Opening a gateway to the brain: LOOP funding for Prof. Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Professor Mehmet Fatih Yanik is leading a major new research consortium in Zurich that has been awarded a prestigious LOOP grant. Scheduled to start in December 2026, its ambitious goal is to bring a revolutionary new brain-treatment technology out of the lab and into the clinic.
Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Professor of Neurotechnology and co-director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, leads the multidisciplinary consortium (1). Their project – titled "Personalized brain therapies by non-invasive focal pharmaceutical network interventions by AU-FUS" – builds on years of successful preclinical research in large animal models. Together, they aim to develop a completely non-invasive system that can deliver medication to highly specific, localised areas of the human brain without the need for surgery.
A high-tech delivery system for medicine
The initiative combines several cutting-edge elements: designing and optimising advanced focused ultrasound (FUS) sources, creating specialised molecular carriers sensitive to sound waves, and building adaptive models to target the ultrasound perfectly. By using FUS, the team can concentrate these microscopic "nanocarriers" at precise locations, triggering them to release their medical cargo exactly where needed. Initial experiments have shown that this technique can increase drug concentrations at the target site more than thousandfold.
To ensure absolute safety, the drugs are packed into specialized nanocarriers manufactured under strict quality standards and rigorously tested for safety. Using advanced computer models of the brain, the researchers can also plan precisely where and how the medication should be released. The ultimate milestone of this five-year project is to launch the first clinical study with human patients, specifically focusing on individuals with treatment-resistant epilepsy.
The project is scheduled to start in December 2026 and is supported by funding from the Vontobel Foundation. The grant is running 5 years with 1 Mio CHF per year.
(1) The consortium consists of:
Prof. Mehmet Fatih Yanik (lead), Prof. Lukas Imbach (Swiss Epilepsy Clinic), Prof. Lennart Stieglitz (USZ Neurosurgery), Dr Michael Hugelshofer (USZ Neurosurgery), Dr Henning Richter (UZH Vetsuisse), Dr Katrin Beckmann (UZH Vetsuisse), Dr Tena Dubcek (Swiss Epilepsy Clinic)
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