An opportunity to be seized

When we at the University Hospital Basel were approached by Novartis about seven years ago and were asked if we were interested in setting up a new research and development institute in the field of ophthalmology together with the University of Basel, my answer could only be yes. For successful research – today more than ever before – is driven by the interaction of different scientific fields. This collaboration is vital in medicine. This is due not only to the rapid pace of technological development calling for more intensive interdisciplinary dialogue, but also to the fact that medical practice and research often operate in silos. On the one hand there are hospitals, clinics, and medical practices that are primarily dedicated to the needs of patients, while on the other hand there are high-tech laboratories where scientists try to understand biological processes at the molecular level. An institutional hinge that connects the two worlds with their different focal lengths is usually lacking. Filling this gap has been one of the mainstays of the IOB: not only conducting pure research but developing laboratory work in collaboration with experienced clinicians and linking it closely to the medical needs of patients. The IOB aims to work on practical solutions for the development of new therapies.

This vision is not only inspiring, but also an opportunity to reflect on how to advance medical research in the future. Basel may be one of the world’s suitable cities for such a venture given that it sports two world-leading pharmaceutical companies, Roche and Novartis, in the same place. This idea is neither arrogant nor ingratiating but is intended to express the extraordinary potential when the best of academia, industry, and clinics are brought together in a city that is already home today to more than 800 companies in the life sciences sector. The knowledge that is developed at these companies, research institutes, and in medical practice needs to be enhanced through creative collaboration. Creative collaboration and the courage to break new ground have always served as the best conditions for advancing research and gaining pioneering insights. This was already the case at the Roche-funded Basel Institute for Immunology, which produced three Nobel laureates from the time it was founded in 1969 to its closure at the turn of the millennium: Georges J. F. Koehler, Niels K. Jeren, and Susumhu Tonegawa. The special spirit that prevailed at the institute spawned a generation of researchers who shaped Basel’s research environment for decades, including Marcel Tanner, former director of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). Tanner’s experience at the institute, where, he said, “you could really let your mind run wild and do research at a very fundamental level,” not only inspired his work in the lab and in the field, but also helped him establish a robust leadership and work culture at the rapidly growing Swiss TPH. The Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI), which was founded by what was then Ciba-Geigy and the University of Basel in 1970 to advance basic research and build a bridge between industry and academia, has experienced a similar development. This has been further strengthened this year: The FMI is now at home on the Novartis Campus, giving it the opportunity to create a new framework in which academic and industrial research can support each other.

The IOB, which conducts its research in Klybeck, and the Eye Clinic in the St. Johann district may be geographically separate. However, the institute strives for close integration when it comes to bringing clinicians and researchers together and promoting intensive dialogue. In addition to regular meetings between scientists and clinicians, the institute is also designed to promote translational medicine. Using the findings from basic research, it develops robust processes that can be transferred to medical and pharmaceutical practice. Just seven years after its founding, the IOB has already carried out its first spin-off, with a gene therapy developed at the institute for treating a hereditary eye disorder now being continued by the start-up RhyGaze AG. In addition to developing a compelling proof-of-concept study, the IOB has advanced the technology and biology of this gene therapy to the point where RhyGaze AG will soon be able to begin clinical trials and give patients hope for a new treatment. Similar transactions are likely to follow in the future, as researchers at the IOB have one big goal in mind: They wish to give new impetus to the field of ophthalmology, which has fallen behind in recent decades compared to oncology and cardiology. The development of new therapeutic approaches in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering should make it possible to treat and perhaps even cure diseases for which there are currently no or only insufficient therapeutic options. I have every confidence that the young researchers who have come to Basel from all over the world will not only revolutionize ophthalmology with their work. Above all, they will also strengthen Basel as a research hub and provide an argument for closer collaboration between academia, industry, and medical practice. Every success they achieve will not only benefit patients directly, but also create new forms of collaboration that advance medicine and help patients. This is an opportunity for Basel and Switzerland to seize.