ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

The ARTORG Center creates innovative healthcare technology by bringing together the biomedical engineering and medicine departments of the University of Bern. To address unmet needs of patients, doctors and nurses, technical and clinical experts together lead our multidisciplinary research units.
Close to current challenges in preventive medicine, diagnostics, therapy and disease management, ARTORG contributes to improved clinical care through scientific discovery, deep learning technology, simulation of physiological processes and the development of novel medical devices and applications for surgery and rehabilitation. The Center fosters diversity and creative teamwork and offers study programs for Masters, postgraduates and clinicians at world-class level. We count on a strong network within the Bern medical hub, develop our projects with leading international research institutions, and collaborate with industry to accelerate the translation of our pilot and prototype work to commercial solutions.

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News and events

Research symposium Ureteral Obstructions and Stents: Bridging Clinical Practice and Emerging Technologies

19 September

PhD thesis defense Prisca Dotti

The ARTORG Center congratulates Prisca Dotti for her successful PhD thesis defense on 18 July 2024! At the Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging group, Prisca worked on a deep learning-based method for automatically detecting and classifying local Ca²⁺ release events in cardiomyocytes, demonstrating high accuracy and robustness under the title “Detection, Localization, and Classification of Subcellular Ca²⁺ Release Events: Using a Deep Learning Approach.”
The model successfully detects over 75% of events, with performance comparable to expert human annotations. This approach offers a significant, time-saving alternative to traditional labour-intensive analysis methods.

more on her research...

PhD thesis defense Raphael Rätz

The ARTORG Center congratulates Raphael Rätz for his successful PhD thesis defense on 8 July 2024! At the Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation group, Raphael developed and tested two complementary, easy-to-use robotic devices to improve upper-limb rehabilitation after a stroke under the title "Novel Clinical-Driven Robotic Devices for Sensorimotor Training". The portable hand trainer is simple and intuitive, enabling patients to increase their therapy dosage through unsupervised training at home. The Lambda.3+ offers an unprecedented quality of sensory information in gamified rehabilitation exercises thanks to a novel physics engine-based haptic rendering approach.

More on his research...

Amith Kamath wins Falling Walls Fribourg

With his project to improve the lives of patients with glioblastoma through AI-enhanced faster radiotherapy onset, Amith Kamath, PhD at the Medical Image Analysis lab, has won the Falling Walls Competition in Fribourg. He will represent Switzerland at the Falling Walls Science Summit and Final in Berlin in November. The group is investigating ways to automate contouring of brain tumors and organs at risk as well as dose planning to significantly shorten the time from diagnosis to treatment from currently 2 weeks to "instant radiotherapy".

Watch the project pitch...

PhD thesis defense Ioannis Papathanail

Congratulations to Ioannis Papathanail for successfully defending his PhD thesis “Machine learning-based system for dietary assessment” on 26 June 2024! As part of the AI in Health and Nutrition lab, Ioannis has investigated ways to use AI technology in mobile health applications to promote dietary monitoring and assessment as a cornerstone for a healthier and more balanced lifestyle, but also to avoid malnutrition or adiposity or deal with conditions such as diabetes.

More on his research…

Atypicality analysis of MRI

Seminar organized by the Medical Image Analysis lab with Dr. Martin Styner, University of North California. Her will talk on ways to use deep learning to analyze heterogeneous brain disorders from MRI.

Learn more...

Insights into COVID-19 molecular pathology

Seminar on insights into COVID-19 molecular pathology leveraged from the unsupervised clustering of the circulating proteome of participants to the Biobanque québécoise de la COVID-19 (BQC19). Delivered by Simon Rousseau, McGill University Health Centre and part of the translational program in respiratory medicine, jointly invited by the ARTORG AIHN lab and the Lung Precision Medicine Program, Department for BioMedical Research.

Learn more...

Empowering Health: Sensors, Smartphones, and Gen AI

Seminar on Generative AI, sensors and smartphones in healthcare with Ramesh Jain, Emeritus Donald Bren Professor and founding Director of the Institute for Future Health at the University of California, Irvine.

Learn more and register...

