<![CDATA[Hes-So]]>enAiO RSS generatorhttps://www.hevs.ch/_nuxt/img/logo_hesso.4161a9a.svg<![CDATA[Hes-So]]>20440<![CDATA[Navigating the Digital Frontier]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/navigating-the-digital-frontier-208217


]]>
Fri, 15 Dec 2023 07:47:21 +0100https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/navigating-the-digital-frontier-208217
<![CDATA[Looking back at the 6th Point-of-Care Symposium]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/looking-back-at-the-6th-point-of-care-symposium-207862On October 26, the School of Engineering of the HES-SO Valais-Wallis in Sion hosted the 6th Swiss Symposium in Point-of-Care Diagnostics on the Energypolis Campus. More than 140 people from all over Switzerland participated in this event, which brought together representatives from medicine, industry, and research.

Exciting presentations from our speakers, discussion of current trends in near-the-patient in-vitro diagnostics, and networking with industry experts were the perfect opportunity to share knowledge. At the symposium's conclusion, Dr. Benjamin Easter, a physician-scientist from NASA's research program, offered a dream moment to the participants by addressing the health of astronauts on exploration missions. 

Also worth mentioning among the many fascinating speakers were Pierre Métrailler, head of rescue at Air-Glaciers, Andreea Wiese from Roche Diagnostics, and Alexandre Kuhn, professor of bioinformatics at the School of Engineering.

Their interviews, as well as those of many other participants and images of the event, are available in the video below:

 Photos and video 

This event was a great success and helped to strengthen the ties between the various players in the field.

The next Point-of-Care Symposium will occur on October 22, 2024, in Zurich.

 

Photos and Video of the 6th Swiss Symposium in Point-of-Care Diagnostics © 2023 by HES-SO Valais-Wallis (Laurent Darbellay) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

]]>
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:24:51 +0100https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/looking-back-at-the-6th-point-of-care-symposium-207862
<![CDATA[Biotechnology & Sustainable Chemistry]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/biotechnology-sustainable-chemistry-207699The BIOTECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY research group works on biotechnological, analytical and chemical innovations to provide sustainable solutions.



]]>
Mon, 09 Oct 2023 10:59:49 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/biotechnology-sustainable-chemistry-207699
<![CDATA[Sustainable Food Systems]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/sustainable-food-systems-207625The interdisciplinary approach of the SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS team is driven by consumer needs, expectations, preferences and the required change of food systems to mitigate climate change. 

Our interdisciplinary team of experts work in different fields related to food technology, food microbiology, chemistry, physics and consumer sciences to achieve sustainability goals and provide healthy and nutritious diets for all.


]]>
Mon, 02 Oct 2023 08:37:52 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/sustainable-food-systems-207625
<![CDATA[Bio-analytical tools for industry]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/bio-analytical-tools-for-industry-207564Institute of Life Technologies

The interdisciplinary DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEMS research team conceives, designs and implements innovative bioanalytical tools and new technological building blocks to meet diagnostic and medtech needs. Its focus is on the development of industrial projects. 


]]>
Mon, 25 Sep 2023 08:15:24 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/bio-analytical-tools-for-industry-207564
<![CDATA[The Institute of Life Technologies presents itself]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/the-institute-of-life-technologies-presents-itself-207293New presentation video


The Institute of Life Technologies is active in applied research and development (R&D), provides services and offers continuing education courses. Our interdisciplinary teams have excellent skills and extensive experience in life sciences. We work closely with our business and industry partners to meet society's current and future challenges. Sustainability is always the focus of our activities and projects.

]]>
Mon, 04 Sep 2023 07:32:38 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/the-institute-of-life-technologies-presents-itself-207293
<![CDATA[2023 projects funded by The Sense]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/2023-projects-funded-by-the-sense-207266The Sense is pleased to announce the four new projects that are internally funded for 2023. A notable aspect is that these interinstitutional projects are coordinated by researchers who did not receive funding last year. Among other things, three of these projects are coordinated by women.

Here are the four supported projects for this year:

1. Flavor

Developing EEG-based tools to understand flavour perception in response to sustainable food technologies.

Sandra Galle (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) et Chrysa Retsa (CHUV-UNIL)

We will develop a method that allows to measure and quantify cognitive response of dynamic flavor stimuli in a plant-based model system and correlate it with state-of-the-art flavor and sensory analysis. This tool would allow to generate an information matrix that enables new models to predict flavor perception as a function of flavor release, a powerful conclusion for product developers.

2. KiCk fMRI

Validating innovations to broaden the testable age-range for fMRI investigations in children.

