Ferda Canbaz was elected as new board member of the Biomedical Photonics Network (BMPN): a section of the Swiss Society for Optics and Microscopy (SSOM). Congratulations Ferda!

Dr. Ferda Canbaz together with Prof. Dominique Pioletti (EPFL) and Prof. Philippe Büchler (University of Bern), has been awarded a BRIDGE Discovery Grant by the SNSF and Innosuisse.

The team will receive CHF 2 million over four years to develop a hydrogel-based surgical treatment for restoring vision in patients with weak or irregular corneas. This minimally invasive approach aims to reinforce and reshape the cornea, offering a safe and personalized alternative to conventional laser surgery.

The project is supported by Prof. Georg Rauter (BIROMED-Lab, University of Basel) and Dr. Theo G. Seiler (Inselspital, Bern).

Learn more about the BRIDGE Discovery Grant project

A multidisciplinary team including Dr. Ferda Canbaz has received full funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project “Comprehensive analysis of determinants of polyethylene wear and the related tissue response to improve outcomes in total hip arthroplasty.”

Led by PD Dr. med. Peter Wahl, the collaboration also involves Markus Fürstner, Roman Heuberger, Robin Pourzal, and partners from the RMS Foundation and Rush University Medical Center (Chicago). The project aims to characterize implant material properties, identify wear determinants, and quantify tissue responses to wear particles—advancing scientific understanding toward better long-term outcomes in total hip arthroplasty.

Researchers invite additional clinical partners to contribute retrieval samples, further strengthening this unique large-scale analysis of polyethylene wear mechanisms across hip prostheses.

Discover more about this exciting collaboration here

PhD students Leya Pauly and Vinamrata from the Centre for Intelligent Optics (CIO), gave Lightning talk presentations at the BMT 2025 Conference, held from September 9–11, 2025, in Muttenz, Switzerland. They presented their ongoing research in optics and photonics for biomedical applications.

The conference brought together researchers and professionals from across Europe, offering a great opportunity to share ideas, discuss new developments, and connect with experts in the field of biomedical engineering.

The Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBE) at the University of Basel organized its 11th Research Day on 5th of September 2025, bringing together researchers and students to share their latest work. Four PhD students from the Centre for Intelligent Optics (CIO)  - Mingyi Liu, Leya Pauly, Milad Malek Mohammadi, and Vinamrata  - presented their research during the event. It was a great opportunity for them to showcase their projects, exchange ideas, and engage with the broader research community.  

Watch the highlights from the 11th DBE Research Day here.

Congratulations to Aurelien Guzzetti!

On the third of September 2025, Aurelien successfully defended his Master's thesis, titled “Raman Spectroscopy and Deep Learning Integration for Tissue Characterization in Laser Osteotomy”.

We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours!

Congratulations to David Rothen!

On the second of July 2025, David successfully defended his Master's thesis, titled “Handheld Spectro - Imaging Device for Smart Biopsy”.

We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours!

Head of the Center for Intelligent Optics (CIO) Dr. Ferda Canbaz was interviewed by Esra Öz for the Istanbul based channel tv100. In the feature with the title "A new era in knee surgery will begin", Canbaz introduces the MIRACLE II System and the different roles of the lasers and feedback systems developed by CIO.

Dr Ferda Canbaz is a new board member of the Swiss Society for Biomedical Engineering. The visionary SSBE was already founded in 1970 (!) and is now one of the main motors of biomedical engineering at Swiss universities and companies. It focuses on creating and maintaining a comprehensive network of players in research, education, manufacturing, and politics in and around biomedical engineering.

Hannah Greenwood  interviewed Dr. Canbaz for the Optics & Photonics News within their ‹Senior Member Insights› Series.

Ferda talks about how it all started for her, how she keeps evolving and what her 10 years younger self would say about her current situation.

Our basic science article, where we aimed to enhance the safety and precision of laser osteotomy (bone surgery) by incorporating optical feedback systems with an Er:YAG laser, is the Editor's choice and the featured cover of the journal. In this project we utilized feedback systems including a real-time visual monitoring system for controlling the depth of laser cuts and a tissue sensor that distinguishes between different tissue types based on their chemical composition. The developed multimodal feedback systems demonstrated promising results in improving the safety and accuracy of laser surgery.

To read the full study visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lsm.23732

To read the short article about our work, visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lsm.23736 

We are pleased to inform our latest publications since Mar 2023

• Arsham Hamidi, Yakub A Bayhaqi, Sandra Drusová, Alexander A Navarini, Philippe C Cattin, Ferda Canbaz*, and Azhar Zam*. Multimodal feedback systems for smart laser osteotomy: Depth control and tissue differentiation 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/lsm.23732
• Arsham Hamidi, Yakub A Bayhaqi, Sandra Drusová, Alexander A. Navarini, Philippe C. Cattin, Azhar Zam, and Ferda Canbaz. Towards Miniaturized OCT-Guided Laser Osteotomy: Integration of Fiber-Coupled Er:YAG Laser with OCT. Optics Continuum, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTCON.497483
• Arsham Hamidi, Yakub A Bayhaqi, Ferda Canbaz, Alexander A Navarini, Philippe C Cattin, and Azhar Zam. Towards phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography in smart laser osteotomy: temperature feedback 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-023-03886-z 
• Aikaterina Grava, Arsham Hamidi, Alvaro Gonzalez-Jimenez, Yakub A Bayhaqi, Alexander A Navarini, Philippe C Cattin, and Ferda Canbaz. Toward photothermal damage detection during laser osteotomy using optical coherence tomography. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328709029 
• Yakub A Bayhaqi, Arsham Hamidi, Alexander A Navarini, Philippe C Cattin, Ferda Canbaz, and Azhar Zam. Real-time closed-loop tissue-specific laser osteotomy using deep-learning-assisted optical coherence tomography 2023. https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.486660
• Ferda Canbaz and Arminas Butkus. Spectroscopic Investigation of Tm³⁺-Dy³⁺ Co-Doped KY₃F₁₀ Crystals for 3 μm Laser Applications. IEEE, 2023. https://opg.optica.org/abstract.cfm?uri=CLEO_Europe-2023-ce_p_5 
• Cigdem Cetin, Sandra Drusová, Arsham Hamidi, Yakub Bayhaqi, Georg Rauter, Philippe Cattin, Azhar Zam, and Ferda Canbaz. Bone ablation performance of a Ho: YAG laser. SPIE, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2647703

Congratulations to Yakub Aqib Bayhaqi!

Yakub has successfully defended his thesis on 17th May 2023.

With his thesis titled:

"Automatic Tissue Characterization from Optical Coherence Tomography Images for Smart Laser Surgery".

Congratulations to Arsham Hamidi!

Arsham has successfully defended his thesis on 22nd March 2023.

With his thesis titled:

"Development of Miniaturized Long-Range Optical Coherence Tomography for Smart Laser surgery system".