PD Dr. Francesco Clavica

Francesco Clavica studied biomedical engineering (B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree) at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and received the PhD degree in Biofluid Mechanics at Brunel Institute of Bioengineering, Brunel University London (UK).

From 2011 to 2014, he was Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Urology of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), in the group of Prof. Ron van Mastrigt. and Bristol Urological Institute (UK), in the group of Prof. Markus Drake.
In 2014 he moved to Bern as postdoc in the Cardiovascular engineering group (Prof. Dominik Obrist) of ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research (University of Bern).
Since 2019, he is group Head of the Urogenital engineering group of ARTORG Center and Guest scientist at the Center for Artificial Muscle, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
In 2020, Francesco earned the venia docendi (Habilitation) at University of Bern. He is co-lecturer in the Fluid mechanics course of BME Master’s program at University of Bern and in the Biofluiddynamics course at ETH Zurich.

As group Head of Urogenital Engineering, Francesco translates his research into engineering solutions for common urological disorders. The group works closely with the Department of Urology of the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital (Prof. Fiona Burkhard) and the ARTORG Cardiovascular Engineering group (Prof. Dominik Obrist). One of the main research foci of the Urogenital Engineering group is on improving ureteral stents, used to treat stones of the upper urinary tract. Moreover, with the startup URODEA, Francesco and his team are developing the world’s first non-invasive solution for patients suffering from urinary retention.