Mapping the entire bloodflow in the brain

Franca Schmid is developing computer models to map the highly complex vascular structure of the brain to understand its blood and energy supply. This should one day enable new therapeutic approaches against strokes or Alzheimer's disease. In an interview and video with Uniaktuell, the SNSF Ambizione fellow explains her approach in detail.

Read the article with video... (in German)

PhD thesis defense Aleksandra Ivanovic

Congratulations to Aleksandra Ivanovic for successfully defending her PhD thesis “Hearing under the Lens: Exploring the Human Middle Ear with Synchrotron-based Phase-contrast Microtomography” on 5 June. Her research aimed to shine a light on the intricate nanometer-to-micrometer movements of tiny anatomical structures within the temporal bone to enable medical research and ultimately improve the treatment outcomes for conductive hearing loss.

Learn more…

PhD thesis defense Sergio Tascon-Morales

Congratulations to Sergio Tascon-Morales, who successfully defended his PhD thesis “Spatial Awareness and Logic for Robust Visual Question Answering” on 15 May 2024! As part of the AI in Medical Imaging lab, Sergio researched ways to make deep learning models for medical image analysis less opaque and their reponse to visual questioning more consistent and traceable.

More on his research…

Sensors in the patient room

The continuous recording of patient needs gives nursing staff a clear overview of the situation on their ward. In an article for SaeZ, Lena Bruhin, PhD at the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation lab, explains how sensor systems in the patient rooms could help alleviate the burden of nursing staff shortage: By generating objective clinical data they could help to prioritise interventions and optimise clinical and care routines. But sensors could even be useful at home.

Read the article (German or French)...

Celebrations at the StageUp Final

Celebrations for ARTORG at the Stage Up final on 14 May! One of the two top 5 ARTORG teams, TightValve (CVE) took first place. Initiated by a heart surgeon, the team develops a novel surgical device for aortic valve repair allowing surgeons to measure intraoperatively if a repaired valve is really closing tightly. Another young ARTORG venture, CleanStent (UGE) ranked 4th together with its competitor.

Details on the teams and their business ideas...

Why Switzerland is ideal to translate MedTech research

Based on the international patent index, Switzerland is the world champion in patent registrations - especially for MedTech. Georg Rauter, University of Basel, and Dominik Obrist, Group Leader Cardiovascular Engineering at ARTORG, explain in an SRF radio report why the Swiss ecosystem is so favourable to translating biomedical research directly into healthcare and what is important for innovations in this field to happen.

Listen to the podcast (in German)...

PhD thesis defense Yvan Gugler

The ARTORG Center congratulates Yvan Gugler for his successful PhD thesis defense on 23 April 2024. As part of the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics lab, he investigated the results of three studies that assessed the potential of 3D DXA for use in the clinic under the title "Evaluation of 3D DXA Reconstructions of the Proximal Femur for FE-Based Strength and Fracture Risk Predictions.

More on his research...

RetinAI parent Ikerian expands medical focus

The ARTORG spinoff company RetinAI Medical AG has been rebranded as Ikerian AG to spearhead development beyond ophthalmological solutions. The wider focus has brought in USD 6.18M in Series A Extension and new investors.

Learn more…

SNSF Scientific Image Competition: Two ARTORG winners

Two entries by the ARTORG Center have won awards at the 2024 Scientific Image Competition of the Swiss National Science Foundation! Christopher Hahne (AIMI) won first prize in the "video loop" with a visualization of brain vascularity. Tatiana Kotchetkova (MSB) earned a distinction in "object of study" with a SHG microscopy of bone microarchitecture.

Learn more and see all 18 winning photos/videos...

New ARTORG Venture Fellow

With Cornel Dillinger, Urogenital Engineering lab, the ARTORG is again represented amongst the University of Bern Venture Fellows 2024. Cornel is developing a novel technology to enhance the longevity of ureteral stents. He has just transfered from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich and joins our current two Venture Fellows: Soheila Zeinali (OOC) and Miguel Ariza (CBE).

Read the UniBE Innovation Office article...

