The CIBM TESSERACT Initiative
Breaking barriers: A novel biomedical holistic approach to understanding child development
Current biomedical research often focuses on a single organ, studied in isolation, within an individual removed from real-life contexts. While this approach has advanced our understanding, it falls short of capturing the full complexity of child development.
In the CIBM TESSERACT Initiative framework, we believe it’s time to move beyond these limitations. There’s an urgent need for holistic imaging tools that simultaneously capture data across multiple systems—brain, body, and social interactions—while children engage with the world around them. To make sense of this richer data, we’re developing new, integrative analytical pipelines that provide a more complete understanding of how young minds and bodies grow and learn together.
This deeper insight will transform how we approach education and healthcare, shifting from reactive responses to more effective, personalized, and preventive strategies. By understanding the whole child—within both their social and individual contexts—we can better support their well-being, learning, and development from the start.
The CIBM TESSERACT Initiative is bridging the gap between research and real-world impact, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive. Our approach is methodology-to-application driven. It starts with developing cutting-edge imaging techniques, advanced data analysis, and innovative technologies designed to reveal how curiosity, creativity, and collaboration naturally unfold in children’s minds. But we don’t stop there. Every discovery is meant to be translated into practical solutions that empower teachers, enhance classrooms, and support each child’s unique learning journey and medical practices.
By working closely with educators, school leaders, clinicians, and scientific partners like CHUV, UNIL, EPFL, UNIGE, and HUG, we ensure that our research moves beyond the lab and into the hands of those shaping young minds every day.
AMBASSADORS
The CIBM TESSERACT Initiative Ambassadors will be key for the development of the project.
Petra Hüppi
Head of Department at HUG and Full Professor at UNIGE
Currently Head Physician of the Development and Growth Department at HUG and Full Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Faculty of Medicine of UNIGE. In 2025, she was assigned as Head of the Department of Women, Children and Adolescents at the HUG. A global pioneer in neonatal brain imaging, Professor Petra Hüppi leads a SNSF research project on the role of sensory stimulation in the development of the premature baby’s brain.
Kerstin von Plessen
Head of Department at CHUV and Full Professor at Univ. of Copenhagen
In 2006, she obtained a PhD in child psychiatry from the University of Bergen (Norway) and Columbia University in New York. She then worked as a senior consultant in child psychiatry and neuropsychiatry at Bergen University Hospital. In 2010, she was appointed head physician of the eating disorders unit at the University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Copenhagen. From 2012, she is full professor at the University of Copenhagen. Since 2021, she is heading the University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (SUPEA) as well as the Department of Psychiatry at the CHUV.
To know more about the initiative, don’t miss the the CIBM Breakfast & Science Seminar 47, and the first of the 2025 Series, that was given by Solange Denervaud, CIBM Flagship Project Officer.
Stay tuned for the next steps of this CIBM flagship project!