Forschungsgruppe PD Dr. med. Matthias Hilty: Tissue oxygen transport and extraction

Vision

Advance the translational framework between basic physiology, isolated stress models e.g. for tissue hypoxia, and critical illness
Develop new methodologies to measure physiological properties in humans
Utilize and develop new technologies and software-based methods to integrate large physiological and clinical datasets

Aims

Real-time, in vivo quantification of the determinants of oxygen delivery and extraction in the tissue
Identification and targeting of microcirculatory dysfunction in critically ill patients
Development of algorithms and machine learning tools for in vivo red blood cell tracking
Linking the understanding of physiological processes with the advantages of big data analysis in large databases
Elucidate the effect of extracorporeal life support (ECCO2R, ECMO) on gas exchange and tissue perfusion
Understand the adaptation processes of the microcirculation to hypoxia
Categorize and aggregate datasets for populations of critically ill patients

Methodology

In-vivo dark field microscopy of the sublingual, skeletal muscle and intestinal microcirculation
Development and application of advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques for red blood cell tracking through dark field microscopy
Modern statistical and computational methodologies are applied to clinical studies, database applications and image sequences
Development and maintenance of collaborative registries and databases, such as the RISC-19-ICU registry for critically ill COVID-19 patients

Publications

Publication list Pubmed Zora

Funding

Our experiments are currently funded by “Horizon 2020 / Eurostars-2”, “Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Intensivmedizin SGI/SSMI”, “Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Gebirgsmedizin», and unrestricted grants from Vantive and Cytosorbents.