Archive Media Releases 2025

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17.12.2025 Paleontology

Young Shark Species More Vulnerable to Extinction

Among sharks and rays, species within the first four million years of existence are significantly more likely to go extinct than older species, according to a study based on fossils from the last 145 million years.

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16.12.2025 Obituary Charles Weissmann

A Life of Tireless Scientific Energy

The molecular biologist Charles Weissmann was one of the leading figures in his field, his research on the antiviral agent alpha interferon brought him worldwide recognition. He passed away last Friday in Zurich at the age of 94.

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16.12.2025 Youth Development

Legal Drinking Age Impacts Learning and Mental Health

A UZH study shows that raising the minimum legal drinking age significantly reduces teenage alcohol consumption. As a beneficial side effect, this has led to better academic performance and mental health.

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15.12.2025 Immunology

Immune System Keeps Mucosal Fungi in Check

The yeast Candida albicans can cause dangerous infections. UZH researchers have now discovered how the immune system prevents it from transforming to a pathogenic mode.

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10.12.2025 Astrophysics

Uranus and Neptune might be rock giants

A team of researchers is challenging our understanding of the Solar System planets’ interior. The composition of Uranus and Neptune, the two outer most planets, might be more rocky and less icy than previously thought.

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09.12.2025 Wildlife

Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos Go Where the Salt Is

In some regions in Africa, large herbivores struggle to get enough sodium. As many of the continent’s protected areas are in regions where salt levels are low, this scarcity may also affect conservation efforts.

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10.11.2025 Large Language Models

AI Evaluates Texts Without Bias – Until Source Is Revealed

Large Language Models change their judgment depending on who they think wrote a text, even when the content stays identical.

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06.11.2025 World Internet Project Switzerland

AI Widening Digital Divide between Generations

Most people in Switzerland are worried about AI and the next generation of digital technology, but those who regularly use AI are more sanguine about it. While the youngest spend more time online, older people and those with little digital literacy are falling behind.

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27.10.2025 Yearbook Quality of the Media

News Deprivation on the Rise – with Consequences for Democracy

In Switzerland, fewer and fewer people are paying attention to current events. They lack trust in politics and feel disconnected from democratic society.

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20.10.2025 Pediatric oncology

Targeted Diet Enhances Effects of New Childhood Cancer Therapy

Researchers from UZH and Kispi have developed a new approach to treat children with malignant tumors of the nervous system. Combined with a special diet, an approved drug slows tumor growth much more effectively.

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16.10.2025 Cardiology

AI analyzes world's largest heart attack data sets – and reveals new treatment methods

A landmark international study led by the University of Zurich has shown that artificial intelligence can assess patient risk for the most common type of heart attack more accurately than existing methods. This could enable doctors to guide more personalized treatment decisions for patients.

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15.10.2025 Immunologie

Checkpoint Inhibitor Promotes Tissue Repair

Die Immun-Checkpoint-Inhibitoren sind aus der Krebstherapie bekannt. UZH-Forschende haben nun eine neue, wichtige Funktion dieser Inhibitoren identifiziert: Sie beschleunigen die Heilung von Gewebe. Dies könnte bei der Behandlung von Fibrosen und chronischen Wunden helfen.

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15.10.2025 Immunology

Checkpoint Inhibitor Promotes Tissue Repair

UZH researchers have identified a new, important function of immune checkpoint inhibitors: promotion of tissue healing. This finding could help treat fibrosis and chronic wounds.

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10.10.2025 Development economics

Nobel Laureates Duflo and Banerjee to Join UZH

The Nobel Prize-winning economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will establish a new center for development economics, education and public policy using external funds provided by the Lemann Foundation.

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09.10.2025 Metabolic health

Air Pollution Can Contribute to Obesity and Diabetes

Long-term exposure to fine air pollution can impair metabolic health by disrupting the normal function of brown fat in mice, which can lead to insulin resistance and metabolic disorders.

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29.09.2025 Astrophysics

Witnessing the formation of moons

NASA's Webb Telescope is investigating the formation of moons around a massive planet. An UZH team is studying the chemical composition of a disc believed to be the basis of new moons.

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24.09.2025 Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior

Lifelong Motor Function Development

UZH researchers found that strength and coordination decrease dramatically with age, but fine motor skills of our hands and fingers do not.

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23.09.2025 Media research

Clear Majority of Swiss Media Professionals Use AI Tools – But Have Reservations

A vast majority of media professionals in Switzerland use AI tools in their day-to-day work but do so mostly to support their tasks rather than produce content.

