What are the latest findings in precision medicine? This year’s annual event held by The LOOP Zurich provided an overview of the current state of research and asked how accepting society is of precision medicine.

Beatrice Beck Schimmer, Vice President Medicine Zurich, used her talk to emphasize the far-reaching impact of LOOP research projects, with each aimed at turning medical findings into applications as quickly as possible.

Jens Selige, General Manager of The LOOP Zurich, welcomed the many who attended its third annual event. The LOOP Zurich is the medical research center jointly run by the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and the University's four hospitals. With a twinkle in his eye, Selige announced a surprise guest: And the screen duly showed an AI-powered avatar of Johann Lukas Schönlein, the first dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zurich. Schönlein helped usher in a new era for medicine around 1800, with the transition from a natural-philosophical approach to one underpinned by the natural sciences. «I have a dream,» was the message. «Artificial intelligence will transform medicine into precision medicine. Diagnostics and treatment plans will be sped up, particularly in oncology. Therapies will be targeted and tailored to genetic profiles, and biomarkers will provide early indicators. There will be a revolution in patient monitoring. Prognosis models will analyze genetic data and lifestyle in order to better assess risks and promote both early detection and prevention,» explained Schönlein.

What was barely conceivable in 1833 – when the University of Zurich was founded and Schönlein was at work – is now becoming a reality. And Selige believes artificial intelligence is one of the factors driving this.

Successful projects and launch of the BioMedical Informatics Platform

Beatrice Beck Schimmer, Vice President Medicine Zurich and a founding member of The LOOP Zurich, used her talk to emphasize the far-reaching impact of LOOP research projects, with each aimed at turning medical findings into applications as quickly as possible. The result is added value for society.

Julia Dannath-Schuh, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership at ETH Zurich, stressed how important it is to promote translational research. She made a case for The LOOP Zurich becoming part of the research landscape in the long term.

The major translational projects at The LOOP Zurich, such as mTORUS, StimuLOOP, INTeRCePT, or LOOBesity, are currently making good progress, according to Markus Rudin, a founding director of The LOOP Zurich. Now the course is set for clinical applications. Another project involves the BioMedical Informatics Platform (BMIP), whose first beta version will be tested in the next two months. «We are keen to finish development in 2025.» Data, including, for example, from medical research projects at the University’s four hospitals, is to be collated, saved, and harmonized in the BMIP – so converted into a format that allows the individual hospitals to share information. There are also plans to integrate existing biobanks, containing things like tissue samples, into the platform in future. The data on the platform is subject to the same strict data protection requirements as apply at the hospitals.

Researchers wishing to work with the data will now find it quicker and easier to access than before. They will no longer have to worry about the various legal and administrative issues, as these are a matter for the institutions and database managers. Once researchers have been given permission, it takes around two weeks until they can access the BMIP. This represents an ambitious target for the BMIP, but these are very favorable conditions for researchers. «It is a two-way street though, and we expect the results to be fed back into the platform,» said Rudin.

Markus Rudin, one of the founding director of The LOOP Zurich, gave an update on the BMIP, which is expected to be fully operational by 2025.

In 2024, two new projects were launched with the title «incubator» and are expected to start in 2025. One of the two projects is concerned with the prevention of systemic sclerosis (SSc). This is a chronic autoimmune disease, which leads to the hardening and scarring of connective tissue in the skin and internal organs and is associated with high mortality. With the help of precision medicine strategies, researchers are looking to develop therapies to facilitate treatment before the disease flares up. «It is about detecting patients at risk at an early stage and identifying biomarkers,» according to Rudin.

The second incubator project, under the name «AI Tumor Board,» is concerned with a personalized decision-making aid in the area of precision oncology. So-called tumor boards are where physicians from various fields discuss diagnostics and treatments for cancer sufferers. The aim is to give each individual person the correct treatment. The tumor boards at University Hospital Zurich and the Children’s Hospital are involved in the new incubator project. Another project is the UZH biobank, which is due to be set up in the first quarter of 2025. Rudin stressed that all this research would not be possible without the invaluable support of the foundations involved and thanked the sponsors in attendance.

Tobias Junt, Director of Translational Research at Novartis, spoke about the decisive impact of precision medicine on understanding diseases that are related at a molecular level. 

Tobias Junt, Director of Translational Research at Novartis, painted a picture of precision medicine from an industry perspective. According to Junt, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases are on the increase. However, medicines used for these diseases will often have limited efficacy, and not all patients show the same response to these medicines. As a result, many therapies have not been achieving the desired effect. Therefore, a more precise understanding of disease is required, along with improved clinical study designs and more precise and personalized measurement of clinical efficacy.