Benedetta Franceschiello (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) et Juliane Schneider (CHUV-UNIL)

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique, which permits recording correlates of neural activity while participants perform behavioral tasks or during rest. However, fMRI is prone to motion artefacts.In normal behaving subjects this is rarely the case, as participants can be instructed to remain still. Kids are a particularly sensitive population, as they are more difficult to instruct and more prone to perform involuntary movements. In this project we develop a new technique, Ki-Ck fMRI, capable of reliably measuring fMRI in kids and successfully correcting for artefacts, providing an unprecedent advancement in the field.

3. MVO

Introducing virtual reality platforms to enable movement in patients with chronic lower back pain.

Antoine Widmer (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), Julien Favre (CHUV-UNIL) et Chantal Berna Renella (CHUV-UNIL)

MVO will explore how fear of performing specific movements impacts the way people suffering from lower back pain moves in specific situations. Virtual Reality will be used to induce sense of fear without the potential risk of getting hurt.

4. Wildcomm

Translating lab-based paradigms and hardware into field sites to understand multisensory communication.

Erica Van de Waal (UNIL) et Olivier Collignon (HES-SO Valais-Wallis)

“WildCom” will explore the appealing idea that the combinations of gestures and vocalizations were crucial in the emergence of the unique language abilities in humans. This question will be addressed by adapting experiments usually performed on humans in the lab directly for wild monkeys in their natural habitat.

]]>
Thu, 31 Aug 2023 08:25:16 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/2023-projects-funded-by-the-sense-207266
<![CDATA[Axe Santé: SORTIE, how virtual reality can save lives]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-sortie-how-virtual-reality-can-save-lives-207244The Axe Santé is an interdisciplinary center for the development of sustainable healthcare technologies that brings together all the research institutes of the HES-SO Valais Wallis. We caught up with Davide Calvaresi, Scientific Assistant at the Institute of Informatics, to talk about the project he has been working on for several months: SORTIE, which simulates the exit from a building in the event of a disaster or incident.

Helping people with reduced mobility or in fragile situations

Davide Calvaresi confides that he grew up not far from his grandparents, and that he was struck by the many difficulties encountered by elderly, physically or cognitively frail people in their day-to-day activities. That's why he decided to put his IT skills to good use in the healthcare sector. In fact, his Master’s thesis focused on technologies capable of supporting the elderly in the last years of their lives. So, it's hardly surprising that he's now working at the AIS-Lab (Applied Intelligent Systems Lab) in the field of eHealth.

SORTIE: improving infrastructures and warning systems in the event of danger

SORTIE, the project supported by the Axe Santé and currently being run by the Institute of Informatics, uses virtual reality goggles to simulate a dangerous situation in a building: fire, flood, earthquake... Would we be able to get out of the building safely by following the evacuation signals? This was the question that occupied researchers at the Institute, accompanied by colleagues from the Living Lab Handicap, Emmanuel Fragnière and Benjamin Nanchen. Thanks to plans drawn up by building engineer Emanuele Gagliardi, which reflect real-life standards in terms of distance from objects, size of spaces and room brightness, the team was able to set up a full-scale simulation to test the behavior of a person with or without a disability in an existing structure or one under construction.

Virtual immersion in a disaster-stricken hospital

Two hospitals took part in the project: an American hospital and the future health center of the Hôpital du Valais in Sion. The latter, still under construction, allowed the team to imagine that the SORTIE project could one day be used to test a structure before its completion, and to propose corrective measures or improvements to emergency exits and alarm systems. Among other things, the project tested the behavior of people with mobility difficulties, visual impairments, and wheelchair users. This interdisciplinary project benefited from the collaboration of Emmanuel Fragnière, Professor at the Tourism Institute, and the Living Lab Handicap coordinated by Benjamin Nanchen, Scientific Assistant at the same institute, and was tested in real-life conditions during a cantonal-level exercise. SORTIE drew lessons from the tests carried out to better understand needs in terms of visual or auditory signals and access to emergency exits. The project ensured that what was visible in the simulation corresponded to reality, particularly when certain emergency exits were no longer available due to a fire.

Improving building evacuation systems and training ideal behavior

The SORTIE project aims to improve building evacuation systems and train people's behavior in the event of danger. Tests carried out in virtual reality have reduced by 70% the time it takes to get out of a disaster-stricken building. It seems that this type of virtual training serves to put people in condition and is more productive than a simple building evacuation test. Davide Calvaresi, who is in charge of the project, seems very optimistic about the future. He says that coordinating the system design, IT technicians and hospital respondents has enabled him to gain important insights. Organizing focus groups, reviewing the literature, managing technical developments, and coordinating testing were all stages in setting up this process, which could ultimately save many lives.