Computer games supporting rehabilitation

Rehabilitation and motor training after accidents or against locomotor or cognitive impairment in ageing is increasingly supported by digital health applications. In a 10 vor 10 report, ARTORG´s memory training games are shown alongside "exergames" and video-based coordination exercises to promote mobility in seniors.

Watch the "10 vor 10" report...

Kinderuni at the ARTORG Center

Last weekend, the ARTORG welcomed the Kinderuni for the first time! The 8-12-year-olds were given exciting insights into the biology of the heart and lungs and into ARTORG research into more sustainable heart valves and lung models on chips, which are revolutionizing drug development, for example.

Impressions Kinderuni

FDA Registration PeriVision VisionOne

PeriVision, a spin-off from the ARTORG Center and the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, proudly announces its recent FDA registration for its first medical software product VisionOne. This significant milestone marks a pivotal moment in PeriVision's mission to enhance patient care and revolutionize the field of ophthalmology.

Read the press release...

Fighting heart attack down to the smallest vessels

Researchers in Bern are investigating a new method to combat the blockage of tiny coronary arteries after a heart attack. The new approach, born from a cooperation of engineers, clinicians, and the Swiss MedTech start-up CorFlow Therapeutics AG, offers a treatment option to prevent the death of heart tissue after a heart attack, responsible for poor long-term patient health.

Read the Uni Bern media release...

PhD Thesis Defense Jan Schulte

The ARTORG Center congratulates Jan Schulte, Organs-on-Chip Technologies, for his successful PhD thesis defense on 14 March 2024! Jan explored the potential and challenges of in-vitro modelling of the alveolar epithelium and the advancements in lung-on-chip technology under the title “Development of a novel alveoli-on-chip model for mechanical investigations on primary human alveolar epithelial cells”.

Avoiding Bias in AI: Combating Inequality in Data, Gender and Socioeconomics

Does AI reproduce bias in training data? Can machine learning overcome gender bias in medicine and provide equal access to care?
With former UNESCO Equality Director Saniye Gülser as a keynote speaker we are even questioning if data-driven machine learning is still the right paradigm to operate with.
Don't miss the next Spring Seminar of our initiative Diversity for AI in Medicine on 7 March 2024!

Learn more...

Heart Valve Society Poster Prize

Karoline-Marie Bornemann and her team from the Cardiovascular Engineering lab won the poster prize competition at the Annual Meeting of the Heart Valve Society in Boston, USA, on 19 February 2024. Her research "Investigation of sinus washout and platelet activation in transcatheter valve thrombosis (THVT) patients" investigated a possible correlation between larger aortic dimensions and THVT, and won in the category 'Pathology, Mechanisms, and Outcomes'.

Read the abstract...

Women in Science Day 2024

As every year in mid-February, the ARTORG recognizes the important scientific contributions of females among our teams for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This year, we illustrate this on five examples of the work of young women from different ARTORG research groups.

Learn more…

PhD Thesis Defense Alba Segura Amil

The ARTORG Center congratulates Alba Segura Amil for her successful PhD thesis defense on 1 February 2024! At the Image Guided Therapies group, Alba investigated how patient-specific tractography can improve deep brain stimulation targeting and programming under the title “Improving DBS therapy with patient-specific tractography”. To this end, she developed tractography-based stimulation models for Parkinson's disease, treatment-resistant depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

More on her research…

Research Symposium "Emerging Technologies for Failing Hearts"

Symposium at Felix-Frey-Auditorium, sitem-insel, with five renowned speakers, organized by the Cardiovascular Engineering lab.

More information and registration...

MLP mixers in lung image segmentation

The AI in Health and Nutrition lab conducted performance tests on a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for lung fibrosis, employing multi-layer-perceptron-mixers (MLP-mixers) for segmenting lung and airway anatomy. Additionally, the system identifies idiopathic lung disease patterns in a second step. Currently, MLP-mixers segmentation demonstrates performance comparable to nnU-Net on chest CT images.

