PhD thesis defense Joaquin Peñalver de Andres

The ARTORG Center congratulates Joaquin Peñalver de Andres for successfully defending his PhD thesis on “EEG-based Imaging of Cognitive-Attentional Processes Related to Motor Performance” on Thursday, 3 November 2022. Joaquin investigated the role of functional brain organization for motor skill acquisition using EEG neuroimaging. Together with postdoctoral researcher Karin Bütler, he found that resting-state networks linked to cognitive functions affect posterior motor performance and that task instructions modulate the attentional networks and enhance performance during motor practice.

People MLN – Motor Learning & Neurorehabilitation (former) Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering Robotics

04. November 2022

Narayan Schütz receives StrongAge Young Investigator Award

In the context of an aging population, a proactive healthcare system could improve health through better early detection and personalized treatments, at the same time reducing healthcare costs. Narayan Schütz, postdoctoral researcher at the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation group of the ARTORG Center, has developed a “Digital Behaviorome” consisting of more than 1200 digital sensor-based measurements to detect biomarkers indicating deteriorating health in older persons living at home. His research has now been awarded the Young Investigator Award (worth 5000.- CHF) by the NPO StrongAge.

Grants & Awards GER – Gerontechnology & Rehabilitation Artificial Intelligence Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering

27. October 2022

Leveraging fluid dynamics to improve urinary stents

Ureteral stents are frequently employed in urological practice to maintain and reinstate the drainage of urine in the upper urinary tract following obstructions of the ureter (due to stones, tumors etc.). The optimal design in terms of urine drainage and zero blockages (caused by encrustation and biofilm), does not exist yet. ARTORG Urogenital Engineering group and the Department of Urology of the Inselspital have joined forces to understand and overcome the limitations of existing ureteral stents, aiming at developing and investigating new stents based on innovative fluid mechanical approaches. Two studies summarize the current results.

Research UGE – Urogenital Engineering In-Vitro & Organs-on-Chip

26. October 2022

Maintaining a Mediterranean diet with your phone

Researchers at the ARTORG Center in collaboration with Oviva and with the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich, have demonstrated that an AI system on a smartphone can effectively track whether a person is adhering to a Mediterranean diet (MD). MD can decrease the risk of non-communicable disease and prevent overweight and obesity. The feasibility study of the system was just published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Research AIHN – AI in Health and Nutrition Artificial Intelligence

19. October 2022

Bernese AI system receives FDA approval

An artificial intelligence system for brain tumor segmentation from multisequence MRI has received 510k clearance by the US American Food and Drug Administration on 29 September 2022. The system was developed by Prof. Dr. Mauricio Reyes and his team from the Medical Image Analysis lab, at the ARTORG Center and the Center of AI in Medicine, Univ. of Bern. Work on this important milestone by many talented PhD and Master students has started at the @MICCAI 2011 conference, receiving the 2016 MICCAI Young Scientist Publication Impact Award as well as the 2016 Ypsomed Innovation Award. It underlines the importance of Bernese research on a global scale.

Research MIA – Medical Image Analysis Artificial Intelligence

30. September 2022

Smart Tools for Dexterity Home Training in Parkinson’s

Limited hand and finger movement due to Parkinson's disease can be counteracted to some degree with targeted physical therapy. To provide patients with individual training options at home, the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation group at ARTORG Center has now evaluated the usability of two new interactive game sensor-based hand devices.

Research GER – Gerontechnology & Rehabilitation Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering

21. September 2022

Including somatosensory interventions in motor training

Somatosensory impairment plays an important role in hampering motor skills recovery in stroke survivors, yet somatosensory interventions are often neglected – amongst others due to complex training needs with therapists guiding the hands of patients. The Motor Learning and Rehabilitation lab has now developed a virtual reality-based robotic texture discrimination task to assess and train touch sensibility to address this clinical need.

Research MLN – Motor Learning & Neurorehabilitation (former) Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering

15. September 2022

Sensor-based early detection of age-related diseases from home

Researchers at the University of Bern and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital have demonstrated how sensors that record movement patterns could help detect health problems in the elderly, including old-age depression, risk of falls or cognitive impairment, at an early stage. In the future, this could help seniors to live a self-determined life at home for longer and relieve increasing pressure on the healthcare system.

Research GER – Gerontechnology & Rehabilitation Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering

30. August 2022

New insights into Otosclerosis with microCT

The Image Guided Therapy (IGT) lab in collaboration with the EMPA and the Departments of ENT and Neuroradiology of the Inselspital have for the first time analyzed an otosclerotic cochlea using microCT technology. The higher resolution as compared to standard CT imaging usually employed in Otosclerosis diagnosis revealed strong tissue remodeling activity even in early disease stages, previously invisible.

Research IGT – Image-Guided Therapy (former) Biomechanics

23. August 2022

Modelling lung injury and toxicity on chip

Debilitating lung health burdens like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary fibrosis and acute lung injury call for more realistic human-cell-based in-vitro models to study pathomechanisms and the effect of toxins on the lung. The Organs-on-Chip Technologies lab of the ARTORG Center in collaboration with the Inselspital, the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research, Germany, and the Bernese start-up AlveoliX have now validated the first breathing model of the distal airways based on a novel primary-derived alveolar epithelial cell line (AXiAECs) on-chip (AXLung-on-chip, developed by AlveoliX).

Research OOC – Organs-on-Chip Technologies In-Vitro & Organs-on-Chip

17. August 2022

Nacht der Forschung Mit Technik gegen Krankheiten

Our Center invites all interested to join us for the University of Bern Researcher’s Night ( Nacht der Forschung ) on 10 September 2022, 16.00-24.00h, Exakte Wissenschaften, Sidlerstrasse 5.

Events AIHN – AI in Health and Nutrition AIMI – AI in Medical Imaging CBE – Computational Bioengineering CVE – Cardiovascular Engineering GER – Gerontechnology & Rehabilitation HRL – Hearing Research Laboratory IGT – Image-Guided Therapy (former) MIA – Medical Image Analysis MLN – Motor Learning & Neurorehabilitation (former) MSB – Musculoskeletal Biomechanics OOC – Organs-on-Chip Technologies UGE – Urogenital Engineering Artificial Intelligence Biomechanics In-Vitro & Organs-on-Chip Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering Robotics Surgical Technologies Virtual & Augmented Reality

10. September 2022

PhD thesis defense Judith van Beek

The ARTORG Center congratulates Judith van Beek for successfully defending her PhD thesis on 1 July 2022! Her project “Precision Work: Innovative rehabilitation techniques for improving dexterity in neurological diseases” investigated the use of innovative rehabilitation techniques for improving dexterity in individuals living with neurological diseases, specifically Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Judith graduated from the Graduate School of Health Sciences, her thesis supervised by Prof. Dr. Tim Vanbellingen, Neurocenter, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, and co-supervised by Tobias Nef, ARTORG Center Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation (GER).

People GER – Gerontechnology & Rehabilitation Biomechanics Rehabilitation & Neural Engineering

20. July 2022

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