D-INFK news channel

Monitoring and treating a case of multiple sclerosis requires reliable and long-​term data on how the disease is progressing in the person in question. Fitness trackers and smartphones can supply this data, as a research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown.

Researchers from the group led by Professor Julia Vogt, who runs the Medical Data Science Group at ETH Zurich, and KUNO Klinik St. Hedwig in Regensburg have developed an algorithm that provides an automatic and reliable method of detecting a certain heart defect in newborns.

During the COVID-​19 pandemic, hospitals often became hubs of infection. Researchers from the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, EPFL and the ISI Foundation are developing a wearable tracking system for healthcare facilities that can identify the risks of infections. Initial tests in Switzerland and Africa show its potential.

Researchers from the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with clinical care researchers at the University Hospital Basel, have developed a new treatment solution for children born with a cleft lip and palate. Learn more about the treatment and its implementation in the video.

The treatment of children born with cleft lip and palate typically includes the use of therapeutic intraoral plates before surgical closure of the cleft. Now, researchers from the Department of Computer Science have teamed up with clinical care researchers at the University Hospital Basel to create a digital pipeline that enables the automatic production of the plates.

What does a life scientist do at the Department of Computer Science? Martina Baumann is a science coordinator and supports her group in setting up complex research projects with sensitive medical data, among other things. She is an expert at mediating between internal and external bodies

Valentina Boeva has been a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at D-INFK since June 2019. She speaks not only Russian, French and English, but also the languages of computer science and biology. A rare talent that she is passing on to an increasing number of students.

The mTORUS project, funded by The LOOP Zurich, will use AI to explore novel treatments for urinary tract infections. Professor Gunnar Rätsch and Senior Scientist Andre Kahles from the Biomedical Informatics Lab are among the researchers involved.

Data contains much more than just the information on the surface. With statistics, deeper cause-​and-effect relationships can be brought to light. This is what Alexander Marx is researching as a Fellow at the ETH AI Center using artificial intelligence. One of his goals is to be able to make predictions regarding diabetes in children.

In this video, postdoc Ece Özkan Elsen talks about her return to research, why she loves medical data science, and how she works to support other women in computer science.

Professor Julia Vogt from the Institute for Machine Learning and Professor Ce Zhang from the Institute for Computing Platforms receive ERC Starting Grants for their respective research projects. Researchers whose projects are selected in the ERC’s highly competitive procedure receive not only international recognition, but also substantial funding for their project.

Researchers from the Biomedical Informatics Lab at ETH Zurich have participated in an international study to analyse the microbes in the air and on the surfaces of 60 cities, including Zurich. Their findings could help develop new drug therapies and learn more about evolution.

As part of a clinical study involving patients from the University Hospitals in Zurich and Basel, researchers are conducting a thorough and highly precise investigation into the molecular and functional properties of tumours. D-INFK Professor Gunnar Rätsch contributed biomedical informatics expertise to the project.

The newly opened ETH AI Center intensifies the dialogue with business, politics and society about an innovative and trust-​building advancement of artificial intelligence.

Valentina Boeva, Professor of Biomedical Informatics at the Department of Computer Science, uses modern methods of machine learning to analyse the whole-​genome sequence of a tumour. One focus of her research is on epigenetic changes in tumour cells. These are temporary and reversible changes in the genome.

In the latest episode of the ETH podcast Professors Julia Vogt and Fanny Yang explain why machine learning is an important tool in medicine.

The majority of multiple sclerosis patients consider fatigue the single most wearing symptom. And yet, fatigue is still poorly understood. Doctoral student Liliana Barrios wants to change that by introducing smartphone-based methods enabling patients to measure their motor fatigability remotely and more frequently.

To better track the coronavirus in Switzerland, biomedical informatics specialists from ETH Zurich and the canton of Bern have combined their online questionnaires on the shared platform covidtracker.ch.

The research group of Prof. Gunnar Rätsch wants to track the spread of coronavirus in Switzerland using a short questionnaire. Every person currently living in Switzerland can participate.

In light of International Women's Day 2020, ETH Zurich puts successful women centre stage. Read about Prof. Julia Vogt, tenure track assistant professor of medical data science, in this article.

Prof. Gunnar Rätsch co-led the effort to develop a method to predict circulatory failure in patients in intensive care using machine learning.

Die genetischen Ursachen von Krebs sind noch vielfältiger als bisher wissenschaftlich belegt, sagt Prof. Gunnar Rätsch sowie Forschende der ETH Zürich und des Universitätspitals im Rahmen des Pan-​Cancer-Projekts.

Professor Gunnar Rätsch played a major part in creating the biggest public database for anonymised information on two important breast cancer genes. The database helps to improve the treatment of patients.

When scientists at ETH Zurich, led by Professor Gunnar Rätsch, analysed huge amounts of genetic cancer data, they found previously unresearched molecular changes. These could help in developing new personalised cancer treatments.

ETH Professor and computer scientist Joachim Buhmann works intensively on healthcare issues. In an interview with ETH News, he explains how computer models will make their way into the world of medicine, and talks about models that are so complicated that humans can no longer process them alone.

Genomics, digital patient files and real-​time health surveillance – never before have we had access to so much health data. Three ETH researchers, including Professor Gunnar Rätsch, explain how they extract relevant information from this sea of data and the potential benefits for personalised medicine.

Gunnar Rätsch joined the Computer Science Department as a Full Professor of Biomedical Informatics in May 2016. Prior to accepting this position, he was conducting research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY, USA. Professor Rätsch develops machine learning algorithms for the analysis of biological and medical data. His research will be central in ETH Zurich's initiative for personalized medicine.

The last 40 years have seen an explosion of innovation and economic growth within the biotechnology industry. For nearly the same amount of time, Prof. Gaston Gonnet has researched at the intersection between technology and life itself: in bioinformatics and computational biology.. In the light of his retirement, these lines pay homage to Prof. Gonnet’s academic achievements spent in the service of humanity.

Data is treasure: new worlds open up to organisations that understand how to scoop useful information out of unstructured data. At the President of ETH Zurich’s "Lokaltermin", researchers and business representatives revealed how data could serve a broad public in future.

Master's student Simona Constantinescu and her seven fellow students won the first prize in the category Information Processing at the iGEM 2010 with their project “E. lemming”.