PD Dr. med. Dr. sc. nat. Raphael Vuille-dit-Bille

• Neugeborenenchirurgie
• Viszeralchirurgie
• Thoraxchirurgie (inkl. Thoraxwandfehlbildungen)

As a Pediatric Surgeon, I am often confronted with rare diseases and disorders and their respective treatment. Clinical decisions thereby mostly base on limited evidence. My goal is hence to (i) provide high-evidence clinical research and (ii) to address treatment options of rare disorders in basic (translational) research:

Clinical research (i):
Systematic reviews attempt to systematically identify, rate, synthesize and finally present the evidence, that meets pre-defined eligibility criteria to answer specific research questions. As systematic reviews are only as good (or as bad) as therein included studies, Cochrane systematic reviews set a very high threshold for studies to be included, and authors have to apply to certain predefined rules and methods that intend to reduce bias and confounding factors. For the past years we conducted several systematic reviews including three Cochrane eviews (https://www.cochranelibrary.com/search). For one of these systematic reviews we were awarded with the British Journal of Surgery Prize in 2021. As for some research questions, good evidence is lacking (e.g. due to the rarity of the disease), in 2016 we founded the metaanalysis group (www.metaanalysis-group.ch) in order to synthesize the evidence of specific research questions where high-quality evidence is missing. In collaboration with other Cochrane Groups (https://colorectal.cochrane.org, https://ugpd.cochrane.org) we furthermore intend to share our knowledge by offering peer reviews, help with specific research questions, and by offering master theses to medical students at the Universities of Zürich and Basel.

Translational research (ii):
During my MD-PhD, I worked on the expression and regulation of intestinal amino acid and other nutrient transporters in humans. Among other findings, we could hereby show, that SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in small intestinal enterocytes is necessary for the expression of luminal membrane amino acid transporters B⁰AT1 (SLC6A19) and SIT1 (SLC6A20). The intestine might be an entry site for SARS-CoV-2 and the infection might have even started by eating food from the Wuhan market. After my PhD I started to build my own basic research group adressing the expression of small intestinal nutrient (amino acids and monosaccharides) transporters in human newborns. We could hereby show for the first time, that human newborns lack the expression of Proline transporter SIT1, as well as of Fructose transporter GLUT5. Whereas intestinal Proline transport can be provided by other transporters, this signifies, that human newborns are not able to absorb Fructose at all. For these findings I was awarded with the ‚Prix Nachwuchs’ by the Swiss Society of Pediatric Surgery in 2019. In collaboration with the group of Prof. Christoph Schneider (University of Zürich) and Prof. James Dunn (University of Stanford) we are currently investigating new treatment methods (intestinal distraction using an elastic spring; chronic intestinal helminth infection, etc.) for short bowel syndrome, a seldom disorder affecting mainly newborns after major intestinal resections.