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17.09.2025 Science Barometer 2025

Half of Swiss Population Wary When AI Reports on Science

According to the 2025 Science Barometer survey conducted by UZH, most people also support scientific research and condemn attacks on science.

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16.09.2025 Regenerative medicine

Stem Cells Repair Mouse Brains Post-Stroke

Stem cell transplantation can reverse stroke damage. Its beneficial effects include regeneration of neurons and restoration of motor functions, marking a milestone in the treatment of brain disorders.

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09.09.2025 Astrophysics

UZH Device Searches for Light Dark Matter

Superconducting sensors can detect single low-energy photons. Researchers have now used this capability to search for light dark matter particles.

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25.08.2025 Exhibition Ethnographic Museum

What Phở and Christmas Cookies Have in Common

In its new exhibition “Symphởny of Spices”, the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich explores the complex ancient and modern connections between Cinnamon, star anise and cardamom – tracing their journey from local fields to the global marketplace.

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13.08.2025 Glaciology

Falling Ice Drives Glacial Retreat in Greenland

When an iceberg calves, huge chunks of ice break off at the end of the glacier. These trigger high waves on the surface and underwater, pushing warmer sea water upwards. This accelerates the melting of the ice masses.

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12.08.2025 Technology development

AI Meets CRISPR for Precise Gene Editing

The powerful new method opens the door to more accurate modeling of human diseases and lays the groundwork for next-gen gene therapies.

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06.08.2025 Evolutionary Anthropology

Gorillas Move Between Groups

When female gorillas move to a new social group, they seek out groups with familiar females and avoid males they grew up with.

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29.07.2025 Corporate Due Diligence

Economic Success and Ethical Supply Chains Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Do supply chain due diligence laws harm the economy? A recent study found no long-term economic disadvantages for firms subject to such regulations.

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23.07.2025 Language Development

Preterm Infants More Likely to Experience Delayed Language Development

Differences in early language development, which is key to later communication skills, social interaction and academic success, emerge during infancy.

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14.07.2025 Evolutionary Medicine

Swiss Genome of the 1918 Influenza Virus Reconstructed

Researchers discovered that the virus already had key adaptations to the human host at the beginning of the world's deadliest influenza pandemic.

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26.06.2025 Evolutionary Anthropology

Baby talk – a human superpower?

Humans from different cultures use a form of child-directed speech. However, it appears that this characteristic is far from prevalent in non-human great apes.

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05.06.2025 Plant sciences

Fungal Resistance in Wheat: Preserving Biodiversity for Food Security

Wheat production is threatened by a major fungal disease: yellow rust. UZH researchers have found traditional wheat varieties from Asia that harbor several resistance-conferring genes.

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04.06.2025 Medical Microbiology

Study Traces Transmission Routes in Largest Diphtheria Outbreak in Western Europe in 70 Years

Data from the outbreak indicate transmission routes along established migration pathways into Europe. Although rapid interventions successfully contained the outbreak, these strains continue to cause new infections.

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28.05.2025 Precision Medicine

43,000 Data Points against Melanoma

Every tumor is unique. In a new study, scientists from Zurich and Basel used advanced technologies to create individual profiles for precise tumor treatment.

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28.05.2025 Microbiome and cell aging

Intestinal Bacteria Influence Aging of Blood Vessels

Researchers have shown for the first time that intestinal bacteria and their metabolites contribute directly to vascular aging.

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27.05.2025 Peer Effects

Your Best Friend’s Personality Can Shape Your Own

Students become more conscientious, open, and competitive when they spend time with friends who also exhibit these traits, according to the first study on how students’ personalities are shaped by their peers.

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21.05.2025 Cell biology

Live View: Stress-Induced Changes in Generations of Cancer Cells

Drugs that affect DNA replication, or radiation that causes direct DNA damage, lead to increasingly diverse offspring over multiple cell generations. This increases the tumor’s genetic complexity and facilitates the development of resistance to therapy.

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16.05.2025 Dies academicus 2025

UZH Awards Eight Honorary Doctorates

The University of Zurich has awarded honorary doctorates to historian Amy Nelson Burnett, legal philosopher Elisabeth Holzleithner, academic economist Laura Starks, linguist Elisabeth Gülich, conservationist Paula Kahumbu, theologian Herman Johan Selderhuis, banking expert Christian Rahn and horse trainer Fredy Knie Jr.

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15.05.2025 Agroecology

Dual Associations with Two Fungi Improve Tree Fitness

Tree species that form symbioses with two different types of mycorrhizal fungi cope better with water and nutrient scarcity.