Learn more…

Beginners German course starts end February

As a measure to promote Equal Opportunities at the ARTORG Center a new German course level A1.1 will be offered the coming semester on Thursdays 8:30-10:00 am. Registration is made on KSL: https://ksl.unibe.ch/ (course number 488997-FS2024-0: Deutsch A1.1). The course is limited to 12 participants.

Learn more...

Annual Report 2023 out!

We have just published the Annual Report of our 15th anniversary year! Read what our 12 specialized research groups were working on, hear an update of our workshop and check out our 15 graduates who defended their PhD thesis in 2023!

ARTORG Annual Report 2023

Seminar "Mental Wellbeing in Academia"

Online seminar with Dr. Anna Schueth, Assistant Professor at the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, on mental health in academia. This informal seminar will feature a short input by the speaker, who has founded an entity to provide mental health support and resources at the University and has spoken on the topic on various occasions. This is followed by an offer for open discussion.

More info and Zoom link...

LEM Surgical closes B series

The ARTORG spinoff LEM Surgical has closed an oversubscribed series B round, raising CHF 22 million from new Swiss and US investors. The funds will propel the development of its robotic spinal cord surgery system and preparation for FDA submission.

News Startup Ticker...

Active learning for multi-label xray classification

In medical image data sets with limited labeled data, active learning approaches can help reduce annotation costs and boost performance of computer-aided diagnosis systems. Based on its previous findings employing interpretability information as inductive bias and as criteria to select informative samples in active learning, the Medical Image Analysis lab has now developed a new graph-based transformer and data augmentation active learning framework for multi-label xray classification.

Learn more...

Aortic root geometry might influence artificial valve thrombosis

Together with the Department of Cardiology at Inselspital the Cardiovascular Engineering group has performed a pilot study suggesting a direct effect of the aortic dimensions on clinically apparent transcatheter heart valve thrombosis (THVT). The team studied fluid-structure interaction in two idealized aortic models, simulating different diameters for the sinotubular junction and ascending aorta.

Read the findings...

Femoral neck composition and micromechanics

The Musculoskeletal Biomechanics group has recently presented a multimodal framework for human compact bone characterization at the microscale, including the first high-throughput micropillar compressions of human cortical bone. The proposed bone fracture risk classification algorithm together with the output dataset of bone tissue properties can be used for the future comparison of existing methods to evaluate bone quality and better understand the mechanisms through which bone tissue is affected by aging or disease.

Learn more...

PhD thesis defense Matthias Fontanellaz

The ARTORG Center congratulates Matthias Fontanellaz for his successful PhD thesis defense on 29 November 2023! At the AI in Health and Nutrition lab, Matthias investigated AI as support tool under the title “From diagnosis to disease management: the use of AI in medical decision support systems”. For his research, he focused on AI technology to diagnose lung diseases from CT imaging and also encompassing work on blood glucose prediction.

Learn more…

ValTech Lifesciences wins Venture Kick support

ValTech Lifesciences, a new venture of the ARTORG Center Cardiovascular Engineering group wins Venture Kick first stage financial and entrepreneurial support, together with five other startups. The team around co-founders are Dr. Shaokai Zheng and Prof. Dr. Dominik Obrist wants to develop a non-thrombogenic, durable heart valve prosthesis.

Venture Kick announcement...

Seminar "1D model of arterial hemodynamics"

Last ARTORG Seminar 2023 with Prof. Dr. Nikolaos Stergiopulos, Director of the Laboratory of Hemodynamics and Cardiovascular Technology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, EPFL. He will show how the model developed by his team can capturing wave phenomena in the arterial system and how it can be employed along with machine learning to extract crucial central hemodynamic parameters from non-invasive measurements.

Learn more...

PhD thesis defense Emile Talon

The ARTORG Center congratulates Emile Talon for successfully defending his PhD thesis on 7 December 2023. Emile has researched bone-conduction hearing aids and their optimal implantation location under the title “Image-guidance for optimized bone conduction implantation”. For his thesis at the Hearing Research Lab, he has delved into the characteristics of bone, such as thickness and bone mineral density at the skull base, which exert a profound influence on the efficient propagation of mechanical vibrations which transmit sound in bone-conduction implants.

