Research Focus

Regenerative Medicine & Biomechanics

Area of Research

Facial and cranial malformations, especially cleft lips, jaws and palate:

• Cleft Lip and Palate treatment, in particular approaches to reduce the burden of care, comprising the combined lip and palate repair and machine learning strategies.
• Regenerative medicine strategies by use of scaffolds and cellular components, including from human umbilical cord.
• Advancement of surgical therapies, namely related to precision surgical anatomy, microcirculation and microsurgery.

• Burden Reduced Cleft Care and Healing, The Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (www.brc.ch), Multi-Investigator Project 2020-2025: Mueller AA, Solenthaler B, Gross M, Reddy GS, Brudnicki A
• Learning-based 3D Infant Face and Head Model for Medical Application, Swiss National Science Foundation 2022-2025; Mueller AA, Solenthaler B, Gross M

National Collaborations

• Dr. Dr. Marcello Augello, Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie, Kantonsspital Aarau
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Gross, Computer Graphics Laboratory ETH Zurich & Disney Research Laboratory Zurich
• Dr. sc. Barbara Solenthaler, Simulation and Animation at Computer Graphics Laboratory, ETH Zurich
• Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Christoph Sebastian Leiggener, PD Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Philipp Metzler, Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie, Kopf- und Halskrebszentrum, Kantonsspital Aarau

International Collaborations

• Assistent Professor Andrzej Brudnicki, Institute of Mother and Child, Department of Surgery of Children and Adolescents, Warsaw, Poland
• Prof. Dr. Bernard Devauchelle, Stomatologie et Chirurgie Maxillo-Faciale & Institute Faire Faces,  Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Amiens, France
• Prof. Dr.  Srinivas Gosla Reddy, G.S.R. Institute of Craniofacial and Facial Plastic Surgery, Hyderabad, India
• Dr. Bruno Grollemund, Orthopédie Dento-Facial, Centre Hospitalier Régional et Universitaire Strasbourg, France
• Prof. Colin McGuckin, CTIBiotech, Meyzieu Lyon, France
• Prof. Dr. Alex Vargas Díaz, Department of Oncological and Maxillofacial Surgery, Division of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Pontifical Catholic University, Chile
• Prof. Dr. Marcia Corvetto Aqueveque, Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Pontifical Catholic University, Chile
• Dr. Althaf Hussain, Cleft and Craniofacial Centre, Sri Ramachandra University
• Dr. R.V.M. Surya Rao, Plastic Surgery, Saveetha University

• Burden Reduced Cleft Care and Healing
• Implications from precision surgical anatomy for modern craniofacial paediatrics
• Presurgical orthopaedics in cleft lip and palate, three dimensional platal shape change and its surgical implication
• In house manufacturing of an anatomical cleft lip and palate model for education and surgical Training
• Cephalometric craniofacial growth analysis after combined cleft lip and palate repair with and without primary bone grafting
• Intraoperative Assessment of the Influence of Cleft Repair on Microcirculation of the Palate
• Volume stability of secondary alveolar bone grafting
• Digital workflow for personalized presurgical plate therapy
• Development of robot-guided laser osteotome (CARLO® device)
• Clinical application of statistical infant face and head model in craniofacial malformation