BIO-IONTRONICS (BION) at EPFL
Head of the laboratory and scientific project: Prof. Yujia Zhang
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: Ionic devices, bionics, bioiontronics, brain-like computing, microdroplet-based devices
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://www.epfl.ch/labs/bion/

At the Laboratory for Bio-Iontronics (BION), the mission is to make bioiontronic systems for biointerfaces and hybrid intelligent systems. To that end, we are interested in developing dropletronic systems with key functions of embodied energy, logic control, stimuli- responsiveness, and therapeutics delivery, enabling interactive communication with biology. The dropletronic system will be formed from three-dimensionally (3D) printed picoliter droplet networks, which use lipid bilayer, functional nanopores, and charge-selective solutes to feature sophisticated ion control. Ultimately, the bioiontronic systems will provide an alternative strategy, in parallel to bioelectronic medicine, to be used as bioiontronic medicine (ionoceuticals) for a wide range of medical conditions.

MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING (MIP:Lab) at Campus Biotech
Head of the scientific project: Dr. Karolis Degutis
Head of the laboratory: Prof. Dimitri Van De Ville
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: explore what it means to treat the brain as a generative system that constantly produces internal narratives
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://miplab.epfl.ch/

The Medical Image Processing Laboratory (MIP:Lab) develops new ways of analyzing brain imaging data. We treat the brain as a network: rather than focusing on isolated regions, we study how patterns of activity spread and interact across the brain over time, and how these patterns relate to perception, thought, and clinical conditions.
With ultra-high-field 7 Tesla MRI, we can now acquire images of the human brain at submillimeter resolution and separate signals that come predominantly from different cortical depths. This allows us to probe these ideas about feedforward and feedback processing directly in human participants.

BIO MEDICAL RESEARCH (DBMR) at University Bern
Head of the scientific project: Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier

in partnership with 5 research groups (EPFL, Idiap, USI, NUS)
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: explore RNA as a molecule that is not fixed but continuously folds, unfolds, and changes its conformation in response to its environment and interaction partners, as its identity emerges through movement, interaction, and time
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028

https://www.luisierlab.com/

The BioMedical Research laboratory is part of an international alliance of five research groups based in Switzerland (EPFL, Idiap, USI) and Singapore (NUS), working together on a research program entitled SATURNA. This project is dedicated to uncovering the dynamic choreography of RNA structure and function. Inspired by the concept of dance, where motion and timing define form and function, SATURNA treats RNA as a kinetic system, seeking patterns in folding pathways, conformational landscapes, and structural transitions that underlie biological regulation and disease mechanisms. By integrating advanced artificial intelligence with experimental and computational biology, the initiative focuses on modelling how RNA molecules fold, transition, and interact over time as coordinated structural ensembles.

BRAIN AND MEMORY LAB (BAM) at Campus Biotech
Head of the laboratory and scientific project: Prof. Alison Montagrin
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: examine how memory and imagination intertwine, and in particular determine whether certain elements, especially emotional ones, are preferentially integrated into these reconstructions
Possible hosting periods: feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://neuro-unige.ch/
https://www.unige.ch/cisa/research/research-groups/cisa-groups/

Our laboratory’s research work is part of an integrative approach in neuroscience, affective psychology, and cognitive psychology. It aims to understand how memory systems and emotions organize human behavior in order to enable effective adaptation to the environment. We are interested in how goal relevance allows us to filter, select, and consolidate information in memory over the long term. We cannot remember everything, so we preferentially retain what is relevant to our future goals. Indeed, memory is not only used to retrieve information from the past, but also to project ourselves into the future. We have shown that the ability to mentally travel through time relies on distinct brain networks depending on whether past, present, or future information is being represented. The way we encode temporal information in memory is essential, because memory helps define who we are: without chronological organization of events, we would lose much of the information that constitutes our identity.

Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition at Campus Biotech
Head of the scientific project: Dr. Lina Teichmann
Head of laboratory: Prof. Patrik Vuilleumier
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: examining the role of colour in visual perception and how colour vision deficiencies change our perception of the world, understanding the use of colour in visual illusions
Possible hosting periods: feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://neuro-unige.ch/
https://neurocenter-unige.ch/research-groups/patrik-vuilleumier/

This research group at the University of Geneva studies visual perception using neuroimaging and behavioural methods, with the specific goal of exploring and quantifying individual differences in visual perception using Colour Vision as a model. Colour vision is the ideal testing ground to characterize subjective visual experiences, as it is biophysically constrained and well-defined, and it varies substantially across people. The variability in colour vision can be related to differences in the sensory apparatus, genetic profile, experience, culture and language. Our goal is to understand how these different sources of variability affect neural activity evoked by viewing colours to measure and quantify subjective differences in perception.