Visit of Konstantin Yenkoyan from Yerevan State Medical University

On Thursday, November 23, 2023, Prof. Konstantin Yenkoyan, Vice-Rector for Science and Head of Neuroscience Laboratory of Yerevan State Medical University after Mkhitar Heratsi (YSMU), Armenia, visited representatives of the Microscopy Imaging Center of the University of Bern. Konstantin is also the coordinator of the first-time-ever successful Horizon 2020 project at YSMU and the scientist-in-chief of the "COBRAIN" Scientific-Educational Center for Fundamental Brain Research (https://cobrainarmenia.org/; https://ysmu.am/en/research/mijazgayin-gitakan-tsragrer/cobrain/). This educational center aims at enhancing the research and innovation capacity of YSMU by strengthening the field of brain research with a special focus on autism and Alzheimer’s disease. The center offers a new model of research-based education and thus develops a new culture in higher education.

The visit of Prof. Yenkoyan to Switzerland was organized within the framework of the "Brain Visualization Laboratory" grant project, which is implemented in cooperation with "Center for Education Projects" PIU of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia and the World Bank. In lively discussions with MIC committee members, Konstantin presented the main goal of the project, which is to establish a brain visualization laboratory by combining state-of-the-art microscopy, cellular computing, augmented and virtual reality, enabling comprehensive visualization of the brain’s cellular engineering. Other points of discussion included the research directions of the "COBRAIN" center and opportunities for collaboration between researchers in Bern and Yerevan.

Through this visit, Prof. Yenkoyan also received direct input on how a research-oriented bioimaging infrastructure can be organized, managed and operated. In addition to Bern, Konstantin Yenkoyan also visited imaging facilities in Zurich, Basel and Geneva.