Prof. Dr. Jan Unkelbach

Area of Research

Description of Research Interest

Our research group conducts research and development concerning the technology behind precision radiotherapy for treating cancer patients. Radiotherapy aims at delivering a high radiation dose to the tumor while minimizing the radiation exposure of healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. We focus on 4 areas of research:

1. Radiotherapy treatment planning: We conduct research on mathematical optimization methods for radiotherapy planning to further improve treatment planning systems. 
   
2. Target volume definition: We work on computational methods to support the definition of the clinical target volume (CTV), i.e. the volume to be irradiated. We focus on quantitative modeling of cancer progression to predict microscopic extensions of the tumor that cannot be detected on medical images. 
   
3. Medical image analysis and Artificial Intelligence: The research group of Stephanie Tanadini-Lang works on quantitative analysis of CT, MR and PET image with the goal of predicting a patient's progrosis and response to treatment. In addition, we work on Artificial intelligence applications such as the automated segmentation of tumors.
   
4. Adaptive radiotherapy: We work on the development and clinical translation of state-of-the-art radiotherapy technology, focusing on MR-guided treatments. Our department is the first in Switzerland to install a MRI-Linac, a combination of MRI scanner and radiotherapy device. 
   

Special Expertise

Treatment planning in Radiation Oncology
Mathematical Optimization
Medical image analysis
Machiene Learning
Statistics