DCB Newsletter #5/25: INSIDE DCB – Our Milestones in 2025

Operations

👥 Inside DCB: We are expanding our academic footprint. In addition to multiple publications, we are now home to two PhD students at the DCB. To position ourselves for the future, we have been working on our strategy and goals 2031.

✅ Fully certified: We further developed our Management System according to ISO 9001 and passed the SQS recertification audit with flying colours.

⛑️ Safety first: Several studies have been successfully initiated and conducted at the facility. There were no safety-related incidents.

Innovation & Business Development

🌐 Global Impact: Our team evaluated a great variety of ideas, proposals, and applications, propelling the global innovation ecosystem forward. We identified and supported several dozen projects and startups, providing them with unparalleled expertise, access to our extensive network, cutting-edge facilities, and crucial funding.

🏆 DCB Open Innovation Challenge 2025: Incredible 54 ideas were submitted to the DCB Open Innovation Challenge this year. Five finalists from various countries pitched their innovations live on stage at sitem-insel in front of a big audience and an international jury. This year’s winner, the U.S.-based start-up Alva Innovations, convinced the jury with its pioneering real-time filtration system for insulin pumps, designed to prevent infusion-set occlusions and improve therapy safety for people living with diabetes.

Their technology has the potential to significantly enhance the reliability of insulin delivery systems and reduce treatment disruptions addressing one of the most frequent challenges in insulin pump therapy today. For the first time, the DCB expanded the traditional Start-Up Night into a full Day of Innovation, held on 5 November 2025 at the sitem-insel in Bern. The event brought together leaders from healthcare, academia, medtech, industry, and policy to explore future-driven solutions in medicine and health technology.

The programme of the Day of Innovation featured:

• Start-up pitches from the Top 5 finalists (Alva Innovations, Neuraura, SynchNeuro, Diawiser, MEMS MicroPump Module)
• Keynotes and insights from research, translational medicine, and industry translational research at DCB, sitem-insel, CSEM)
• Showcases demonstrating real-world impact and successful commercialization (T1D1, SNAQ, Piomic, MYNERVA, GO-Pen, Alveolix)
• Perspectives from policy (Christoph Ammann) and medical ethics (Prof. Giovanni Maio) on advancing innovation and artificial intelligence in healthcare
• Networking sessions connecting innovators, investors, clinicians, and partners

About the winner: Alva Innovations

Alva Innovations aims to enhance the safety and efficiency of insulin pump therapy by integrating advanced micro-filtration directly into the infusion set. By reducing the risk of occlusions, the solution could lower therapy interruptions, prevent glycemic instability, and ease the daily burden of diabetes management. More about Alva Innovations: https://www.alva-innovations.com/

➡️ Looking ahead: DCB will continue to support the finalist teams beyond the Challenge with access to expert guidance, clinical expertise, and strategic support.

🚀 Tailored Workshops for start-ups: Multiple workshops were organized for various start-ups, covering different key topics. They ranged from a few hours virtually to multiple days in person. The workshops addressed everything from clinical insights, data management, project management, communication, to branding. A key point noticed was that investor decks were often too detailed and overloaded with content. Top tip: Investors typically spend only 2.5 to 3 minutes reading them!

📊 DT-report: Together with diabetesschweiz, the Swiss Society for Endocrinology and Diabetology (SGED | SSED), and partners in Germany and Austria, we are conducting a representative survey on the topic of diabetes technology for the 2026 Diabetes Technology-Report. The project team managed to onboard additional countries: Poland, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. This makes this report even more relevant, as more voices of people with diabetes are being heard, allowing research, industry, and policymakers to work together toward even better care.

🎉 DCB spin-off Beyond Diagnostics receives Innosuisse grant: Dr. Maren Schinz has secured an innovation grant from Innosuisse to advance her research on insulin inactivity with Beyond Diagnostics, a DCB spin-off. Congratulations!