Details on his research…

PhD thesis defense Alice Dudle

Congratulations to Alice Dudle for her successful PhD thesis defense on 4 December 2023! At the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics lab and as part of the SNF Sinergia project AFFIRM-CT, Alice has investigated risk parameters for fragility fractures at the hip. Her thesis “DXA- and QCT-based modeling of the human proximal femur towards improved hip fracture prediction” developed image processing methods required to include both DXA and QCT images into a hip fracture calculator.

Learn more…

PhD thesis defense Malavika Nambiar

The ARTORG Center congratulates Malavika Nambiar for her successful PhD thesis defense on 23 November 2023! Malavika has studied the “Material Characterization of the Cornea” to pave the way “Towards Personalized Refractive Interventions” at the Computational Bioengineering Lab. For this work, she used both experimental and numerical approaches to unravel the mechanical complexities and morphological nuances of corneal tissue and thus inform future surgical techniques.

Learn more…

PhD thesis defense Noëlle Harte

Congratulations to Noëlle Harte for her successful PhD thesis defense on 16 November 2023! Noëlle examined “The spiral shape of the cochlea” at the Hearing Research Lab. The transverse flow phenomena she observed for her PhD project offer new insights into cochlear fluid dynamics, with potential implications for metabolite transport.

More on her research…

PhD thesis defense Elias Rüfenacht

The ARTORG Center congratulates Elias Rüfenacht for his successful PhD thesis defense at the Medical Image Analysis lab on 24 October 2023. His project "Data-centric and Clinically-relevant AI-based Segmentation of Intracranial Tumors and Organs-at-Risk for Radiotherapy” developed a radiation therapy-oriented deep learning framework as well as a new learning paradigm to create dosimetric-aware AI segmentation models for radiation therapy.

Learn more...

ARTORG Center welcomes Manuela Eugster

Dr. Manuela Eugster has been appointed Assistant Professor with tenure track in Robotics and Micromechatronics, starting this month at the ARTORG Center and the Department of Neurosurgery Inselspital. At her previous position at the Bio-Inspired Robots for Medicine-Lab (BIROMED-Lab), University of Basel, she has acquired a broad skillset in minimally invasive surgical robotics including robotic endoscopes, high precision end-effectors and in situ bioprinting, which she will now employ to form a new specialized research group at the ARTORG Center.

More on her research...

Ensuring Safe Medical Image Analysis in the Age of AI

ARTORG Seminar with Dr. Christian Baumgartner, Head of Machine Learning in Medical Image Analysis at the University of Tübingen, invited by the AI in Medical Imaging Lab. In this talk he will give an overview of his group's research in the areas of interpretable and robust machine learning for medical image analysis to answer questions on AI technology integration into clinical workflows.

Know more...

PhD thesis defense Aileen Naef

The ARTORG Center congratulates Aileen Naef for her successful PhD thesis defense on 1 November 2023! Aileen investigated at the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Lab how sensory overload of patients during stays at the Intensive Care Unit could be mitigated by immersive virtual reality interventions under the title “The Development, Application, and Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technology to Decrease Sensory Overload in the Intensive Care Unit”.

Learn more…

Saliency feature learning for MRI

Introducing saliency feature learning to multi-sequence MRI could improve the segmentation quality of deep learning systems. This is the finding of a recent study of the Medical Image Analysis lab in collaboration with the Support Center for Advanced Neuroimaging (SCAN) and the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital.

Learn more…

PhD thesis defense Robert Poel

The ARTORG Center congratulates Robert Poel for successfully defending his PhD thesis “Radiotherapy oriented quality control for deep learning based fully automated segmentation of intracranial targets and organs at risk” on 20 October 2023! As member of the Medical Image Analysis lab, Robert’s PhD research focused on advancing the topic of AI-based segmentation for Radiation Therapy purposes closer to the clinical needs.

More about his research...

Pressure-volume catheters for urology

The Urogenital Engineering group of the ARTORG Center, in collaboration with the Department of Urology of the Inselspital and the Cardiovascular Engineering group, has evaluated for the first time, in an ex vivo study, whether cardiac pressure-volume (PV) catheters could be applied to improve the diagnosis of lower urinary tract dysfunctions (e.g. overactive or underactive bladders). The results of this first feasibility study are promising.

