Swiss National Science Foundation

£8m funding for Swiss-UK clinical trials opens in April 2025, supporting early-career research capacity. NIHR and SNSF will fund up to 3 high-quality trials, with a webinar on 9 January 2025 providing details. Researchers can access support from SNSF Scientific Exchanges and NIHR RSS.

Thanks to N. de Souza for feedback. B.B. supported by SNSF grants (310030_205007, 316030_213512), NIH grant (5R01DK131059-04), and ERC grant 866074 (Precision Motifs).

A study tested fampridine's effect on working memory (WM) in healthy adults, finding no overall improvement but potential benefits for those with lower baseline WM. Fampridine decreased motor thresholds, indicating increased brain excitability, and may warrant further exploration, particularly in clinical populations with pronounced WM deficits.

A gene desert adjacent to the Shox2 gene, crucial for limb and cardiac development, contains 15 regulatory elements that control Shox2 activity, impacting sinoatrial node formation and heart rate regulation. These findings, published in *Nature Communications*, highlight the importance of non-coding DNA regions in embryonic development and genetic diagnostics, particularly for cardiac arrhythmias.

Co-Chair of Medical Oncology at University Hospital Basel and Professor of Translational Oncology at the University of Basel, focusing research on enhancing cancer immunotherapies and overcoming immune-related obstacles. Chosen to do a Sabbatical in Oxford for its cutting-edge immuno-oncology research and collaborative environment. Leads a center of excellence for immunotherapy in oncology, recently establishing a Cell Therapy Cluster for early-phase academic trials. Priorities for cancer research include overcoming therapy resistance, personalising treatments, targeting the tumor microenvironment, improving biomarkers, effective combination therapies, enhancing immune responses, and reducing side effects of immunotherapies.

Aging immune system spurs tumor growth, with anakinra potentially repurposed to block harmful signals, reducing cancer risk in older adults.