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The LANE has a new website

  • news
  • 15-06-2017

Michel Milinkovitch's lab has a new website, with more contents and offers a more modern experience.

How to color a lizard: from biology to mathematics

  • news
  • 13-04-2017

Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics report in the journal Nature that a southwestern European lizard slowly acquires its intricate adult skin colour by changing the colour of individual skin scales using an esoteric computational system invented in 1948 by another mathematician: John von Neumann.

Track down water pollution through DNA of algae

  • news
  • 13-04-2017

Biologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have succeeded in establishing a water quality index based solely on the DNA sequences of the diatoms present in the samples, without needing to identify each species visually.

How mammary glands appeared in the course of evolution

  • news
  • 15-11-2016

Elements of the regulatory networks controlling Hox gene expression were hijacked, enabling some of these genes to be reused to form mammary buds. This study, published during the week of November 14, 2016 in PNAS, was led by Leonardo Beccari, from the team of Denis Duboule.

Africa's Noon

  • news
  • 26-10-2016

On November 7, at 12:15 room M2170, Anne Mayor and Michel Milinkovitch will present their work. Conference proposed by the International Affairs.

Colloque Wright 2016

  • news
  • 12-10-2016

This year, we will hear from specialists, including a Nobel Prize, in areas that are profoundly transformed by the advent of genomics.

Physics of Biology II international meeting

  • news
  • 19-09-2016

For the past fifteen years, an interest for Quantitative & Systems Biology has been raising in the scientific community. Major advances in this direction have been driven by the integration of physics and computer science approaches with innovative technological developments in molecular biology, optics, micro- and nano-manipulations. Although Quantitative & Systems Biology is very recent, it has already significantly spread through many fields of life sciences: genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, development, ecology and many others.

Professor Emi Nagoshi wins the 3R Award

  • news
  • 15-09-2016

The winner of this first edition of the 3R Award is Professor Emi Nagoshi, from the Department of Genetics and Evolution of the Faculty of Sciences, for her project entitled “A conserved role for p48 homologs in protecting dopaminergic neu­rons from oxidative stress”. She will receive her Award on Monday, September 19th at 9:45am.

H2020 should focus on innovative collaborative discovery research, not on technology readiness

  • news
  • 07-09-2016

To forge better links not only between university research laboratories but also with companies, there should be more room for bottom-up, collaborative research in the EU’s framework research programme – specifically in Horizon 2020’s pillars II and III. Today, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) issues a Note to call attention to this issue. Feel free to read the attached PDF.

2016 Louis-Jeantet Symposium

  • news
  • 01-09-2016

The fifth edition of the Louis-Jeantet Symposium will be organised by Denis Duboule, chairman of the Department of genetics and evolution at the Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, and professor at the EPFL School of life sciences, and by Konrad Basler, chairman of the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich.

Hydra can modify its genetic program

  • news
  • 16-12-2015

Champion of regeneration, the freshwater polyp Hydra is capable of reforming a complete individual from any fragment of its body. It is even able to remain alive when all its neurons have disappeared. Researcher the University of Geneva have discovered how: cells of the epithelial type modify their genetic program by overexpressing a series of genes, among which some are involved in diverse nervous functions. Studying Hydra cellular plasticity may thus in uence research in the context of neurodegenerative diseases. The results are published in Philosophical Transactions, the journal of the Royal Society.

Discovery of the mutation responsible of amelanism in the corn snake

  • news
  • 24-11-2015

Researchers in the laboratory of Michel Milinkovitch have identified in the corn snake the mutation responsible for amelanism, a form of albinism due to a defect in the production of melanin (the black and brown pigments of the skin). The skin of the wild type corn snake exhibits a light orange background colour covered with a pattern of dark orange dorsal saddles and lateral blotches that are outlined with black. However, some individuals do not correspond to that standard morphology: they lack all signs of melanin in the skin and eyes. The Swiss team decided to search for the DNA mutation that determines that specific coloration. To this end, they bred wild-type corn snakes with amelanistic individuals and they sequenced each offspring born from that cross. “Thanks to that large amount of sequencing data, we identified the malfunctioning gene”, explains Milinkovitch. That gene is called OCA2 and codes for a receptor located in the membranes of intracellular compartments, called melanosomes, that contain melanin. This receptor controls the proper level of acidity allowing for the synthesis of melanin.

Reptilian Genomics and Transcriptomics make a leap forward

  • news
  • 14-11-2015

Reptiles are poorly represented in genomic and transcriptomic databases, hindering functional evolutionary and developmental studies in these lineages substantially more diverse than mammals. In addition, different authors have used different assembly and annotation protocols, inhibiting meaningful comparisons. To help filling this gap, two new studies, directed by Dr. Athanasia Tzika, generated two new resources: (i) the ‘Reptilian Transcriptomes Database 2.0’, which provides extensive annotation of transcriptomes and genomes from species covering the major reptilian lineages, and (ii) the draft genome of the corn snake, a species we promote as an excellent model for evolutionary developmental (EvoDevo) studies in squamate reptiles.

Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe.

  • publication

. Nat Commun 2017 Mar;8():14615. ncomms14615. 10.1038/ncomms14615.

  • event
  • Conference
  • 07.11.2017 17:15, A300 (Sciences II)

Patrick Cramer (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen Germany).
hosted by: Thomas Schalch .

  • event
  • Geneva Plant Seminars
  • 27.09.2017 11:15, 1S059 (Sciences III)

Fabio Fornara (Université de Milan).
hosted by: Roman Ulm .

  • event
  • Geneva Biology Club
  • 21.06.2017 17:15, 1S059 (Sciences III)

Karsten KRUSE (NCCR in Chemical Biology - Sciences II).
hosted by: Jean-Claude Martinou .

  • event
  • Life Science Seminar Series
  • 23.05.2017 16:15, A100 (Sciences II)

Petra Schwille (Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry, Dept. Cellular and Molecular Biophysics, Martinsried, Germany).
hosted by: PhD Association .

  • event
  • Dpt of Biochemistry
  • 22.05.2017 11:00, 352 (Sciences II)

Professor Elizabeth Hartland (Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity 792 Elizabeth St Melbourne, VIC 3000 Australia ).
hosted by: Thierry Soldati .

  • event
  • Life Science Seminar Series
  • 02.05.2017 16:15, A100 (Sciences II)

Mike Sheetz (Mecanobiology Institute, Singapore).
hosted by: Sandra Citi .