Franco Keller, PhD
Director
The Institute of Laboratory Medicine (EOLAB) was set up to meet the requirements of modern clinical laboratory medicine delivering analytical results to the medical staff. EOLAB recognize the importance of research into his activity in order to be continuously up-to-date and to offer the best service and collaboration to all medical departments. The EOLAB specialists are actively involved in boards of several scientific societies as well as working groups nationally and internationally.
The Microbiology Service (SMIC) of EOLAB contributes with his known out and data to EOC internal projects as well as to external projects.
During 2018 microbiological examinations have been pursued for HIV and HCV patients in the frame of national HIV and HCV cohort studies. Case reports on clinical significant cases with uncommon bacterial and fungal strains have been published in collaboration with clinicians from EOC and colleagues of Swiss university hospitals. The SMIC harbours the national reference laboratory for Legionella disease and contributes to international projects on epidemiology and typing of these bacterial strains isolated from patients and environment.
Collaboration to the health authorities of the Ticino Canton and in particular the Ufficio del medico Cantonale has led to a research project and publication of data on the serological prevalence of antibodies against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in goats as indices for the diffusion of these disease until now unknown, in the southern part of Switzerland. A project on hepatitis E associated to neurological disorders in collaboration with Neurocenter (NSI) represents a successful collaboration between clinicians and microbiologists in establishing a proved correlation between a viral infections and a neurological manifestation.
The Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology Laboratory (BFC) is collaborating with different EOC departments to develop new test for quantitation of hormones.
BFC is also involved in a European network for the harmonization of steroid hormone quantitation in mass spectrometry and have a close collaboration with the pharmacology unit of the university of Turin and Amedeo di Savoia Hospital in Turin on pharmacology and pharmacogenomics field documented by several papers.
