Press releases

The evolution of our teeth began among ancient armoured fishes more than 400 million years ago. In the scientific journal Science, an international team led by researchers from Uppsala University presents ground-breaking findings about these earliest jawed vertebrates. Using powerful X-ray imaging, they show that unique fossils found near Prague contain surprisingly modern-looking teeth.

Characteristics of palm trees differ from those of other tropical trees in many ways. In a major new study led by scientists at Uppsala University, Sweden, and University of Campinas, Brazil, they have surveyed the actual numbers of palms in tropical rainforests around the globe.

When bedbound intensive care patients are moved within a hospital, the single most common risk factor is nonfunctioning technology and equipment. These transfers, a well-known moment of risk, have been studied in a University of Gothenburg thesis. Moving critically ill patients within a hospital, for investigations and treatments, always entails risks. Today, however, the majority […]

In sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, clumps of α-synuclein (alpha-synuclein), sometimes known as the ‘Parkinson’s protein’, are found in the brain. These destroy cell membranes, eventually resulting in cell death. Now, a new method developed at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, reveals how the composition of cell membranes seems to be a decisive factor for how α-synuclein causes damage.

A new mathematical model for predicting variations in solar irradiance has been developed at Uppsala University. It may help to promote more efficient use of electricity from solar energy. In tests of various data models, the model proved capable of making highly reliable forecasts, and emerged as the best for this purpose in some respects.

Using state-of-the-art ocean robots and scientific sensors attached to seals, researchers in Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg have for the first time observed small and energetic ocean currents in the Southern Ocean. The currents are critical at controlling the amount of heat and carbon moving between the ocean and the atmosphere – information vital for understanding our global climate and how it may change in the future.

Scientists at Uppsala University have discovered a hitherto unknown function of blood platelets in cancer. In mouse models, these platelets have proved to help preserve the vascular barrier which makes blood-vessel walls selectively impermeable, thereby reducing the spread of tumour cells to other parts of the body. The study is published in the journal Cancer Research.

Life depends on an intricate game of hide-and-seek taking place inside the cell. New research, which is now published in the journal Nature, sheds light on the mechanisms with which DNA-binding proteins search the genome for their specific binding sites.

Many pharmaceuticals work by targeting what are known as “G-protein-coupled receptors”. In a new study, scientists from Uppsala University describe how they have been able to predict how special molecules that can be used in new immunotherapy against cancer bind to these receptors.

Certain patients who receive hospital care for coronavirus infection (COVID-19) exhibit clinical and neurochemical signs of brain injury, a University of Gothenburg study shows. In even moderate COVID-19 cases, finding and measuring a blood-based biomarker for brain damage proved to be possible.  Some people infected with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 get only mild, cold-like symptoms, while […]