PhD student in Neurosciences. Interested in Neuro-Urology and changes in lower urinary tract after spinal cord injuries

Veronika Birkhäuser, MD PhD, is a board-certified neuro-urologist working as a consultant at the Department of Neuro-Urology, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich. After completing medical studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany she underwent urological training at the Department of Urology, University of Bern, where she earned a Doctorate in Medicine. She undertook a PhD in Clinical Science at the University of Zurich at the Department of Neuro-Urology, Balgrist University Hospital. In addition, she completed a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Sexual Medicine/Sexual Therapy at the University of Basel, further emphasizing a multifaceted approach to urology and patient care. Her research is in the area of neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunctions and neurogenic sexual dysfunctions after spinal cord injury.

Ines Bersch, a physiotherapist since 1989, has specialized in functional electrical stimulation (FES) for spinal cord injury rehabilitation since 1992. She has taught on electrical stimulation and neurorehabilitation at Swiss universities and internationally and earned her MSc (2012) and PhD (2019), focusing on upper and lower motoneuron lesions and the application of electrical stimulation with its various modalities. As the leader of the International FES Centre® at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre since 2018, she oversees over 3000 annual outpatient treatments and spearheads FES research, education, and technology integration. Her actual research is focusing on FES applications to improve hand function, bowel management, and skin integrity in spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

Jörg Krebs is leading the Neuro-Urology research group at Swiss Paraplegia Research in Nottwil, Switzerland. He has been involved in clinical research on spinal cord injury / disease topics, mainly neuro-urology and spine surgery, for 15 years. Before moving into clinical research, he had been active in experimental research with a focus on orthopedics and spine surgery for a decade. Jörg Krebs studied veterinary medicine at the University Bern in Bern, Switzerland and graduated in 1995. He attained a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (Dr. med. vet.) from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University Bern in 2002. In 2007, he received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (summa cum laude) from the Medical Faculty of the University Bern and holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Applied Statistics.

Prof. Jivko Stoyanov is leading the group of SCI Population Biobanking and Translational Medicine at the Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, Switzerland and is Titularprofessor at the Intitute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern. At ISPM he works closely with PD Dr Marija Glisic on projects involving epidemiology of Spinal Cord Injury. He received a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Birmingham, UK, M.Sc. in Translational Medicine from the University of Edinburgh,Scotland, M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria and an EMBA from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. From 2001 till 2007 he was employed at the University of Bern by the former Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and the former Insitute of Surgical Technology and Biomechanics. At the Swiss Paraplegic Research, since 2007 he established a laboratory which works on topics related to the spinal cord injury (SCI) and heads the biobank of the multicenter Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI). Prof Stoyanov has been teaching since the beginning of the Master of Biomedical Engineering Program. He also supervises MSc as well as PhD students registered at the Universities of Bern and Lucerne at the state of the art laboratories in Nottwil.

Dr. Nada Telmesani is a senior resident in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University Hospital of Nantes, France. Her research has focused on quality of life and functional outcomes after reconstructive urological surgery. She is committed to advancing patient-centered approaches and innovation in rehabilitation medicine.