]]>
Mon, 28 Aug 2023 16:32:12 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-sortie-how-virtual-reality-can-save-lives-207244
<![CDATA[Axe Santé: ALPICAT, a project to combat bacterial resistance.]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-alpicat-a-project-to-combat-bacterial-resistance-206816The Axe Santé is an interdisciplinary center for the development of sustainable health technologies that brings together all the research institutes of the HES-SO Valais Wallis. We met Marc Mathieu, Professor at the Life Technologies Institute, to talk about a project supported by the Axe Santé on which he worked with two colleagues from the Enerypolis Campus for several months: ALPICAT, i.e., the development of prototype catheter ferrules whose surface is coated with antimicrobial molecules.

The challenge of sterilizing medical tools

It's not uncommon to hear in the press that certain bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria are necessary for life, but they pose numerous resistance problems, particularly in medical and hospital environments. These pathogens can be transmitted to human beings via medical equipment, for example. It is therefore essential to ensure sterilization of surgical tools and medical equipment in all situations. This is easier to do in a laboratory equipped with an autoclave (a hermetically sealed container used for sterilization) but can prove complicated in a doctor's surgery in an Alpine valley without access to this type of machine, or more particularly when operating in the field. What's more, this method of sterilization is costly, time-, energy- and space-intensive, and poses durability problems when medical equipment is single-use. Finally, the pharmaceutical industry offers many antimicrobials in different formulations, or surface disinfectants that have their limits when it comes to resistant bacterial strains. Professors Marc Mathieu, Bruno Schnyder and Samuel Rey-Mermet therefore want to offer healthcare professionals portable and reusable technologies based on antibacterial peptides with unique properties.

Antibacterial peptides at the service of medicine

Peptides are sequences of amino acids, and this family of molecules belongs to a class of compounds known as polymers. These amino acid sequences exist in natural form but can also be synthesized in the laboratory. For many years, chemical research has been investigating the properties of these molecules, and we know that some peptides are antimicrobial, others antioxidant, and that they can also support the immune system. Their highly active molecules, with properties that enable them to sterilize surfaces with complex geometries, offer high added value thanks to their innovative properties, and are therefore designed to disinfect restricted surfaces. Thus, the ALPICAT project proposes to provide a technology for sterilizing surgical tools or components whose surfaces are first brought into contact with a solution of peptides with antibacterial properties. However, the challenge in this area of research is to make the peptides stable, as natural molecules are vulnerable and have a rather short survival time. We therefore need to develop the right combination of peptides to ensure their prolonged efficacy, as well as how to combine them and graft them to the chosen surface.

An inter-institute project to test hypotheses

This is how Marc Mathieu, head of the Synthetic Peptides and Peptide Mimetics platform, directed his research project, supported by the Health Axis, towards the sterilization of 3D-printed medical catheters using a bath of antibacterial peptides. It turns out that Samuel Rey-Mermet, a researcher in industrial systems, and Bruno Schnyder, a researcher in microbiology at the Life Technologies Institute, are also part of this multi-disciplinary team. Parts designed and printed by the industrial systems teams were treated with peptides developed by Marc Mathieu, and their antimicrobial properties tested by Bruno Schnyder's team. Experiments have shown that these compounds can be used to sterilize connectors, ferrules, and catheters, or to create complex, reusable ferrules that disinfect liquids without the need for specialized, costly laboratory equipment. Marc Mathieu points out that it is difficult to sterilize certain surgical tools because their shape is sometimes very complex or their porosity leaves niches for bacteria that are complicated to sterilize. Treatment with grafted antibacterial peptides could be an effective, accessible, and sustainable solution to this problem, as it enables complete antibacterial coating of porous and complex surfaces.

Marc Mathieu, chemistry at the service of human health

Professor Marc Mathieu has been working as a teacher and researcher at HES-SO Valais-Wallis for 12 years. For 30 years now, he has been interested in biomolecules and peptides, and has devoted his thesis and post-doctorate, as well as part of his career in industry and his research projects at HES-SO Valais-Wallis, to this subject. In particular, he has worked in the field of anti-cancer drugs with industrial partners, start-ups, and SMEs. He has always wanted to put his skills in the exciting field of bio-organic chemistry at the service of healthcare, because he is aware of the immense potential of these peptides, which could be used to treat numerous public health problems.

