R&D : significant performances achieved in Lausanne

 Neurosciences

In 1993, a fully automated brain surgery was performed at the UHL (University Hospital of Lausanne), a world premiere, by Minerva, a robot built by UHL physicians together with a team from the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

In 1997, the neurology service of the UHL was chosen by two American pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Wyeth Ayerst, to co-ordinate the development of new treatments against brain stroke. Two of the most up-and-coming treatments will be evaluated through programs bringing together Europe, the United States and Australia and co-ordinated by the neurology department of the UHL.

The creation in the year 2000 of a University Psychiatric Institute allowed the development of research in psychiatric neurosciences in collaboration with the adult, child and teenager psychiatry and psychogeriatrics divisions.

The Center of Psychiatric Neurosciences of Cery

The Center of Psychiatric Neurosciences of Lausanne, opened in November 2000, is unique in Switzerland. Laboratory research in progress will contribute, in the long run, to the development of new treatments for widespread diseases : Alzheimer's, depression, addictions, schizophrenia. Six research contracts have already been signed with pharmaceutical companies (Novartis, Glaxo Wellcome) for a total amount of US$ 5 million.

Alzheimer's disease:

Physicians from the UHL, together with a group from the Institut Pasteur in Lille, France, discovered that the protein called apo(a) plays a role in the onset of Alzheimer s disease. Their discovery was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Apo(a) belongs to the apolipoproteins, which are responsible for the transport of fats in the blood. It shares a certain number of characteristics with another apolipoprotein, apoE4. Carriers of apoE4 represent 15 to 20% of the population who have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research results proved that apo(a) is also involved in the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Parkinson's disease

For the first time, Swiss and American researchers succeeded in effectively preventing the development of Parkinson's disease in monkeys. One of these teams belongs to the Surgical Research Division of the UHL.

Using gene therapy, researchers acted directly on the dopaminergic neurones, whose degeneration causes the disease. This treatment stopped these neurones' degeneration over a period of at least 8 months, while promoting their reestablishment and budding of nerve endings. Monkeys weakened by the disease recovered all their motor abilities without noticeable side effects. Results of this research were published in the journal Science.

Infectious diseases

HIV viruses

A multidisciplinary unit for the immunopathology of AIDS, created in September 1996, takes part in advanced research that aims at understanding how the body of people that harbor the virus but have not developed the disease defends itself.

At present, new vaccination strategies are being developed.

Molecules implicated in septic shock

Research performed by a team from the Infectious Diseases Division of the UHL, in collaboration with a team of researchers from Regensburg in Germany, revealed the major role that one of the molecules of the immune system plays in septic shock (systemic infection).

Named "MIF" (Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor) and abundantly produced in case of septic shock, this molecule increases the inflammatory reaction started by the infection and thus contributes to the collapsing of many organs, frequently ending in patient death. The results of this research have been published in Nature Medicine.

Malaria

A research team of the University Hospitals of Lausanne is developing a new vaccine which is presently in clinical trial phase I.

Cardiology

It is at UHL that a stent was grafted for the first time in a human being suffering from a cardiovascular disease. That was in 1986. Today, 200.000 stents are used every year in Europe.

Generally speaking, the quality of research carried out in the UHL is one of the reasons why Medtronic, a company specialized in advanced medical technologies, chose to install a new European research center near Lausanne. Medtronic is collaborating with a number of the UHL divisions since 1985. For instance, this collaboration has generated new prototypes of pacemakers and defibrillators.

Oncology 

The multidisciplinary Center of Oncology has developed a treatment that makes it possible to avoid amputation of a limb suffering from advanced malignant melanoma or inoperable sarcoma. This treatment consists in isolating the suffering limb and in putting it on drip with the help of a heart-lung machine and thus be able to locally administer a high dosage of drug that destroys the tumor vessels (while the healthy vessels are spared). This treatment is currently being tested in the National Cancer Institute, in Washington, and shows impressive results : 80 % complete remission in melanomas and 30 % in sarcomas.

Diabetes

A new gene involved in the onset of diabetes was identified by a team from the Department of Internal Medicine of the UHL. The results of this research, carried out in collaboration with a French team from the Department of Human Genetics and the Institute Pasteur in Lille, were published in the journal Nature Genetics.

This new gene, involved in the control of the function of pancreatic cells, was named "Islet-Brain 1", because its maximum expression is found in brain and pancreas. It was localized on the chromosome 11 of the human genome. In the presence of an Islet-Brain 1 mutated gene, the cell that produces insulin does not behave normally and dies more easily than a non mutated cell. Furthermore, this mutation is responsible for a reduction in the synthesis of insulin.

At the same time, another research team from the UHL revealed a new mechanism of glucose production in the liver, making it possible to better understand the mechanism of diabetic hyperglycaemia.

Gene Therapy

The Center of Gene Therapy that opened in 1995 is the first of its kind in Switzerland.
In 1994, its team, lead by Professor Aebischer, carried out for the first time the transplantion of animal cells in the nervous system of about ten patients, without resorting to traditional immunosuppressive drugs meant to avoid rejection.

Clinical study on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis published in Nature Medicine in 1996 earned him the Pfizer Foundation prize for clinical neuroscience.

Professor Aebischer took part in setting up, in 1986, one of the first biotechnology start-up company based in Lausanne and financed by venture capital : Modex Thérapeutiques SA.

Tissue engineering

A number of laboratories and institutes of the UHL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolgy and the University of Lausanne brought together their skills to develop a tissue engineering procedure that represents a potential alternative to organ transplant.

The complete procedure developed is similar to the one used for victims of third-degree burns. Tissue from a healthy part of the organ that must be regenerated is taken and is grown in culture on a special support. It is afterwards stitched back instead of the diseased or congenitally missing organ. Once the healthy cells develop on the entire surface of the support, the latter biodegradates completely.

Severe and extensive burns

The UHL shelter one of the two Swiss Centers for patients with severe and extensive burns. Since 1982, they have a specially designed center and a medical and surgical team made up of anaesthetists, intensive care personnel and plastic surgeons specialized in severe and extensive burns treatments.

Around 150 patients are treated every year in the UHL. 35 to 40 of these patients, who suffer from burns on more than 20% of their body surface, are admitted in the center for severe or extensive burns.

In Obstetrics, a team is studying the behavior in culture of cells of foetal origin making it possible to perform allografts, particularly in children with severe burns and important fluid losses.

The Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analysis (LAD)

The Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses (LAD), which is situated in the upper parts of Lausanne within the university hospital complex, is one of the 25 International Olympic Committee-accredited laboratories. Since December 2000 it has also held ISO 17025 accreditation. The laboratory has been offering its services, development and research activities for approximately ten years.

During 2000 it carried out tests on around 4,000 samples. Moreover, it has helped in the development of alternative procedures in the fight against doping substances, in particular erythropoietin, through the organization of on-the-spot blood tests and starting medical observations of athletes.

Through the willingness of the local political authorities who decided to set up the laboratory within Lausanne University, LAD enjoys a status, which makes it completely independent from sporting, economic or political circles.

In addition, as a result of it being based within the Graduate Institute for Forensic Medicine (IUML), its managers are particularly alert to the increasingly common legal problems resulting from objections to the results of the analysis and their interpretation.

With the forthcoming "Triangular project" which should bring together the University of Lausanne, the University of Geneva and the Federal Polytechnic University of Lausanne, LAD will be able to rely on new skills to be in a better position to meet WADA's (World Anti-Doping Agency) requirements.

Community Health

Within the context of a study throughout the Swiss territory, a team from the UHL has proved various connections between deteriorations in the quality of the environment and their effects on health.