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Monitoring nutrition with a single image

In a refinement of its earlier system for automated nutrient assessment via smartphone, the AI in Health and Nutrition laboratory in collaboration with the School of Health Professions, Bern University of Applied Sciences, has developed an easy-to-use single-image-input pipeline to output nutrient composition within the goFOOD(TM) application. In a retrospective real-world study, the new system reduced user burden and showed promising results.

Know more…

Multiclass AI model rates Covid severity

To improve the initial patient assessment and disease characterization from lung CT scans, the Medical Image Analysis lab of the ARTORG Center, Uni Bern, and the Department of Radiology of the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital have developed a 2-stage multiclass lung lesion model trained to classify disease severity based on the WHO Clinical Progression Scale. The models performance exceeded that of a single-class model as well as the radiologists’ assessment.

More about the study…

Philipp Aebischer wins SSBE Research Award

For his dissertation on "SMART Insertions for Cochlear Implant Electrode Arrays", Philipp Aebischer, Head of the Hearing Research Lab, has been awarded the SSBE Research Award on 13 September 2023 at the annual meeting of the Swiss Society for Biomedical Engineering. The thesis focuses on improving the safety and effectiveness of cochlear implantation procedures through multiple facets. It encompasses the creation of realistic in-vitro models for procedure testing, the development of an algorithm for precise electrode position determination based on impedance measurements, and ultimately culminates in the development of a specialized surgical tool designed to ensure the precise insertion of the electrode array while protecting delicate inner ear structures.

Details on the research...

AI-assisted brain tumor measurements

Automated tumor segmentation for glioblastoma is promising, yet little is known about longitudinal accuracy of automated measurements to assess treatment response. The Medical Image Analysis lab compared assessment consistency by two AI-based tumor segmentation tools against expert ratings over time, identifying a need for further improvement.

Study results…

Gaming for Science

Mike Falkner spends up to 10 hours a day behind a screen. What can't possibly be healthy, actually improves memory and fine motor skills. Portrait of the work of a game designer turned researcher at the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Lab.

Learn more about the serious games developed...

How an aorta actuator influences hemodynamics

Dielectric elastomer actuator augmented aorta (DEA) is a novel soft tubular device replacing a section of the aorta to support failing hearts. In collaboration with the Center for Artificial Muscles CAM at EPFL, the ARTORG Cardiovascular Engineering group has investigated the hemodynamic effects of the DEA on the aortic wave intensity pattern. Results point to an optimal timing of actuation with respect to the activity of the left ventricle.

More on the study…

Seminar "Markers of pathological speech in movement disorders"

Invited talk by Prof. Jan Rusz from the Czech Technical University in Prague, organized by the Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation lab. The talk takes place at the Inselspital INO. Jan Rusz specializes his research in motor speech disorders, digital signal processing and data analysis.

Learn more...

Deep Learning Dose Prediction for Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy treatment requires accurate contouring of tumor volumes and organs at risk. In a collaboration between the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, Uni Bern, and the Department of Radiation Therapy, Inselspital, a deep learning architecture for automatic segmentation and 3D dose prediction for glioblastoma patients has shown good sensitivity and robustness.

Learn more...

Insights into bioprosthetic heart valve failure

How do bioprosthetic heart valves fail? In the first detailed study of calcified heart valves, the ARTORG Cardiovascular Engineering group has joined forces with Empa and the Paul Scherrer Institute to analyze the nature and starting points of calcification, its chemical composition and the influence of blood flow and valve shape on the calcification process.

Learn more…

Arunima Sengupta wins ISAM Award

At the Congress of the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) in Saarbrücken on 29 August 2023, Arunima Sengupta was able to secure the ISAM Young Investigator Award 2023 for the Best Oral Presentation. With "A robust lung-on-chip inhalation platform for toxicity and therapy assessment” she presented her research focus as a postdoctoral researcher at the Organs-on-Chip Technologies lab.

More about ISAM...

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