👥 Conferences: EASD conference, hosted the Innovation Zone in Vienna and brought almost 20 start-ups who had the chance to present their ideas to the audience. Our booth was well visited, and we were happy with the results.

The DCB Foundation aims to gain greater visibility in the future and, with a stronger presence, attract even broader support. As part of this initiative, we were delighted to welcome our donor and around 20 members of his close circle to the DCB in November. During an exclusive behind-the-scenes showcase, the DCB team and our four DCB professors brought their translational research to life, offering an engaging glimpse into our vision and the mission of the DCB Foundation.

Communications

👋 Growing our community: We’ve reached almost 6000 followers on LinkedIn and almost 900 followers on Instagram in 2025. We’re so excited our community is ever-growing and appreciate every single one of you, joining us on our journey of making life better for people with diabetes!

🔍 Visibility boost: In April, DCB joined the Focus Day at BEA in Bern, an event highlighting the latest in healthcare innovation. It was a great opportunity to showcase how Diabetes Center Berne is advancing projects that turn research into practical solutions for improving diabetes care.

💻 Website updates: Our website is again enriched with additional content in various sections like our research focus areas and publications. We want to thank HYVE – the innovation company for the valued and long-lasting collaboration!

🗣️ Valuing Lived Experience: People living with diabetes are at the core of all that we do at DCB. We are so grateful for our continually growing community of Lived Experience Experts – currently 20 people in 14 different countries all over the world!

Clinical & Data

🩸 Menstrual cycle project: We are about to publish the results of the menstrual cycle project which was conducted in close collaboration with Tidepool. The aim of this research project was to collect data on diabetes management among menstruating people living with type 1 diabetes to evaluate changes in insulin sensitivity across the menstrual cycle. We have received data from 380 cycles of 77 women and look forward to presenting the first results soon. This retrospective study was the first study at the intersection of type 1 diabetes and women’s health.

💜Focus groups women and AID: We conducted a qualitative study involving interviews with 37 women living with type 1 diabetes and using an AID to manager their diabetes to explore their experiences managing diabetes in relation to the menstrual cycle. Participants were asked about the challenges they encountered and the strategies they used to address cycle-related changes in insulin requirements. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and systematically analyzed to identify the primary management strategies and overarching themes shared across participants.

📊TIMES study: We successfully secured funding for an international decentralized study about the influence of the menstrual cycle on type 1 diabetes management. In total 350 women across five countries (Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, UK and US) will participate in the study for six months. The first study participants have been recruited in Switzerland. This study is a follow-up of two other previous studies on the same topic.

🔎Clinical Study FibreGum: Under the supervision of our assistant professor Maria Luisa Balmer, the FibreGum study, conducted at the Children Clinic Berne and the Eastern Swiss Children’s Hospital in St. Gallen, is assessing the effect of an additive in a chewing gum on body weight loss. So far,93 adolescents and young adults have been enrolled. An interim analysis will be performed at the end of this year to evaluate data integrity, variability, and preliminary effect sizes.

🔎Clinical Study FaibaGo: Under the supervision of our assistant professor Maria Luisa Balmer this clinical study is testing a fibre-rich chewing gum that aims to support people with overweight in achieving sustainable weight loss and improved metabolic health. It is the counterpart to the FibreGum study conducted in adult population. More than 30 general practitioners (GP) in the Bern area are already involved, helping to recruit suitable participants despite their busy schedules. The study began mid-October and, within two months 15 participants, out of a planned total of 120, have already been enrolled.

🔎Clinical Study AID-JUNCT: Under the supervision of our assistant professor José Garcia Tirado, the AID-JUNCT is evaluating the efficacy of tirzepatide (Mounjaro®) as adjunctive therapy to automated insulin delivery on percent time in range. It has been running for one year at the Cantonal Hospital in Olten. Two additional study sites, Cantonal Hospital in Lucerne and DiaCenTRE Geneva, were added this year. 16 participants, out of a planned total of 42, have been enrolled.

