Who is behind COR-PHYS?
Get to know the members of the interdisciplinary research team, which is made up of sports scientists, medical doctors and statisticians.
Prof. Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss, MA, MD
Principal investigator
Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss is Head of the Sports and Exercise Medicine Department. He is a specialist in general internal medicine with an interdisciplinary focus on sports medicine and sports science. His work focuses on assessing physical performance and resilience and their significance for health.
Fabian Schwendinger, MSc
Study coordinator, PhD student
Fabian Schwendinger is a sports scientist with a Master’s degree in exercise physiology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. His core competencies are in the field of cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength, which includes their determinants as well as acute and chronic adaptations to different training programmes. He was instrumental in the conception and planning of the COR-PHYS project. Fabian is responsible for the coordination of the study and performs most of the sports medicine testing.
Debbie Maurer, MD
Debbie Maurer studied medicine at the University of Zurich and worked in Davos for two years after graduating in 2019, where she worked both clinically in the hospital and in research, at the Swiss Institute for Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF). In addition to writing her doctoral thesis (MD) in the field of sports immunology, she was involved in setting up the Swiss Research Institute for Sports Medicine (SRISM) in Davos, in whose research activities she continues to be involved. Debbie has been working at the DSBG as an assistant physician and postdoc since the beginning of 2022. She will conduct the medical examinations as part of the COR-PHYS study.
Denis Infanger, PhD
Denis Infanger received a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of Basel in 2008. In 2012, he completed his PhD in epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) at the University of Basel. After his PhD, he worked in research and in the pharmaceutical industry as a research assistant and statistician.
PD Timo Hinrichs, MD
Priv.-Doz. Dr Timo Hinrichs is Deputy Head of the Department of Rehabilitative and Regenerative Sports Medicine and Head Physician of the Sports Medicine Outpatient Clinic at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel. He is a specialist in physical and rehabilitative medicine with an additional qualification in sports medicine. His research focuses on old age and ageing, with a particular interest in the age-related decline in physical function and mobility; the relationship between multimorbidity, functional capacity and environment; methods of assessing functional status; the positive effects of physical activity and structured training; and the implementation of mobility assessments and activity programmes in primary care for older people.
Aglaia Emmenegger, MSc
Aglaia Emmenegger studied “Health Sciences and Technology” at ETH Zurich between 2016 and 2021. In summer 2021, she completed her Master’s degree (MSc) with a focus on “Human Movement Science”. During various internships, including at the Federal Office of Sport (FOSPO) in Magglingen, or at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre (SPC) in Nottwil, she was already able to gain experience with various measurement methods. Aglaia joined the Sports and Exercise Medicine team at the DSBG at the end of 2020. Since the end of 2021, she has been working there as head of the sports & exercise medicine laboratory. Now she is looking forward to bringing all the experience she has gained so far into the COR-PHYS project.
Justin Carrard, MD
Justin Carrard studied medicine at the Universities of Neuchâtel, Hannover and Lausanne, where he graduated with a BSc and an MSc in Human Medicine. He obtained his MD from the University of Lausanne with a thesis on modelling exercise adaptation in swimmers. Justin serves as an Associate Editor for the British Medical Journal Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, as a board member of Sport & Exercise Medicine Switzerland (SEMS) and as President and Founder of Junior SEMS. Through these positions, he aims to raise awareness of the power of exercise to prevent and treat disease and injury. Together with Dr Julijana Ivanisevic and Dr Hector Gallart-Ayala (Metabolomics Unit, University of Lausanne), he profiles the metabolome and lipidome of the COR-PHYS cohort.
Julia Maria Kröpfl, PhD
Julia Kröpfl is a molecular biologist and has been responsible for commissioning and setting up the new molecular biology laboratory at the DSBG since mid-2020. She previously worked for 6 years as a postdoc at ETH Zurich in the field of sports physiology. Her scientific focus to date has been on the influence of acute stress and training on regeneration in the peripheral blood by circulating stem cells in healthy individuals and heart failure patients. In the course of the COR-PHYS project, she will investigate endothelial regeneration and possibly dysfunction in patients with post-COVID-19 symptoms.
Prof. Henner Hanssen, MD
Henner Hanssen is Associate Professor of Preventive Sports Medicine and Head of the Department of Preventive Sports Medicine and Systems Physiology at the DSBG. His research focuses on the effect of exercise therapies on vascular health and ageing in chronic inflammatory diseases over the life course. It involves systems physiology and mechanistic approaches with a focus on retinal vascular analysis as a microvascular biomarker for cardiovascular risk. He is a member of numerous international committees and research networks. Within the COR-PHYS study, he will specifically investigate the relationship between COVID-19 long-term outcomes and microvascular (retinal) vascular health.
Christoph Hauser, MSc
Lukas Streese, PhD
Lukas Streese is a postdoc in preventive sports medicine and systems physiology. He heads the Microvascular Vascular Laboratory at the DSBG and has specialised in the diagnosis of vascular diseases in the microcirculation in recent years. His research includes the new development of diagnostic methods for the early detection of vascular changes and mechanistic approaches on how sport and exercise can positively influence the vascular system. In the COR-PHYS study, Lukas Streese will be responsible for retinal vascular diagnostics.
Manuel Mücke, PhD
Manuel Mücke is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sport Science. His research focuses on interactions between physical activity, stress, and cognition/brain function. In the COR-PHYS study, Manuel Mücke will accompany and support the recording of brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
Students
Furthermore, we would like to highlight the following students who have actively contributed to the project (alphabetical order):
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Miriam Berger
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Luca Beugger
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Lynn Brem
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Fabienne Bruggisser
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Martina Gaietta
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Angela Hug
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Pascale Hüsser
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Nadja Kilchenmann
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Davina Rempert
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Marie Catherina Roorda
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Alessia Romanelli
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Sarah Trinkler
External project partners
PD Thomas Radtke, PhD (University of Zurich)
Thomas Sigrist, MD (Barmelweid Clinic)
Prof. Hans H. Hirsch, MD (University Hospital Basel and University of Basel)
Karoline Leuzinger, PhD (University Hospital Basel and University of Basel)
Julijana Ivanisevic, PhD (University of Lausanne)
Aurélien E. Martinez, MD (University Hospital Basel)
Marc Maurer, MD (Cantonal Hospital Olten)
Prof. Roland von Känel, PhD (University Hospital Zurich)
Udo Schwehr, MD, FESC, FACC
Udo Schwehr is an internist, cardiologist, hypertensiologist, lipidologist and cardiovascular preventive physician. Until 2012 he was head physician at the Mediclin MVZ at the Heart Centre Lahr/Baden, then head physician for internal medicine at the KKH Rheinfelden/Baden until September 2021. His focus is on non-invasive cardiological diagnostics. As a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), he has contributed as a reviewer to the ESC guidelines on pulmonary embolism and peripheral arterial diseases, among others. In the COR-PHYS study, he is involved in the performance, interpretation and quality assurance of echocardiographic examinations.