The Medical Faculty of the University Bern, together with the University hospital (Inselspital) and affiliated research institutes, is recognized as a leader in medical research. In the context of its current strategy, the University of Bern has identified medical technology as a particularly important development focus, a decision based on the leading role of its clinical interventional disciplines and the strong presence of the medical technology industry in the greater Bern area. It has been decided to establish a medical technology platform termed Artificial Organ (ARTORG) Center for Biomedical Engineering Research. To support this new research focus, the University of Bern has created a significant number of new Junior Faculty positions with infrastructural support at the Assistant Professor level.
The Center brings together researchers from various biomedical institutes and clinical departments thematically centered around its label Artificial Organs. It actively collaborates with research and development groups of the Bern University of Applied Sciences and other Swiss institutes of technology. Furthermore, knowledge and technology transfer is promoted by involving partners from the Swiss Medical Technology industry. To increase the chances of success in this kind of translational research, which refers to the transformation of scientific discoveries into practical solutions, creative teamwork across the ARTORG disciplines is promoted. The focus is on developing solutions that address particular clinical problems or unmet clinical needs.
The strategic vision of the ARTORG Center is to advance healthcare by integrating education, discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. The Center supports this effort by encouraging a new partnership between clinicians, laboratory scientists and engineers and aims to: cultivate new translational research projects based on clinical practice needs, identify and support promising biomedical engineering collaborative research projects, rapidly translate biomedical engineering research into the clinic by fully utilizing the University of Bern resources for technology transfer

• Mechatronics in medicine
• Medical robotics research: Minimally invasive surgery
• Medical robotics research: Kinematics and the dynamics of endoscopic tools
• Medical robotics research: Instrumented endoscopic tool
• Medical robotics research: Medical microdevices
• Medical robotics research: Actuated and sensorized surgical instruments
• Medical robotics research: Robot-assisted endoscope guidance
• Medical robotics research: Health robot