Close collaboration needed between various stakeholders

As Junt explained, gaps in understanding and data, so-called «valleys of death,» will often become apparent on the journey from clinical studies to clinical practice, or from basic research to applied research. Faced with these challenges, precision medicine has prompted a paradigm shift, with people now considering the relationship between diseases, rather than looking at them in isolation like before. A molecular understanding of diseases has been developed, which includes taking a step nearer to mapping a molecular atlas of diseases. This may open up new treatment options. Junt cited two diseases to illustrate his point, namely lupus and Sjögren’s syndrome. Both are chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases and are related at a molecular level. He finished with a plea for close collaboration between patients, physicians, and academics. This is the only way to drive precision medicine forward. 

Panel debate: Annette Magnin, Tobias Junt, Bettina Balmer, Markus Rudin, Stefan Felder, Oliver Senn, Kerstin Noëlle Vokinger

The next panel debate (see end of the article for participants) featured politicians, ethicists, business people, academics, and primary care practitioners, who engaged in a lively discussion on the question: «So who is actually interested in precision medicine?» The discussion covered areas like rising costs within the healthcare sector, data security, and the basic ethical and legal prerequisites for big data in a medical context.

Bettina Balmer, a member of the Swiss National Council and an attending physician at University Children’s Hospital Zurich, explained that precision medicine was a subject close to her heart. From her experience in children’s medicine, she knew the importance of individualized approaches. But feasibility does not always equate to affordability, and this is something that has to be discussed. Stefan Felder from the University of Basel agreed. Research costs always have to be looked at in relation to the rising costs within the healthcare system. Oliver Senn from the Institute of Primary Care at the University of Zurich stressed the important role played by primary care physicians, who offer patients tailored medical diagnoses and treatments on a daily basis. «We are always the first point of contact, and 90 percent of care is ultimately delivered in a practical setting. In order to do this, we need the consultation with the physician, the clinical examination, and sometimes laboratory data as well.» At the same time, Senn emphasized the efficacy of primary care. «The basis for patient-centered medicine is a trusting relationship between patient and physician,» claimed Senn.

Annette Magnin from the Zurich Cantonal Ethics Committee highlighted the role of patients within research projects. «The necessary research cannot be done without them either,» she pointed out. It is a case of earning their trust and getting them involved. Kerstin Vokinger, a Professor of Law and Medicine at the University of Zurich, spoke about data security and the question of who owns the health data generated during research. There are conflicts of interests between the various stakeholders, such as patients, research, or industry. «Everyone only wants the best outcome, namely medical progress, but the fact that so much data is needed – including sensitive data – has the potential for conflict,» according to Vokinger. It is up to the law to strike a balance. 

Linked Research Projects

Medical research requires enormous amounts of data to achieve the breakthroughs that make a difference. The more the better – high computing capacities and large amounts of data can aid the development of new diagnoses and treatment methods. The LOOP Zurich is a pioneer in this area, as the center’s annual event showcased.

For big data, more is more, said Prof. Beatrice Beck Schimmer, Director of University Medicine Zurich, in her opening speech.

Data is generated within the healthcare system every day: for example results of blood tests, tissue sample analyses and ultrasound or MRI scans. Such data are used to make a diagnosis and are subsequently archived. But what if computer systems could, with the help of artificial intelligence, autonomously learn from the data collected from patients and even develop new diagnoses and treatments? The evaluation of large amounts of medical data is a major aspect of healthcare research. Where do we stand today – and what are the prospects? These were the questions on the agenda at The LOOP Zurich’s annual event at UZH last week. The LOOP Zurich is a translational research center specializing in precision medicine.

Since 2020, scientists at The LOOP Zurich have been conducting cutting-edge research in precision and data-driven medicine. Researchers from the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the four university hospitals conduct joint research at the center – thanks in part to the financial support of foundations. “Research is expensive – but gives society a big return on investment,” said Beatrice Beck Schimmer, Vice President Medicine at UZH, in her opening speech.

One important project that scientists at The LOOP are currently working on is the development of the Biomedical Informatics Platform (BMIP), which provides data for research projects in accordance with the FAIR principle. “FAIR” stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The LOOP Zurich aims to have the BMIP ready to exchange research and health data by 2025. The project, commissioned by University Medicine Zurich, is funded by the Government Council of the Canton of Zurich.

Scientists wishing to access collected health data via the platform for their studies will also receive support to manage the data and to meet data protection and ethical requirements. The entire process from making a request for data to receiving and analyzing the data could thus be completed within a few weeks, said Gunnar Rätsch, professor of biomedical informatics at ETH Zurich.

Christian Wolfrum, ETH Vice President Research, was keen to stress the benefits the platform will yield for patients in the long run. In the future, data from other hospitals and from the field of public health, such as health-tracking data, should also be integrated into the BMIP, added Wolfrum.

Gunnar Rätsch, professor of biomedical informatics at ETH Zurich, describes the path from the research proposal to analysing the data.