🔎 Clinical Study UBLoop regulatory approval obtained: Assistant professor José Garcia Tirado will conduct the UBLoop study at the facilities of the DCB. This is a first in human study, testing the feasibility of a new closed loop system in six participants.

✅ Evo Study conduct completed (Study Sponsor: BODYSense SAS): The study does examine associations between glycaemic states such as stable, increasing, and decreasing blood glucose, and the VOC (volatile organic compound) spectra in the breath measured with a Gas Chromatograph-Ion Mobility Spectrometer (GC-IMS) device as a reference and a portable device prototype to measure VOCs. The device prototype has been developed by BODYSense with the purpose to allow blood glucose monitoring through non-invasive breath analyses. The study has been completed and we are now waiting for the results to be published.

👥 Study conduct network extension: The Eastern Swiss children’s hospital in St. Gallen, the Cantonal Hospital in Olten and the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetology of the Medical University of Graz (Austria) are now qualified as study sites and are allowed to conduct studies under our support/responsibility.

📖 Contribution to publications: The publication led by Prof. Lilian Witthauer titled “Toward Detection of Nocturnal Hypoglycemia in People with Diabetes Using Consumer-Grade Smartwatches and a Machine Learning Approach” was featured in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

A preprint authored by Liom titled “A Prospective Pilot Study Demonstrating Non-Invasive Calibration-Free Glucose Measurement” was published on medRxiv.

DCB also featured numerous abstracts presented at major diabetes conferences, including ADA, EASD and ATTD.

📊 Electronic Data Capture System: REDCap® has undergone significant upgrades and enhancements through the integration of external modules and services. These improvements ensure the platform continues to provide a secure environment, uphold strict quality control standards, and offer user-friendly interfaces.  The e-consent module, which allows to obtain informed consent electronically, has been implemented earlier this year and is currently being used in several decentralized clinical trials.

🔬 INSPIRE LAB

Within the INSPIRE Lab we explore how real-world conditions impact the biological activity of insulin – its ability to lower blood glucose levels – providing insights onto this hidden factor in diabetes management.

Currently, most methods measure how much insulin is present, but not whether it is still active.

Our DCB spin-off Beyond Diagnostics addresses this critical diabetes care gap by developing an AI-powered point-of-care test that verifies insulin medication quality. In addition to the financial support by Innosuisse, we won STAGE UP, were a Newcomer at the startup days, and published our first paper in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology “Real-World Experience with Insulin Activity among People with Type 1 Diabetes: Results of a Multinational Survey”.

And, as exciting lookout, we will officially be founded in 2026!

Interested in medication quality testing? Follow Beyond Diagnostics on LinkedIn.

📖 Publications

We created a separate space featuring our publications on the website and are proud of all the new articles that were published this, such as “Clinical assessment and acceptance criteria for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system performance: A proposed guideline by the IFCC Working Group on CGM”, with a contribution from Prof. Lilian Witthauer. This guideline defines, for the first time, a full “playbook” for how pivotal CGM performance studies should be designed, conducted, analysed, and judged, including concrete minimum accuracy thresholds under demanding, clinically relevant conditions. Working toward an internationally aligned standard, potentially at the level of an ISO-like framework, is a key long-term goal of this initiative.

📖 Professorships

Together with the Universität Bern, DCB is home to four shared professorships that advance translational research, education, and clinical innovation in diabetes technology and metabolic health. Further information on each professorship is available via the respective webpages:

• samlab (Sensing & Monitoring Lab), led by professor Lilian Witthauer
• PrecisionLab, led by professor Jose Garcia-Tirado
• TrimLab (Translational Immunometabolism Lab), led by professor Maria Luisa Balmer
• Machine Learning for Medicine Lab, led by professor Lisa Koch

Thank you, dear readers for your loyalty and interest throughout the year! We will continue to provide you with new series, inside stories and regular updates in 2026.

All the best and happy holidays! 🎄🎆