Based in Neuchâtel, the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) is a leading Swiss technology center dedicated to applied research in the fields of microtechnology, nanotechnology and the transfer of technology into marketable products.
CSEM will launch a new unit, the Digital Health Center, which is to be set up in Bern on the Inselspital campus and is expected to employ up to 70 people in the medium term. The aim of the Digital Health Center will be to combine the expertise of the Inselspital and the University of Bern in the fields of medical and clinical research with CSEM’s expertise in microelectronics and prototyping.
The CSEM finances its activities within the framework of a public-private partnership: approximately one third of the funds come from public authorities (the federal government and the cantons), one third from research mandates put out to tender and one third from private industrial companies. For the establishment of the Digital Health Center, the Executive Council of the canton of Bern has asked the Grand Council to approve a subsidy of CHF 3 million per year for the period from 2023 to 2025 and to create a legal basis for periodic financial support from 2026.
Cutting-edge technologies for better patient care
With the upcoming opening of the Digital Health Hub in Bern, the CSEM will be able to further strengthen its expertise in the fields of life sciences and medical technologies.
Indeed, the Neuchâtel technology center is not new to the field. For example, it has developed the Denovocast device with CUTISS, the world’s first automated machine to produce personalized skin tissue grafts for adults and children with severe skin injuries, such as deep burns.
Similarly, Norwegian start-up Clexbio has teamed up with the CSEM to develop the world’s first device capable of cultivating human vein tissue in a laboratory. As part of this project, the CSEM has developed an automated process for manufacturing functional vein grafts, whose materials are composed of pure human tissue, and which integrate into the patient’s body to change it into real living tissue.
Last but not least, the CSEM coordinated the European program ORGANTRANS, which aimed to offer an alternative to donor organ transplants by producing organ structures based on tissues created using 3D printing.
