The translational research Centre in oncohaematology (CRTOH)
The CRTOH was created in 2017 thanks to a public-private partnership between the Faculty of Medicine, the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and a consortium of private foundations including the Dr Henri Dubois-Ferrière Dinu Lipatti Foundation, the Copley May Foundation, the Medic Foundation, the Lombard Odier - Fonds Jean Pastré Foundation and the Geneva Cancer League. The strong commitment of this consortium of donor foundations has made significant advances in the fight against cancer possible.
Today, the CRTOH has 34 research groups, including more than 300 collaborators, who are affiliated with different departments of the Section of Clinical Medicine (Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Gynecology and Obstetrics, as well as the Hospital Department of Oncology), the Section of Basic Medicine (Cellular Physiology and Metabolism, Pathology and Immunology) of the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, as well as the Section of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the UNIGE Faculty of Science, and the HUG.
The relevance of research performed at the CRTOH is identifiable in the form of a large number of publications (>750 during the first 5 years of its existence), as well as patent filings, collaborations with industry, the creation of startups, and numerous media interventionsto share the scientific advances of the Centre with a large public. The CRTOH has also contributed to the development of young scientists, as evidenced by numerous thesis defenses (>50), awards for outstanding theses and other successes (10), and scholarships for academic promotion (5).
The activities of the CROTH were coordinated by Professors Patrick Meraldi and Carole Bourquin from 2017 to 2022, then by Professors Mikael Pittet and Olivier Michielin since 2022. The CRTOH Steering committee also includes Professors Intidhar Labidi-Galy, Denis Migliorini and Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska, and Dr. Valérie Dutoit-Vallotton.
The CRTOH is a member of the Swiss Cancer Centre Léman (SCCL), which comprises all the cancer research communities of the Lake Geneva region, including UNIGE, HUG, EPFL, CHUV, UNIL, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the ISREC Foundation, and the AGORA Cancer Research Centre. Professor Olivier Michielin, from CRTOH, serves as SCCL co-director.
Revolutionising oncology through precision medicine
At the Faculty of Medicine, the Translational Research Centre in Onco-Haematology (CRTOH) brings together the leading forces in oncology research around a shared goal: to transform scientific discoveries into tangible benefits for people with cancer as quickly as possible. With the Geneva Translational Oncology (GTO) Programme, the physicians and scientists of the CRTOH now aim to revolutionise research for even more effective diagnostic tools and treatments. CAR-T cells, FLASH radiotherapy, artificial intelligence, and personalised medicine: discover an overview of recent advances and upcoming projects.
Cancer affects one in two men and one in three women over the course of their lives. While major advances in detection, management, and treatment have considerably improved patients’ quality of life over recent decades, the challenge remains immense: nearly 20 million people receive a cancer diagnosis worldwide each year, and nearly 10 million die from it. To address this major public health challenge, the Faculty of Medicine, the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), and a consortium of foundations established the CRTOH in 2017, with the aim of achieving discoveries from which patients can rapidly benefit. Today, the centre brings together more than 300 researchers working on key areas such as the tumour microenvironment, precision oncology, cell division, and anticancer pharmacology.
Coordinated by Professors Mikaël Pittet and Olivier Michielin, the centre draws its strength from its close ties with clinical practice: the teams work directly with biological samples from patients treated at the HUG, enabling laboratory hypotheses to be validated on human material and, in return, shedding light on clinical observations. This ongoing dialogue is at the heart of translational research: bridging the often-considerable gap between a fundamental discovery and its transformation into an effective treatment.
A digital infrastructure to support personalised oncology
Today, therapeutic choices are still often driven by the tumour’s organ of origin. Yet the effectiveness of a treatment can vary considerably among people with the “same” cancer. Personalised oncology aims to move beyond this paradigm: therapeutic decisions are now based on the full set of cellular and molecular characteristics specific to each tumour, rather than on its location alone. But this complexity must first be deciphered. New analytical methods – such as single-cell sequencing or spatial tumour imaging – now make it possible to explore this diversity in all details and to better anticipate tumour progression and response to treatments.
“This is the very purpose of the new digital infrastructure we recently put in place”, says Mikaël Pittet. “It makes it possible to bring together, within a single analytical framework, the biological data from tumour tissues and the clinical data of patients. Combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, this platform will not only help accelerate research, but also provide, via the HUG’s Molecular Tumour Board, a personalised analysis for each patient. The aim is to better anticipate the progression of each tumour, predict its response to treatments, and inform truly individualised therapeutic decisions.”
The HUG’s pathology department, a central player in this system, generates nearly 10,000 digitised sections per week. “Precision oncology means integrating multiomic data to determine the most appropriate treatment for each patient. We are on the cusp of a true medical revolution, which will enable the right drug to be given to the right person at the right time”, says Olivier Michielin.
GTO: the driving force of translational research
At the heart of the CRTOH’s strategy, the GTO (Geneva Translational Oncology) programme supports ambitious projects led by tandems pairing clinicians with basic researchers, with a funding up to 300’000 Swiss francs per year for three years. In 2024, four projects were selected, focusing on the circadian interactions of immune cells in tumours, the identification of predictive biomarkers for ovarian cancer, the metabolic mapping of cerebral lymphomas, and drug screening on tumoroids. The 2025 call confirms this momentum, with four new projects dedicated to the role of lymphatic endothelial cells in CAR-T therapy, the development of a multimodal strategy against glioblastoma, the analysis of pro-metastatic mechanisms in rectal cancer, and the immunogenic remodelling of the tumour microenvironment. All these projects rely on human biological material collected at the HUG and involve extensively the Clinical Pathology Department.
“The challenges remain considerable – treatment resistance, tumour heterogeneity, side effects – but in just a few years, the CRTOH has created a true continuum between laboratory discovery and clinical implementation, a model that attracts international talent and generates interest from industrial partners”, adds Olivier Michielin.
FLASH radiotherapy: irradiating in a flash to protect healthy tissue
Among the major therapeutic advances supported by the CRTOH, FLASH radiotherapy opens a radically new avenue: by delivering the radiation dose in a fraction of a second – more than a hundred times faster than conventional methods – it can effectively destroy tumours whilst significantly reducing damage to healthy tissue. Conventional radiotherapy remains a cornerstone of cancer treatment, but its side effects still limit the doses that can be administered.
In 2025, Professors Marie-Catherine Vozenin and Pelagia Tsoutsou founded the first Geneva laboratory dedicated to innovation in radiobiology applied to radio-oncology (LiRR). Their team has demonstrated the effectiveness of the FLASH technique in various organs and models, and is now developing approaches using protons and very high energy electrons (VHEE), in collaboration with PSI and CERN, as well as a centre of expertise dedicated to conformational X-rays. The aim is to facilitate the transfer of this innovation into clinical practice, particularly for rare paediatric brain tumours, where therapeutic needs remain especially urgent.