Student Projects

The Swiss population is ageing rapidly, presenting increasing challenges for the healthcare systems. Optimised and effective care is essential, and the AGE RESIST project is addressing this issue through the development of an “age-clock” of resilience. Chronological age does not always correspond to biological age, which can have a major influence on the assessment of health and illness and their treatment. Biological ageing goes hand in hand with the increasing loss of physiological functions and even increased physical vulnerability and death. Human vulnerability increases with the simultaneous loss of resilience, i.e., how robust a person is. Several scientific approaches are currently being explored to estimate biological age. However, many of these methods are not yet reliable enough, cost time and money, and their clinical added value remains mostly unclear. A reliable age-clock capable of assessing physical resilience could provide valuable insights into an individual’s robustness. This would support clinicians in preparing medical interventions more accurately. Treatments could be better tailored to a person's physical condition, thereby improving effectiveness, minimizing side effects, and reducing unnecessary interventions.

The goal of this project is to provide hands-on support for the execution of a pilot clinical study investigating the relationship between individual resilience to stress and biological age, using wearable-based measurements and sweat biomarkers. If conducted in the context of a master’s thesis, the project will also address the research question: “Does biological age correlate with core body temperature?”—inspired by the saying “the older, the colder.” The project will be divided into the following tasks: • Conduct a literature review and familiarize yourself with the project background and clinical study protocol • Support data collection by performing measurements during the pilot study with participants • Enter and manage study data using RedCap • Write related SOPs • If conducted as a master’s thesis, formulate a research hypothesis—e.g., exploring the association between biological age and core body temperature—and test it using the collected data, in collaboration with the supervising team The project is expected to result in the following outputs: • A final master’s thesis summarizing the methodology, findings, and interpretation, or a research internship report. • A potential contribution to a scientific publication, depending on results and progress The ideal candidate would have or be interested to learn the following skill sets: • Be hands-on, detail-oriented, well-organized, and comfortable interacting with study participants • Have experience or interest in clinical research, GCP, and human subject data handling • Basic proficiency in Python or R for statistical analysis • Have a background in health sciences, life sciences, biomedical engineering, physiology, or related fields • Proficient in German and English

If you are interested in joining our research project or need further information, please feel free to contact Vanessa Matos (vanessa.matosgoncalves@hest.ethz.ch) or Noé Brasier (nbrasier@hest.ethz.ch). Please include your availability, CV, and transcript of records in your application.