Thanks to the support of the entrepreneur and founder of the Straumann Group, Dr. h.c. Thomas Straumann, the University of Bern is able to establish an endowed professorship in tissue histology. This will be named after the renowned anatomist and bone specialist Robert K. Schenk and will be based at the Robert K. Schenk Laboratory for Oral Histology at the University of Bern's Dental Clinics. The 10 million endowed professorship is the first donation that the newly established UniBE Foundation will be able to accept.
Read the original press release here.
Tissue histology is of central importance in the research and use of implants, for example in orthopaedic surgery or dental implantology, as well as in the regeneration of tissues. For regeneration, i.e. the restoration of tissues, biomaterials such as bone replacement materials made of granulate are very often used. These have to be thoroughly tested before they can be used in humans. In the laboratory, it is examined how a tissue reacts to new biomaterials - among other things, whether they are effective and harmless. In addition, preclinical studies with the help of tissue histology usually make it possible to improve therapies. Accordingly, the new endowed professorship for tissue histology should significantly expand the understanding of tissue regeneration and contribute to improving the therapy of patients.
Honouring the life's work of Robert K. Schenk
The endowed chair is named after Robert K. Schenk, a renowned expert in bone biology and bone healing. Robert K. Schenk became world-famous in the 1960s for his studies on osteosynthesis, the surgical connection of bones with plates or screws, among other things, to allow the fractured pieces to grow back together. He was friends with Fritz Straumann, the son of the founder of the then Straumann Holding AG in Waldenburg, Prof. Dr. h.c. Reinhard Straumann, whose company manufactured materials and implants under the name Synthes for osteosynthesis implants and distributed them worldwide.
In 1971 Robert K. Schenk moved from Basel to Bern to the Institute of Anatomy, where he conducted research together with Maurice E. Müller in the field of joint prosthetics. After his retirement, a third close collaboration began with Daniel Buser at the Dental Clinics of the University of Bern, which together successfully tested a special titanium surface for dental implants, which was then made marketable by today's Straumann Group and led to worldwide success.
For his services, Robert K. Schenk has already been honoured by the University of Bern with a laboratory in his name: the Robert K. Schenk Laboratory for Oral Histology, located in the building of sitem-insel, the Swiss Institute for Translational Medicine and Entrepreneurship. Now, with the support of Thomas Straumann, the Robert K. Schenk Professorship for Tissue Histology is being established in his honour. The endowed professorship will be attached to the Robert K. Schenk Laboratory for Oral Histology and financed over a term of 20 years with a total of CHF 10 million.
"The new endowed professorship means a strengthening of dental, maxillofacial and orthopaedic research for the University of Bern as well as for Bern as a medical location," says Christian Leumann, Rector of the University of Bern. "In addition, this means that teaching and the promotion of young researchers in the field of oral histology can be secured at a continuing high level for the next 20 years".
For donor Thomas Straumann, supporting the endowed professorship is a personal concern: "I am deeply grateful to Robert K. Schenk for his achievements and his friendship with me and my father, and I would like to give something back to him, the University of Bern and society". He and his father, Fritz Straumann, were closely associated with Robert K. Schenk: "That is why it was my and Daniel Buser's wish that the endowed professorship be named after him".
Robert K. Schenk's more than 40-year collaboration with the Straumann company in various areas of research has resulted in numerous innovations, including bone healing in connection with dental implants. "We owe a great deal of knowledge about the processes involved in the healing, development and repair of bone to Robert K. Schenk," says Anton Sculean, Clinic Director of the Department of Periodontology at the University of Bern Dental Clinics. Accordingly, the Robert K. Schenk Professorship for Tissue Histology is not limited to oral histology, but is intended to link research groups from diverse fields such as orthopaedics.
First UniBE Foundation Endowed Professorship
The donation will be handed over to the newly established UniBE Foundation, which will thus be able to establish an endowed professorship at the University of Bern for the first time. The UniBE Foundation is a non-profit foundation of the University of Bern. Together with private individuals, companies and foundations, it strengthens the University of Bern in its strategic projects and provides targeted support for groundbreaking research in the areas of the economy of the future, sustainable living spaces and ethical quality of life. For Heinz Karrer, President of the UniBE Foundation, this first endowed professorship is a special success story: "We are very pleased that the life's work of Robert K. Schenk can be honoured with the endowed professorship - this is also an excellent example of the translational research in the field of dentistry and orthopaedics that has existed for decades at the University of Bern".
UniBE Foundation
The UniBE Foundation strengthens and supports the University of Bern in developing globally pioneering solutions for the economy of the future, sustainable living spaces and an ethical quality of life with a new generation of researchers. The Foundation bases its funding activities on the University's strategy, focusing on excellence, innovation and future potential. The Foundation was established in 2021 and is chaired by Heinz Karrer, a Swiss business personality. On 1 February 2022, the UniBE Foundation began its business activities under the leadership of Claudia Lehnherr Mosimann.
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Robert K. Schenk
Robert K. Schenk was born in the Netherlands in 1923 as the son of an emigrant family. At the age of three he returned with his family to Switzerland, where he spent his youth in Zurich. He began studying medicine there, graduating in 1947. The first part of his career began at the University of Zurich, where he started with anatomical experiments and habilitated in anatomy with Prof. Töndury. In 1956, the second part of his professional career began when he moved to the University of Basel. There he became an associate professor and in the early 1960s conducted preclinical studies on fracture healing after osteosynthesis. These studies made him world famous in the field of orthopaedic surgery. His friendship with Fritz Straumann also began at this time. In 1971, Prof. Ewald Weibel brought him to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Bern as a full professor, where he was in charge of the musculoskeletal system and ran a histology laboratory in the third part of his career. Here he began researching in the field of joint prosthetics together with Prof. Maurice E. Müller. In 1987, he began a close collaboration with Prof. Daniel Buser to study new, microrough titanium surfaces. The best surface of the study, the so-called SLA surface, became a worldwide success for Straumann. Robert K. Schenk became emeritus professor in 1988, but continued to research and publish and moved his laboratory to the Institute of Pathophysiology to his friend, Prof. Herbert Fleisch. Since 1991 he was involved in the development of the GBR technique with membranes, today's best-known augmentation technique for bone defects. In 1996, he moved with his laboratory to the dental clinics, which had been rebuilt and expanded at that time, and worked there for another eight years on translational research projects before he definitively retired in 2004 at the age of 81 and handed over the laboratory to Prof. Dieter Bosshardt. In 2009, the laboratory was extensively renovated and named after Robert K. Schenk due to his great services to the dental clinics. In 2011, Robert K. Schenk died at the age of 88 in Wohlen near Bern.
Prof. Dr Robert K. Schenk (1923-2011).
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