Center for Biomedical Imaging Celebrates 15th Anniversary

The Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM) in Switzerland is celebrating its 15th anniversary with the appointment of a new executive director and a statement of its future research priorities.

Since its founding in 2004, CIBM has focused on biomedical imaging research across the fields of electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and signal processing, with work spread across five sites.

Pina Marziliano has been appointed CIBM’s new executive director, replacing Rolf Gruetter, the center’s founding executive director who stepped down from his role in April 2019. Marziliano began her career at the Swiss startup Genimedia and has been a tenured professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University since 2012.

“The CIBM has a real impact on society, because the research we do seeks to resolve specific problems brought to us by clinicians,” Marziliano said. “Not only do we have the latest equipment, but we also know how to use it effectively.”

As part of the anniversary, CIBM has been highlighting some specific contributions made by its researchers, such as developments in EEG that led to more accurate temporal and spatial information about cerebral functions to be derived.

“We played a central role in the recognition of this neuroimaging technique and the development of methods that have made it possible for it to be used routinely in clinics, such as in neonatal care and the treatment of epilepsy,” said Micah Murray, head of the EEG unit at CHUV-UNIL. “I see this as a case where clinical needs drove applied research. We no longer focus on group or population studies; we now look at individuals, how they respond to a single trial, and the extent to which their functionality can vary.”

Particular CIBM focus areas for the future are likely to include wearable technologies and the growing use of medical imaging in developing countries. “The availability, wearability, and affordability of EEG make it the method of choice for the large-scale screening of diseases with a major societal impact in developing countries, such as Alzheimer’s, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Christoph Michel of the EEG unit at HUG-UNIGE. “We’re just getting started, but the potential is enormous.”

Marziliano envisions all of these advances arising from an increasingly visible and more accessible center. “I want to raise the CIBM’s profile so that it becomes the leading Swiss biomedical imaging center,” she said.