Unlocking the Past & Understanding Life

What if you lived 2,000 years ago in Egypt and needed a doctor? No problem at all! As the ancient historian Herodotus tells us, Egypt had plenty of physicians: they treated the sick, prescribed remedies, and attempted surgical procedures. Much of what we know about ancient medicine is preserved on ancient Egyptian and Greek papyri, many of which still await being deciphered and revealing their mysteries. This is what papyrologists, like us, do. In Basel, a mysterious papyrus now hosted at the Basel University Library remained ignored for several centuries. Written in Greek but in mirror script, it was misinterpreted by his first editor a century ago. We will tell you how, thanks to ultraviolet lighting, careful restoration and patient decoding, it finally revealed precious insights into ancient medical theory.

Why do some people feel great on a medication while others get side effects—or no effect at all? A big part of the answer lies in an enzyme that helps your body process common drugs like metoprolol, the painkiller codeine, or even ingredients found in cough syrup.
The challenge? Measuring how active this enzyme is in your body isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Current methods can be imprecise, making it harder to choose the right dose for each person.
In this talk, we will show how we’re tackling this problem—by turning molecules from foods you already eat—like potatoes and tomatoes—into precise reference tools, and building a more reliable way to measure enzyme activity using advanced techniques like LC-MS.
The goal is simple: better measurements, smarter dosing, and safer, more personalized medicine.

Imagine yourself tripping with psychedelics – and the effect lasts for weeks? Quite a nightmare, you might find. Psychedelics like psilocybin can indeed have long-lasting effects, but positive ones. Clinical studies have shown that psilocybin can improve depression after a single dose. A single dose can change neuronal communication, constituting a novel mechanism for antidepressant action. In the lab, we study the mechanisms behind such long-lasting changes by looking at mouse behavior, synapses and neuronal networks.