Contact
If you are interested in doing your master or doctoral thesis in our lab, please contact:
Daniela Nowak
Tel.
+41 43 253 48 61
Forschungsgruppe PD Dr. med. Matthias Hilty: Tissue oxygen transport and extraction
Our group focuses on unraveling the complexities of tissue oxygen transport and extraction by bridging basic physiology with clinical practice, using cutting-edge imaging, data science, and machine learning. Their mission is to improve our understanding of microcirculatory function in critical illness and develop innovative tools for real-time, in vivo physiological assessment.
Vision
- Advance the translational framework between basic physiology, isolated stress models e.g. for tissue hypoxia, and critical illness
- Develop new methodologies to measure physiological properties in humans
- Utilize and develop new technologies and software-based methods to integrate large physiological and clinical datasets
Aims
- Real-time, in vivo quantification of the determinants of oxygen delivery and extraction in the tissue
- Identification and targeting of microcirculatory dysfunction in critically ill patients
- Development of algorithms and machine learning tools for in vivo red blood cell tracking
- Linking the understanding of physiological processes with the advantages of big data analysis in large databases
- Elucidate the effect of extracorporeal life support (ECCO2R, ECMO) on gas exchange and tissue perfusion
- Understand the adaptation processes of the microcirculation to hypoxia
- Categorize and aggregate datasets for populations of critically ill patients
Methodology
- In-vivo dark field microscopy of the sublingual, skeletal muscle and intestinal microcirculation
- Development and application of advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques for red blood cell tracking through dark field microscopy
- Modern statistical and computational methodologies are applied to clinical studies, database applications and image sequences
- Development and maintenance of collaborative registries and databases, such as the RISC-19-ICU registry for critically ill COVID-19 patients
Projects
- STEP-CARE
- ANCCOR
- CMD-Micro
- DETECT
- AKI-EPI-2
- RISC-19-ICU
- TAME
- Cardiosafe
- Zurich-TTM
- HI-CYCLE Mikrozirkulation
- SWISSEXPED Himlung Himal Mikrozirkulation
- Jungfraujoch Pulmonalkreislauf
- Jungfraujoch Metabolics
- UZH Heat acclimatization
- UZH Hemoglobin mass
- EURAC Preacclimatization
Publications
Publication list Pubmed ZORAFunding
Our experiments are currently funded by “Horizon 2020 / Eurostars-2”, “Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Intensivmedizin SGI/SSMI”, “Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Gebirgsmedizin», and unrestricted grants from Vantive and Cytosorbents.
Patents
Our research and collaborations have resulted in the following granted patents:
- Med. pract. Massimiliano Bertacchi, Doktorand Humanmedizin
- Med. pract. James Adams, Doktorand Humanmedizin
- Cand. Med. Mohammed Said, Student Humanmedizin
- Cand. Med. Lenke Kis, Student Humanmedizin ETH Zürich