Photo: credits © HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Laurent Darbellay, from left to right: Prof. Dr. Marc Mathieu, Peptide Laboratory (TEVI), Prof. Dr. Samuel Rey-Mermet, Powder Laboratory (ISI), Prof. Dr. Bruno Schynder, Microbiology Laboratory (TEVI).

]]>
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:45:02 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-alpicat-a-project-to-combat-bacterial-resistance-206816
<![CDATA[Axe Santé: Detecting head trauma in minutes]]>https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-detecting-head-trauma-in-minutes-206731Axe Santé is an interdisciplinary center for the development of sustainable health technologies, which brings together all the research institutes of the HES-SO Valais-Wallis. We caught up with Denis Prim, Scientific Assistant at the Life Technologies Institute, to talk about the project he has been working on for several months: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Point-of-Care Testing Platform.

Head trauma, a difficult diagnosis

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a little-known pathology, and its treatment is complex. The methods for detecting them, particularly mild head trauma, are few and far between, and not always effective. It is possible to undergo a simple examination by answering a few questions, and/or to undergo a CT scan. Sometimes, however, a mild trauma can have serious consequences, undetected by the medical profession, because the answers to the medical history did not point to an alarming situation. A CT or MRI scan of the head is costly, time-consuming for the medical staff and does not always provide an accurate diagnosis. Repeated mild head injuries, particularly suffered by sportsmen and women, can have serious long-term consequences, and are often not diagnosed, either because of deficiencies in the medical history, or because the injured person is unaware of the problem and therefore does not consult a doctor.

Less invasive detection thanks to biomarkers

To make the detection of mild head trauma safer, faster, and less costly, the project supported by the Axe Santé program proposes to measure three biomarkers in the blood. When shocked, the brain can release molecules via micro-lesions, which are then released into the bloodstream. The idea is to eventually be able to offer a compact, portable device that can detect these biomarkers and indicate whether a person has suffered even a mild head injury. This initial measure would enable sports coaches, paramedics, school nurses, first-aid doctors, emergency physicians or patrol officers, and all those who intervene in the first instance after an accident, to detect a potential head injury and take appropriate action. Everyday accidents that occur during field hockey games, skiing, soccer, or children's playtime are difficult to diagnose, and even minor impacts can be insidious, with serious consequences.

An inter-institute project to help patients and carers

Supported by a national BRIDGE project, the first phase of the project, carried out at the Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie and led by Professor Marc E. Pfeifer, involved developing and validating the strategy of the chosen approach, by testing it on existing instruments. It turned out that these systems had limitations, and that the desired level of performance could not be achieved. Denis Prim, head of the Systems Diagnostics Laboratory, and his colleagues, accompanied by specialists from the Institute of Systems Engineering, therefore set out to develop a demonstrator, a measuring instrument, to overcome these constraints. This device includes optical, mechanical, and electronic modules, as well as dedicated software. The rapid and effective support of the Health Axis has been an indispensable lever for the submission of a more substantial Innosuisse project, enabling us to work with partners in the field, notably hospitals, doctors and accident insurers. It is important to be able to move the measurement of this type of trauma away from central laboratories, to be closer to patients, while ensuring that the quality of diagnosis remains the same.

Denis Prim, a passionate and committed researcher

With a degree in engineering and many years of social, entrepreneurial, and scientific experience, Denis Prim says he is enthusiastic about the idea of helping to improve the daily lives of patients and carers. Funding from Axe Santé will enable him to collaborate actively with other research institutes to propose a device with significant utility and applicability. A specialist in bioanalytics, he admits that it would have been difficult to develop such a project without a group with complementary, cutting-edge knowledge ranging from electronics and mechanics to computer software development. Facilitating the work of carers and helping patients with less invasive, safer, and more accessible measurement tools are at the heart of his passion for science and applied research.

Publication : M. Jović, D. Prim et al, "A Novel Point-of-Care Diagnostic Prototype System for the Simultaneous Electrochemiluminescent Sensing of Multiple Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarkers," Sens. Diagn, May 2023, doi: 10.1039/D3SD00090G. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/sd/d3sd00090g

Photo : Credits © HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Laurent Darbellay. From left to right. Mélanie Stäuble (Master student), Denis Prim (Diagnostic Systems laboratory manager), David Tagan, Marc Pignat, Marc Pfeifer (Diagnostic Systems research group manager), Isaline Torche (Bachelor student), Steve Gallay (microelectronics laboratory manager), Milica Jovic.

]]>
Tue, 13 Jun 2023 11:21:29 +0200https://www.hevs.ch/en/news/axe-sante-detecting-head-trauma-in-minutes-206731