Closing the loop from research to patients

Markus Rudin, professor emeritus of molecular imaging and functional pharmacology, emphasized the translation of research findings to clinical application characteristic of The LOOP Zurich projects. “At The LOOP Zurich, we insist that research findings must be fed back into patient care,” he said, introducing two short video sequences presenting The LOOP Zurich projects. INTeRCePT researches leukemia and lymphoma in children and adults. StimuLOOP, meanwhile, aims to treat walking difficulties in Parkinson’s or stroke patients, thus improving their quality of life. Both projects enable patients to receive targeted, gentle and successful treatments, thanks to the precision-medicine approach. 

Markus Rudin (left), professor emeritus of molecular imaging and functional pharmacology and Founding Director of The LOOP Zurich and Giatgen Spinas (right), emeritus professor of endocrinology/diabetology and pathophysiology and Co-Director of The LOOP Zurich.

Supervised and unsupervised machine learning

Computer systems are already capable of independently analyzing health data, learning from them and even using them to establish treatment recommendations. Fabian Theis, professor of mathematical modeling of biological systems at the Technical University of Munich and director of the Institute of Computational Biology at Helmholtz Munich, who was a guest speaker at the event, reported on how artificial intelligence is currently used in practice and the opportunities the use of AI represents for patients.

Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of computer programs to learn. They can do this in two ways, says Theis. The first is supervised learning: researchers show the computer system a large number of similar things and tell it what is right or wrong, healthy or sick, and so on, depending on the question asked. The idea behind this method is that with sufficient input, the algorithm can eventually make the distinction by itself. This can save medical researchers a huge amount of time. But there is also a second way to use artificial intelligence: with this second approach, the computer is given minimal assistance and should be capable of learning without supervision. Mathematician Fabian Theis uses the second method for single cell analysis, for example: the computer receives data about individual cells and their metabolism, and looks for patterns. In this way, new connections can be uncovered.

Challenge of coordinating cantonal data protection laws

The event was rounded off with a panel of experts who discussed the importance of data for the future of medical research from various perspectives. UZH professor of neuro-intensive medicine and chief of service of the neuro-intensive care unit at USZ, Emanuela Keller, described how artificial intelligence in intensive care medicine can provide assistance in making decisions about patients’ treatment, but can also lead to potential conflicts if the AI recommendations do not match the doctors’ empirical knowledge. Gunnar Rätsch and Fabian Theis, along with Michael Krauthammer, professor of medical informatics at UZH, explained how data could be used for research purposes through modern processing methods, and also addressed the data-protection issues that need to be taken into account. Finally, UZH law scholar and medic Kerstin Vokinger spoke about the legal data-protection challenges we will face in the future, particularly in Switzerland with its federalist legal system in which laws differ from canton to canton.

Examined the topic of medical research and data protection from different perspectives: Fabian Theis, Kerstin Vokinger, Michael Krauthammer, Gunnar Rätsch, Emanuela Keller and Markus Rudin (from left to right)

Jens Selige, Geschäftsführer von The LOOP Zurich, stellte am Jahresanlass zwei Siegerprojekte von jungen Jens Selige, general manager of The LOOP Zurich, presented the project prizes, awarded each year at the annual event. Young researchers are able to put their own projects forward for the awards, and if successful win generous financial support for their platforms.

Precise diagnoses thanks to digital image processing

Sebastiano Caprara presented the first winning project: the Biomedical Informatics Imaging Platform (BMI2), run by a consortium of hospitals. Caprara works at Balgrist University Hospital and currently heads the Digital Medicine Unit there. The BMI2 project collects image data, for example from MRIs, and analyzes it using a process called segmentation, a branch of digital image processing and computer vision. “By analyzing the results, we can get more precise diagnoses, for example in the case of damage to individual vertebrae,” says Caprara.

The second winning project, POLAR, was presented by Marco Bühler, a pathologist at the University Hospital Zurich. Researchers working in the consortium plan to gather data from patients with lymphoma. This includes anamnesis, data from imaging, protein analysis and pathology, and genetic information. All these data, currently still recorded in different databases, will be fed into one single database. “We want to compile the world’s largest data set on lymphoma with the aim of using the data to benefit patients in the clinic and contributing to the search for a cure,” said Bühler.

The LOOP Zurich is a pioneer in data analysis, as the center’s annual event showcased. The aim is to make research available to patients quickly.

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University Hospital Zurich
University of Zurich
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University Children’s Hospital Zurich
ETH Zurich
University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich

Prof. em. Markus Rudin
Founding Director The LOOP Zurich
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Prof. em. Dr. med. Giatgen Spinas
Co Director The LOOP Zurich
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Dr. rer. nat. Jens Selige
Managing Director The LOOP Zurich
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The LOOP Zurich is a medical research center specializing in precision medicine. It combines basic biomedical research and bioinformatics from the two universities, ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, with clinical research from the four university hospitals. The researchers use state-of-the-art research infrastructures for their research projects and have access to biobanks and extensive databases. The aim of this translational research is to rapidly apply new scientific findings to patients in the form of new treatment methods for personalized healthcare. The six founding institutions of The LOOP Zurich are the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the university hospitals: University Hospital Zurich, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Balgrist University Hospital and University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich.

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