June nanoTalks: crop drought tolerance & personalized medicine

Talk 1: Plant breeding for drought tolerance

Presented by Reto Zihlmann, former Master Student in Agricultural Science, ETH Zurich

If your last houseplant died during your spring holiday trip, you might have noticed one important fact: water is and always has been a crucial factor for plants. It is estimated that on 40% of the earth's vegetated surface, plant growth is limited by water availability, including major agricultural areas. Methods to improve the drought tolerance of crops would have a huge impact on global food production and food security. However, breeding on drought tolerance remains challenging mainly because it is difficult to measure drought tolerance. In this talk some approaches are presented including a fast method to assess the plant response to water stress by measuring the leaf elongation with a low-cost phenotyping device.

Talk 2: Personalized medicine: neuroanatomical & neurophysiological individuality

Presented by Seyed Valizadeh, Research Assistant, Univeristy of Zurich & University Hospital Zurich

The human brain demonstrates a high level of heterogeneity both in its structure and its function. Time to focus on that often neglected fact of these differences. The unique aspect of the human brain opens a novel horizon for personalized medicine, especially in neurological and neuropsychiatric disease like ADHD, Epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. In this talk, a novel neuromarker and its application in health monitoring and disease diagnosis will be explained.

In collaboration with Life Science Zurich and supported by UZH Alumni.