Vesna Petkovic | Project and Group Leader
University of Basel

Dr. Vesna Petkovic earned her MD in medicine in Serbia, and later a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Bern, focusing on cell signaling in neurological development. She pursued postdoctoral research at Basel’s Anatomy Institute and Singapore’s Faculty of Medicine, investigating axonal regeneration using embryonic neurons. Since 2009, Dr. Petkovic has concentrated on hearing protection and regeneration at the University Hospital, Basel, independently leading a research group within Inner Ear Research group since 2018, following her habilitation in experimental medicine. With 40+ publications, her group has pioneered innovations like the inner ear BLB chip, filed for patent in 2022, and established collaborations with CSEM and life science companies for further development. She is an active member of leading neuroscience and inner ear societies globally.

Appearances:

Day 2: 28th May @ 12:00

Automated benchtop perfusion, culturing, imaging, and sampling of organ-on-a-chip Blood-Labyrinth Barrier (BLB) microfluidic devices

The University of Basel has developed a microfluidic human BLB (Blood-Labyrinth Barrier) organ-on-a-chip platform as a preclinical tool to improve drug development by simulating and mimicking the BLB of the human ear. This platform is used to help screen promising drug candidates, which enhances clinical trial success rates while reducing costs and development time. To aid in long-term culture, sterile sampling, and increased throughput experiments, CSEM has developed an automated system that provides the appropriate physiological environment, continuous perfusion, and automated sterile sampling of 9 BLB chips in parallel, enabling long-term, sterile culturing and monitoring

Thomas Valentin, Group Leader - Sample Handling & Sensing, CSEM SA