

Does a Mixture of One Million Peptides Hold the Key to the Antibiotics of the Future?

New approach to diminish antibiotic resistance developed by international research team

05-Jul-2024 - Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine. They are regularly used to treat bacterial infections or as a prophylactic measure during surgery to prevent infection. However, due to the widespread use of antibiotics, many bacteria have grown resistant to them, a development that has dramatic ...

Treating bladder infections with viruses

ETH researchers develop new rapid test and therapeutic approach

28-Jul-2023 - The pathogens that cause urinary tract infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. ETH Zurich researchers have now developed a rapid test and a new therapeutic approach using bacteria-​infecting viruses known as phages. About one in two women are affected by cystitis during her ...

Urinary tract infection: How bacteria nestle in

09-Mar-2016 - Almost every second woman suffers from a bladder infection at some point in her life. Also men are affected by cystitis, though less frequently. In eighty percent of the cases, it is caused by the intestinal bacterium E. coli. It travels along the urethra to the bladder where it triggers painful ...

Flu viruses disguised as waste

27-Oct-2014 - Viral infections always follow a similar course. The pathogen infiltrates the host cells and uses their replication and protein production machinery to multiply. The virus has to overcome the initial barrier by docking on the surface of the cell membrane. The cell engulfs the virus in a bubble ...

New defence mechanism against viruses discovered

15-Sep-2014 - Researchers have discovered that a known quality control mechanism in human, animal and plant cells is active against viruses. They think it might represent one of the oldest defence mechanisms against viruses in evolutionary history. When it comes to defence against viruses, the immune system ...

Natural compound from 'pond scum' shows potential activity against Alzheimer's

02-Jan-2006 - A compound isolated from a cyanobacterium, a type of blue-green algae known as Nostoc, shows promise of becoming a natural drug candidate for fighting Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, according to an in vitro study by researchers in Switzerland. It is believed to be the first ...