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15.05.2025 Natural History Museum

How Plants Communicate with Each Other

A new exhibition on plant communication marks the inclusion of botany at the University of Zurich’s Natural History Museum.

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28.04.2025 Psychology

Personality Traits Shape Our Prosocial Behavior

Why do some people do more for the community than others? A new study now shows that personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness correlate with volunteering and charitable giving.

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23.04.2025 AI and society

Current AI Risks More Alarming than Apocalyptic Future Scenarios

Most people are generally more concerned about the immediate risks of artificial intelligence than about a theoretical future in which AI threatens humanity. This is shown by a new study from the University of Zurich.

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22.04.2025 Psychiatry

Retinal Clues to Mental Health

A new study has shown that evidence of genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia can be found in the retina. This finding could help improve the early detection of the disorder.

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03.04.2025 Language evolution

Bonobos Combine Calls in Similar Ways to Human Language

Bonobos – our closest living relatives – create complex sequences of sounds that resemble human word combinations. A new study by researchers from the University of Zurich and Harvard University challenges the uniqueness of human communication.

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26.03.2025 Global species loss

The Devastating Human Impact on Biodiversity

Humans are having a highly detrimental impact on biodiversity worldwide. Not only is the number of species declining, but the composition of species communities is also changing. These are the findings of one of the largest studies ever conducted on this topic.

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24.03.2025 Precision medicine

Decoys Restore Antiviral Immune Defense

Defects in the immune system are caused by antibodies that inhibit important defense proteins. UZH researchers have now generated "decoy molecules" that can intercept these autoantibodies.

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18.03.2025 Animal research and 3R

Efficient Development of Drugs with Fewer Mice

With a novel technology, around 25 antibodies can now be tested simultaneously in a single mouse. This should speed up the R&D pipeline for new drugs and hugely reduce the number of animals required.

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12.03.2025 Autoimmune diseases

Promising Active Ingredient for Lupus Therapy

In lupus, the immune system attacks its own structures, causing inflammation and organ damage. A new study shows that natural active ingredient gluconolactone could offer a more targeted therapy.

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11.03.2025 Birth rate

Swiss Women Had More Children at Start of Coronavirus Pandemic

A UZH study on the impact of pandemics on fertility reveals an unexpected increase in births during the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting with the significant decline during previous ones.

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04.03.2025 Personality in an Intercultural Context

African Young Adults Balance Self-Determination and Communalism

A new study from the University of Zurich shows that the cultural influence on the transition to adulthood in sub-Saharan Africa is more communal and less self-centered than in Western contexts.

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03.03.2025 Psychiatric research

ChatGPT on the couch: relaxation for stressed AI

Distressing news and traumatic stories can cause anxiety – not only in humans, but also in AI language models. Researchers have now shown that an elevated “anxiety level” in GPT-4 can be “calmed down” using mindfulness-based relaxation techniques.

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27.02.2025 Astrophysics

Young Star Clusters Give Birth to Rogue Planetary-Mass Objects

How do rogue planetary-mass objects form? An international team of astronomers used advanced simulations to show that these enigmatic objects are linked to the chaotic dynamics of young star clusters.

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26.02.2025 Psychiatry

Schizophrenia is Reflected in the Brain Structure

The symptoms of schizophrenia vary greatly from person to person. A new study shows how these differences manifest themselves in the structure of the brain.

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25.02.2025 Innovation Economics

Rising Wages Drive Innovation in Automation Technology

A new UZH study shows for the first time that higher minimum wages for low-skill jobs drive firms to develop automation technologies. Rising wages for high-skill labor, in contrast, can hamper this effect.

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19.02.2025 Glaciology

Melting Glaciers Increase Loss of Freshwater Resources and Rise Global Sea Levels

The melting ice from glaciers worldwide is leading to an increased loss of regional freshwater resources. Since the year 2000, glaciers have been losing 273 billion tons of ice annually.

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13.02.2025 Medical microbiology

Curbing the Global Spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Cases of bacterial sexually transmitted infections are on the rise worldwide. The University of Zurich has now developed a new method for genome sequencing and discovered a previously unrecognized strain of chlamydia

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04.02.2025 Geriatric Medicine

Omega-3s Can Slow Down Aging Process

A daily intake of one gram of omega-3s can slow down biological aging by up to four months, according to an analysis of clinical data from the international DO-HEALTH study led by the University of Zurich. For the first time, epigenetic clocks were used to measure the aging process.

