In the first hours of a vertebrate embryo’s life, everything may appear calm from the outside. But deep inside its cells, a race against time is underway. 

At a meeting of the DONES Programme Steering Committee, held in the Japanese city of Misawa, key steps were confirmed for the further development of the international DONES Programme, one of Europe’s most important projects for the future of fusion energy.

The Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory for Bioanalytics, in cooperation with the Croatian Veterinary Institute and the company Conscius, presented today in Zagreb the final results of the project “MetaPatvor – Metaproteomics of Adulterated Food Products”. The project has resulted in an innovative and unique methodology for the rapid and selective detection of adulteration in food products.

What happens to the world’s largest sea turtle during the 15 to 20 years it spends far from shore, beyond the reach of scientists’ eyes? That is precisely the question addressed by a new study led by Dr. Nina Marn of the Ruđer Bošković Institute and an international team of collaborators. Published in Marine Environmental Research, the study presents a computational model that, for the first time, reconstructs the entire life cycle of the leatherback sea turtle and reveals just how sensitive this species is to changes in the ocean.

Researchers from the Ruđer Bošković Institute, in collaboration with international colleagues, have redefined the reasons why one of today’s most promising solar technologies is still struggling with its own stability in a recently published Perspective paper in the prestigious journal Nature Energy.

European Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva visited the Croatian team from the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) at this year’s  Science is Wonderful! fair, organised by the European Commission. At the RBI stand, she met with Dr Barbara Milutinović, Dr Marko Košiček, Nina Randić and Wouter Bouwmeester.

During cell division, errors in chromosome separation can lead to cells receiving too much or too little genetic material. Over time, this increases genetic instability, which is common in cancer and can contribute to further disease progression. A team led by Prof. Iva Tolić at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) has uncovered an important mechanism that helps the cell prevent errors in chromosome distribution.

A team of scientists, doctors and clinicians from Zagreb University Hospital Centre and the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, the Ruđer Bošković Institute, RBI, and the Dr Fran Mihaljević University Hospital for Infectious Diseases has shown that Parkinson’s disease is associated with measurable changes in specific immune cells in the blood.

Scientists at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, RBI, are the first to show that an important photochemical reaction can be carried out efficiently in a ball mill, a closed vessel in which powdered substances are continuously mixed and ground by the impact of a milling ball. 

When a patient arrives with a high fever and symptoms pointing to a viral infection, the doctor will usually order a test for the most likely cause.