Signals, in order.

Yoon Seok Kim, an Assistant Professor of Life Science Engineering at EPFL, has collaborated with three Nobel laureates, including Karl Deisseroth, whose 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized the discovery of light‑gated ion channels that underpin optogenetics. Kim contributed to the first crystal structure of channelrhodopsins, enabling the design of improved optogenetic tools, and now leads a laboratory at EPFL that studies mechanosensitive proteins and cancer neuroscience. His work continues to build on the foundations of optogenetics and protein engineering developed during…

Source: EPFL News

ETH Zurich’s new Master’s in Space Systems has rapidly attracted high demand, growing from 27 to 47 students in two years and producing its first graduates who are now employed by aerospace companies in Germany and the United States. The program combines technical coursework in launch vehicles, satellites, and planetary sciences with interdisciplinary team projects that involve industry partners, research institutions, and start‑ups, fostering a holistic view of complex space systems. The curriculum is designed to support students in developing startup ideas and to integrate applied sciences …

Source: ETH Zurich News

Rivero, a European payment operations platform, secured investment from Elevator Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International. The partnership aims to support Rivero’s expansion across Central and Eastern Europe, leveraging Elevator Ventures’ network and expertise in banking markets. Rivero’s AI‑powered products, Kajo and Amiko, automate compliance and dispute management for financial institutions.

Source: Startupticker

Tivano, a Zurich-based startup founded in 2024, has received a CHF 500,000 REPIC rollout grant to expand its carbon vault project in Namibia. The company removes invasive woody vegetation and stores the biomass underground to prevent CO₂ release, having already removed over 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ and earned 1,049 carbon removal credits. The grant will support scaling the Dragon and Butterfly projects and developing an operational model for larger deployment.

Source: Startupticker

Swiss cleantech, medtech and AI startups have secured prizes and partnership deals in international competitions, including a CHF 50,000 award for Gaia Turbine SA’s hydropower technology, a Tesco partnership for AgroSustain’s crop‑resilience solution, and a pitch win for Monix Health’s hormone‑monitoring platform. Motif AI from Zug was accepted into Anthropic’s Claude Startup Program, and Zurich‑based Olexir was selected for Germany’s Circular Valley Accelerator. These achievements highlight the growing competitiveness of Swiss innovation on the global stage.

Source: Startupticker

StellarSpectraObservationFitting.jl (SSOF) is a Julia package that measures Doppler shifts and creates data-driven models for time-variable spectral features, including both telluric absorption and stellar variability, while accounting for the wavelength-dependent instrumental line spread function. It employs fast, physically motivated Gaussian Process regularization and demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on NEID spectrometer data, achieving 2–6× smaller photon-limited errors compared to the NEID CCF-based pipeline and matching the performance of the SERVAL template-based pipeline usin…

Source: OpenAlex

Herpes zoster is typically identified by painful dermatomal eruptions, but motor complications such as abdominal pseudohernia are often overlooked. In this case, a 66‑year‑old man developed a painful unilateral abdominal bulge four days before the characteristic rash, with imaging showing no fascial defect and laboratory tests remaining normal. The bulge resolved with conservative management, highlighting the need to consider herpes zoster when a new segmental abdominal bulge appears, even before skin lesions manifest.

Source: OpenAlex

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a method to use bacteria to bind sand into solid architectural elements, creating a low‑energy alternative to cement. By combining microbiologically induced calcite precipitation with 3D printing and robotic spraying, they can produce free‑form structures and surfaces that harden at room temperature. The process, which takes two to five days, relies on bacteria breaking down urea to form calcium carbonate that interlocks sand grains.

Source: ETH Zurich News

The Federal Council, at its meeting on 14 October 2026, noted the results of the consultation on a new law for communication platforms and search engines and instructed DETEC to draft a dispatch by the end of 2027. The draft will include measures to protect children and extend the reporting procedure to all content suspected of being unlawful. The full text is available in German, French and Italian.

Source: Swiss Federal Government

The Swiss Federal Audit Office concluded a horizontal audit of data management governance in the Federal Administration, finding that the seven departments and the Federal Chancellery have made only limited progress in establishing the required governance structures. Due to the low level of implementation, the audit was concluded ahead of schedule and further examination of planned audit questions was not pursued.

Source: Swiss Federal Government