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30.01.2025 Environment and climate

Climate Change Increases Risk of Successive Natural Hazards in the Himalayas

An international research team reconstructed the Sikkim flood disaster in the Himalayas in October 2023 that triggered a deadly and devastating 20-meter flood wave.

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30.01.2025

Martin Nellen Appointed New Head of Communications at UZH

Martin Nellen has been appointed as the new Head of Communications at the University of Zurich (UZH). He will take up his role on 1 March 2025, succeeding Beat Müller, who has been heading the office on an interim basis since February 2024.

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20.01.2025 Interdisciplinary research

Global Trust in Science Remains Strong

Led by UZH and ETH Zurich, a team of 241 researchers conducted the largest post-pandemic study of trust in science, societal expectations and public views on research priorities.

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15.01.2025 Computational Linguistics

Automatic Speech Recognition on Par with Humans in Noisy Conditions

Current ASR systems achieve remarkable accuracy and may even surpass human performance. While they need to be trained on an incredible amount of data, humans acquire comparable skills in less time.

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08.01.2025 Zoo animals

Rethinking Population Management in Zoos

Until now, zoos used contraception to avoid surplus animals. Scientists argue for preserving breeding populations and raising awareness of conservation challenges by allowing animals to reproduce naturally and culling surplus animals.

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Article list Media Releases

Young Shark Species More Vulnerable to Extinction

A Life of Tireless Scientific Energy

Legal Drinking Age Impacts Learning and Mental Health

Immune System Keeps Mucosal Fungi in Check

Uranus and Neptune might be rock giants

Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos Go Where the Salt Is

AI Evaluates Texts Without Bias – Until Source Is Revealed

AI Widening Digital Divide between Generations

News Deprivation on the Rise – with Consequences for Democracy

Targeted Diet Enhances Effects of New Childhood Cancer Therapy

AI analyzes world's largest heart attack data sets – and reveals new treatment methods

Checkpoint Inhibitor Promotes Tissue Repair

Checkpoint Inhibitor Promotes Tissue Repair

Nobel Laureates Duflo and Banerjee to Join UZH

Air Pollution Can Contribute to Obesity and Diabetes

Witnessing the formation of moons

Lifelong Motor Function Development

Clear Majority of Swiss Media Professionals Use AI Tools – But Have Reservations

Half of Swiss Population Wary When AI Reports on Science

Stem Cells Repair Mouse Brains Post-Stroke

UZH Device Searches for Light Dark Matter

What Phở and Christmas Cookies Have in Common

Falling Ice Drives Glacial Retreat in Greenland

AI Meets CRISPR for Precise Gene Editing

Gorillas Move Between Groups

Economic Success and Ethical Supply Chains Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Preterm Infants More Likely to Experience Delayed Language Development

Swiss Genome of the 1918 Influenza Virus Reconstructed

Baby talk – a human superpower?

Fungal Resistance in Wheat: Preserving Biodiversity for Food Security

Study Traces Transmission Routes in Largest Diphtheria Outbreak in Western Europe in 70 Years

43,000 Data Points against Melanoma

Intestinal Bacteria Influence Aging of Blood Vessels

Your Best Friend’s Personality Can Shape Your Own

Live View: Stress-Induced Changes in Generations of Cancer Cells

UZH Awards Eight Honorary Doctorates

Dual Associations with Two Fungi Improve Tree Fitness

How Plants Communicate with Each Other

Personality Traits Shape Our Prosocial Behavior

Current AI Risks More Alarming than Apocalyptic Future Scenarios

Retinal Clues to Mental Health

Bonobos Combine Calls in Similar Ways to Human Language

The Devastating Human Impact on Biodiversity

Decoys Restore Antiviral Immune Defense

Efficient Development of Drugs with Fewer Mice

Promising Active Ingredient for Lupus Therapy

Swiss Women Had More Children at Start of Coronavirus Pandemic

African Young Adults Balance Self-Determination and Communalism

ChatGPT on the couch: relaxation for stressed AI

Young Star Clusters Give Birth to Rogue Planetary-Mass Objects

Schizophrenia is Reflected in the Brain Structure

Rising Wages Drive Innovation in Automation Technology

Melting Glaciers Increase Loss of Freshwater Resources and Rise Global Sea Levels

Curbing the Global Spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Omega-3s Can Slow Down Aging Process

Climate Change Increases Risk of Successive Natural Hazards in the Himalayas

Martin Nellen Appointed New Head of Communications at UZH

Global Trust in Science Remains Strong

Automatic Speech Recognition on Par with Humans in Noisy Conditions

Rethinking Population Management in Zoos

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