Two milestones for collaboration in medicine
University Medicine Zurich is an initiative by ETH Zurich, University of Zurich and the university hospitals in Zurich. A new flagship project was launched at its annual event in late November. The aim of the University Medicine Zurich collaboration is to strengthen academic medicine. This objective is also supported by the new Balgrist Campus.
Breath tests will increasingly be used to diagnose disease in the future. “There is great potential in breath testing”, said Renato Zenobi, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at ETH Zurich, at the annual event by University Medicine Zurich. He presented the project on ‘What the breath reveals’ together with Malcolm Kohler, Director of the Department of Pulmonology at University Hospital Zurich.
“Our breath is a little like a fingerprint – we all have a unique ‘breath-print’”, explained Malcolm Kohler. This changes when a person has certain diseases. Together with other research groups in Zurich, Kohler and Zenobi want to develop methods to use a person’s breath to diagnose conditions such as diabetes or sleep apnoea. This would be faster, cheaper and more comfortable for patients than blood or urine tests or a night in the sleep lab.
Flagship projects sought
With the ‘What the breath reveals’ project, University Medicine Zurich is now supporting two flagship projects – i.e. large-scale, long-term projects that have the potential to transform medicine and increase the international visibility of Zurich as a centre for medical research. The “external page Zurich Heart” project, which focuses on developing improved artificial hearts for people with severe heart failure, has been running since 2012.
“We want to support one to two new flagship projects per year”, explained Wolfgang Langhans, Deputy Chairman of the University Medicine Zurich Steering Committee and Professor at ETH Zurich, at the recent event.
University Medicine Zurich will also continue to finance smaller "HMZ Seed Projects". The aim here is to support visionary ideas for which the research is still in its infancy. In 2015, University Medicine Zurich selected five seed projects, all of which involved ETH Zurich.
A communicative campus
The new Balgrist Campus has been inaugurated on Friday evening (4 December 2015), following four years of construction. The new research and development centre for musculoskeletal medicine is adjacent to Balgrist University Hospital and brings together a variety of research groups. This is made possible by the building's transparent design without partitioning walls. There are not even any high shelves in the laboratories, as these could interrupt the line of sight between the researchers. Appliances and cabinets are attached to the outer walls.
The building has a net floor area of around 7,600 square metres and will be in use from January 2016. The research group led by Jess Snedeker, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Biomechanics at University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, is currently testing the infrastructure. “It's fantastic”, said Snedeker. “We have plenty of space and can discuss ideas at any time. My staff can see and talk to me. That didn’t happen so often before, when I was sitting in my office.”
Jess Snedeker's group will have company from early January. Research groups from University of Zurich and ETH Zurich working in the fields of biomechanics, robotics, mobile health systems, tumours, muscle, paraplegia and clinical orthopaedics will move into the building. About half of the spaces will be shared. This means that several different research groups will be able to benefit from the expensive laboratory equipment.
Dr Hansjörg Wyss, lead donor behind the Balgrist Campus and founder and former owner of Synthes AG, will officially open the Balgrist Campus today, together with Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann.
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