Research Focus

Immunology & Infectious Diseases

Area of Research

Intestinal motility can be of immense impact in children. Congenital malformations or intestinal disease in neonates and young children can lead to severe problems in intestinal function including malabsorption, diarrhea or obstipation. A main focus of the intestinal motility group is Hirschsprung`s Disease and Hirschsprung associated enterocolitis (HAEC). Following the study on neuro-immune interactions in the gut, the group focuses now on how morphological aspects of the intestine interact with the functional aspects in the patient as well as on new functional models for this disease. A further research topic focuses on ameliorating the massive clinical issues resulting from short bowel syndrome. This includes work on a patients' registry as well as experimental approaches on elongation of the intestine.

- Impact of Mucosal Cholinergic Innervation on Risk of Enterocolitis in Hirschsprung's Disease

- Cholinergic Signaling in Colonic Epithelial Cells

- Associations of Mucosal Nerve Fiber Innervation Density with Hirschsprung-Associated Enterocolitis: A Retrospective Three-Center Cohort Study

- Citrulline, Biomarker of Enterocyte Functional Mass and Dietary Supplement. Metabolism, Transport, and Current Evidence for Clinical Use

National Collaborations
- Pediatric Surgeons` Multicenter Group (Hirschsprung Study Group)

- Department Biomedicine, Tissue Engineering, University of Basel

- Schneider Research group (University of Zürich) – Intestinal remodeling

- Korb Research group (University of Basel) – Intestinal remodeling

- Taylor Research group (ETH Zürich) – Biomedical engineering

International Collaborations

- Dunn Research group (Stanford University) – Intestinal remodeling

- Global Health Research Group on Children’s Non-Communicable Diseases Collaborative

- Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany

- Karl-Herbert Schäfer Group, Biotechnologie in der Mikrosystemtechnik, Hochschule   Kaiserslautern, Germany

- Working group for developing the guidelines for parenteral nutrition of The German Society for Nutritional Medicine

- ARM-Net consortium

- Enteric nervous system

- Hirschsprung Associated Enterocolitis (HAEC)

- Intestinal rehabilitation, remodeling and motility

- Clinical outcome research