Health Research Hub
Scientific exchange and collaboration are key to successful research.
With the newly founded Health Research Hub, we establish and promote interdisciplinary research in the field of health. Embedded within the department of life sciences and facility management (LSFM) and driven by researchers from each institute, the Health Research Hub
- connects different research groups within ZHAW
- stimulates their cooperation
- and creates a network around health-related research.
News
Interdisciplinary Projects
The Health Research Hub promotes synergies by structuring health-related research and by supporting collaborative projects. Joining forces across institutes encourages thinking across borders and advances innovative health-related research, while being cost-efficient at the same time.
Funded collaborative projects
Bayes network analysis for data-driven decision support in healthcare
Constantly rising costs in the healthcare sector require economic action without compromising the quality of care. In this project, extensive data collected from various hospitals is examined. The resulting models in the form of Bayesian networks will allow conclusions about hidden relationships and contribute to productivity and sustainability in health institutions.
Computational literature-based natural product drug discovery
Literature Based Discovery (LBD) has become widespread, but little has been done to automate it in the field of Natural Product Drug Discovery. The goal of this project is to devise an automated LBD system for natural product drugs for new discoveries, but also to query and explore present knowledge.
Engineered bacteriophages for the control of E. coli O157
Bacteriophages are bacterial viruses that are attracting increasing attention worldwide as a promising alternative to conventional antibiotics. The goal of this project is to genetically engineer bacteriophages for a better control of pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) and to further develop large-scale phage production technologies.
Fighting bites with bytes - promoting public health with crowdsourced tick prevention
Ticks are currently on the rise and transmit several infectious diseases. A team of ZHAW experts in geographical information systems, artificial intelligence, data science and in tick biology develop a spacio-temporal tick risk model to help reducing the risk of tick-borne diseases.
Molecular mechanism of bacteriophage tail spike proteins in bacterial infection
Dramatic worldwide increase in antibiotic resistance to human pathogens is of great concern. Bacteriophages selectively kill bacteria and present an alternative to antibiotics. An expert team at ZHAW investigates interactions between bacteriophages and bacteria on a molecular level.
Silent pathway awakening to discover novel antibacterial compounds from actinomycetes
Many disease-causing bacteria are currently developing antibiotic resistance. This is a serious threat to human health. New antibiotics are therefore urgently needed. A project team of ZHAW and ETH is taking up this challenge.
Strategies to reduce mycotoxins in grain side product streams enabling their reintroduction into the food value chain
Food safety has become a major challenge within crops in recent years: an estimated 25% of all global crops are affected by moulds. This project aims at developing solutions to reduce mycotoxins in grain through the application of functional microorganisms and / or tailored enzymes.
Current projects
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Molecular mechanism of bacteriophage tail spike proteins in bacterial infection
Antibiotic resistance in pathogenic microorganisms is rapidly increasing worldwide which urgently calls for novel agents and innovative solutions for the treatment of bacterial infections. Bacteriophages (phages) infect and inactivate bacteria in a highly specific manner. Therefore, exploitation of phages represents ...
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Bayes network analysis for data-driven decision support in hospital catering
Constantly rising costs in the healthcare sector require economic action without compromising the quality of care. Hospital catering is cost-intensive, but also very significant for patient satisfaction. In addition to purely economic optimization, numerous qualitative factors such as sustainability and employee ...
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Strategies to reduce mycotoxins in grain side product streams enabling their reintroduction into the food value chain
Wheat is one of our key staple foods worldwide and offers high nutritional value, especially when consumed in the form of whole grain. Food safety has become a major challenge in crops in recent years: an estimated 25% of all global crops are affected by moulds1-2. Certain moulds produce mycotoxins, toxic compounds ...
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Computational literature-based natural product drug discovery
Natural products such as medicinal plants and extract mixtures have successfully supported the discovery of pharmaceuticals. Medically relevant products and their properties are often found through systematic analysis of the literature. In 1980s Swanson found hidden links between pieces of knowledge in the ...
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Silent pathway awakening to discover novel antibacterial compounds from actinomycetes
There is a tremendous need for novel antibiotics due to the global resistance crisis. Actinomycetes are the most important sources of secondary metabolites. They provide an enormous potential to discover novel antibiotics. Actinobacteria remain an underexploited reservoir of interesting products, especially ...
Latest publications
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Gerber, Nicole ; Kirecci, Ilyas ,
2019.
(T)raumkategorisierung für das Raummanagement von Morgen .
Clinicum.
2019(5),
pp. 97-99.
Available from : https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-18488
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Gerber, Nicole ; Stuber, Kurt; Baacke, Lars,
2019.
Referenzkatalog der ICT Services im Gesundheitswesen sorgt für mehr Transparenz .
SwissICT Magazin.
2019(3),
pp. 12.
Available from : https://www.swissict.ch/app/uploads/2019/08/swissICT-Mitgliedermagazin-03-19-web.pdf
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Smits, Theo H.M. ; Duffy, Brion; Blom, Jochen; Ishimaru, Carol A.; Stockwell, Virginia O.,
2019.
Archives of Microbiology.
201(6),
pp. 713-722.
Available from : https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-17805
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Gerber, Nicole ; Stuber, Kurt; Baacke, Lars;
2019.
Wädenswil:
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from : https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-19325
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Gerber, Nicole ; Kuchen, Oliver;
2019.
Leistungskatalog für nicht-medizinische Leistungen in Spitälern (LekaS) Version 2.0 .
Wädenswil:
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from : https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4789
Team
The Health Research Hub is driven by a scientific committee and supported by a programme manager: