Profile
Many brain disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease or sleep disorders are chronic. However, current hospital- and appointment-based patient care provides «snap-shot»-like information only which does not allow to understand the longitudinal aspects of chronic neurological disorders. At NeuroTec, an interdisciplinary research and development platform located at the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine (sitem) and run by the Department of Neurology in close collaboration with the ARTORG Center, an interdisciplinary team of physicians, engineers and data scientists across three faculties of the University of Bern strives at closing this information gap. New devices and methods that allow to record digital biomarkers in the everyday out-of-hospital life of patients are tested. The goal is to monitor the individual course of a patient’s disease and to thus improve personalized diagnostics and therapies.
Teaching
Neurotechnology for students of the Postgraduate Sleep Master, Master program in Biomedical Engineering; Rehabilitation Technology for students of the European Stroke Master program; Artificial Intelligence (AI) for medical time series, for MSc in AI in Medicine; Advanced Python for MSc in Bioinformatics; Advanced electrophysiology from neuronal firing to chronic recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) over months.
Research
Sensor technology to quantify motor and non-motor symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative diseases; Assistive technology for brain-injured patients; Studying neural mechanisms of auditory processing in sleep and wakefulness with the use of invasive electrophysiological recordings and high-density scalp EEG; Measuring, quantifying and modulating cortical excitability acutely and chronically in epilepsy patients, and in patients with sleep disorders (narcolepsy, insomnia, REM sleep behavior disorder).
External Partners
Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), Neuenburg; Wyss Center For Bio- And Neuroengineering, Geneva; IBM, Zürich; University of California, San Francisco; Aix-Marseille University
Grants
- Innosuisse Flagship: The New Model of Digital Neurorehabilitation along the Continuum of Care (SWISSNEUROREHAB), 11.2 Mio CHF; (Lead: CHUV) 2022-2027
- Innosuisse Project: Development and Evaluation of a digital Care Assistant (Lead: University of Bern, Partners: FH Bern & Qumea AG, Solothurn), CHF 1 Mio, (Uni Bern: CHF 0.45 Mio)
- CAIM Grant for the Development of a Digital Care Assistant (Partner: Prof. S. Klöppel, UPD)
- SNSF Bridge: Emotion in the Loop – a step towards a comprehensive closed-loop deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease, 2.1 Mio CHF; 2021-2025.
- SISF: Digital biomarkers for fatigue in MS, CHF 300,000; 2024-2026.
- Boston Scientific: Emotion in speech, CHF 300,000; 2023-2025.
- Roche: From Activities of Daily living to clinical scores, CHF 100,000; 2023-2024.
- Takeda: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of TAK-861 for the Treatment of Narcolepsy with Cataplexy (Narcolepsy Type 1). Clinical trial with grant funding amount based on subject recruitment.
- Sitem-Insel Support Fund (SISF). CHF 167,800. Swiss Primary Hypersomnolence and Narcolepsy Cohort Study (SPHNCS). PI: C. Bassetti, Co-PI: M. Schmidt
- SNSF: Project grant: 2020-2023 Sensory predictions in the human brain
- SNSF-Project Grant: iSPHYNCs
- Fondation Pierre Mercier pour la science: 2021-2024 Neurobiology of outcome representation in Switzerland's citizen-centered society
- NVIDIA: Grant for academic hardware: 2022 'Improving diagnosis of sleep disorders from brain signals with deep learning'
- Eccellenza Professorship (M. Baud), 2 mio CHF over 2022-2027
- CURE Award from the Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy – 250,000 $ over 2023-2025
- Prognosticating chances of surviving a post-anoxic coma via auditory processing. Olga Mayenfisch Stiftung funding. Total amount: CHF 25,000
