Multi-million SNF grant for Prof. Philippe Schucht and his HORAO project

This applies to the HORAO project. Originating from the first Swiss crowdfunding in the field of medical research and a subsequent global crowdsourcing competition for researchers and developers, the aim of this project from the outset was to find an innovative technology that would make the boundaries between the tumor and the surrounding healthy tissue visible to the neurosurgeon, thus making brain tumor operations safer. The first and decisive step in the treatment of brain tumors is still complete removal.

The winner of the 2019 crowdsourcing challenge was Ivan Gusachenko, a development engineer from France. He suggested using Mueller polarimetry imaging to better visualize and study tissue structures in the brain. The idea behind Mueller polarimetry is that organized structures in the brain, known as brain fibers, reflect polarized light differently than the disorganized cells of tumors.

Building on this idea, an intensive research collaboration has developed between the École Polytechnique in Paris and the neurosurgery department at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. The aim is to equip the surgical microscope with polarizers so that tumor margins can be directly superimposed onto the microscopic image that the surgeon sees during the operation. A first jointly developed prototype has been tested at the Inselspital since spring and is being further developed together with Richard McKinley from the Institute of Neuroradiology (Advanced Imaging) and the Institute of Pathology. If Mueller polarimetry microscopy can be miniaturized to such an extent that it can be integrated into the neurosurgical operating microscope for use on humans, it will be a significant breakthrough for all future brain tumor operations.

The Department of Neurosurgery at the Inselspital congratulates Philippe Schucht on this generous SNSF grant and wishes him every success in his further exciting and groundbreaking research.