An excellent Excellent supervision First master’s graduate in master’s thesis Anja Car received the medical nanosciences Timon Baltisberger Teaching Excellence Award Philippe Van der Stappen investigated bio昀椀lms for “Service to Teaching” isolated speci昀椀c cell regions Timon Baltisberger received the prize for The nanosciences program is a challeng- Since September 2021, the option to spe- the best master’s thesis in nanosciences ing one — but time and again, students cialize in medical nanosciences has been at the University of Basel in 2023. say they value the familiar atmosphere available to nanoscience master’s stu- In his prizewinning thesis, he proved as well as the excellent supervision they dents at the University of Basel. In 2023, that Vibrio cholerae bacteria inside a bio- receive. Philippe Van der Stappen was the 昀椀rst 昀椀lm are more tolerant to various anti- The coordinator of the program, Dr. student to complete a master’s degree biotics than cultures grown in agitated Anja Car, was nominated for the Teaching with a focus on nanomedicine. liquid medium. Excellence Awards 2023 for “Service to For his master’s thesis, Van der Stap- The results help to improve our un- Teaching,” which is awarded by the Uni- pen received an Argovia Grant to work in derstanding of bio昀椀lms, which play a ma- versity of Basel, based on positive feed- Professor Alex de Marco’s group at Monash jor role in nature and can lead to stub- back from students. Anja Car was selected University (Clayton, Australia), where he born infections in humans. as the winner by deans of studies at the developed a method for isolating speci昀椀c After completing his master’s studies university and presented with the award, regions of a cell. These “subcellular re- in the nanosciences, the young researcher which stands as testament to her extraor- gions” can be used for various subsequent from the Canton of Aargau began his doc- dinary commitment to the bene昀椀t of stu- investigations — including to analyze toral dissertation at the University of Ba- dents, on 25 May, 2023. gene expression (transcriptomics) or the sel — albeit not, as one might imagine, Article on Anja Car’s career background: entire set of proteins (proteomics). on a biological/medical topic but rather https://bit.ly/3UN5MrK Article on Philippe Van der Stappen’s time in quantum physics. Once again, this Video with Anja Car: abroad: https://bit.ly/42NH3pb demonstrates how diverse an education https://youtu.be/mgfWGBSfYCg the nanoscience students receive. Article on Timon Baltisberger’s master’s thesis: https://bit.ly/3ORDA3a Video with Timon Baltisberger: “Through her tireless commit- “What makes particularly https://youtu.be/4zZjnvX-qUQ ment, Anja Car makes a vital notable about the specializa- contribution to the success of tion in medical nanoscience is the unique nanoscience degree the range of lectures covering program. As coordinator, she multiple departments that “In his master’s thesis, Timon achieves the extraordinary — provide unique insights into paved the way for investigating from both an organizational everything from molecular the effectiveness of antibiotics and a human perspective.” medicine to biocompatibility in bacterial communities.” Professor Philipp Habegger and the analysis of data from Professor Knut Drescher, Dean of Studies, imaging techniques.” Biozentrum, University of Basel Faculty of Science, Philippe Van der Stappen, University of Basel Biozentrum, University of Basel 14 SNI Annual Report 2023