What we do

Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) is caused by many non-cancerous diseases of the bladder, including benign prostatic obstruction, urethral obstruction and neurological diseases. Patients with LUTD suffer a range of symptoms such as increased daytime and night time frequency, urgency, urinary incontinence, slow stream, hesitancy and incomplete emptying. Continuous need for a bathroom, sleep cycle disruption, debilitating incontinence and frequent urinary tract infections strongly affect their quality of life and physical and emotional well-being. An estimated 45% of the worldwide population is affected by at least one LUT symptom. Concomitant with the ageing population, the incidence of multifactorial bladder dysfunction is steadily growing, and now poses a common and recurrent problem in daily urological practice and an increasing socioeconomic burden.

Prof Dr Fiona C. Burkhard at the Department of Urology, University Hospital Bern, is guiding and coordinating the activities of the two collaborating groups: Team Biology, conducting basic medico-biological research (Prof. K. Monastyrskaya) and Team Urogenital Engineering (UGE), developing innovative engineering approaches to diagnosis and treatment of LUTD (PD Dr. F. Clavica).

We combine the well-established clinical examination of the bladder function by urodynamics with the cutting-edge multidisciplinary approaches including fluid mechanics, pressure and neuronal activity analysis, and bladder gene expression profiling technologies to build a comprehensive picture of the pathological processes during LUTD. Joint analysis and integration of the multiple data advances our understanding of the origin of bladder dysfunction. We are convinced that only by using the know-how and synergies coming from different fields of knowledge will it be possible to solve the conundrum of LUTD.

Get in Touch

You need more information? Fill out the contact form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
pin_drop

Our address

Murtenstrasse 35
3008 Bern
Switzerland

Contact Us

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.