Who is behind HIT-Glaucoma?

Get to know the members of our interdisciplinary research team in Basel.

The HIT-Glaucoma team.

Prof. Dr. med. Konstantin Gugleta

Principal Investigator

Konstantin Gugleta is a glaucoma specialist at the Ophthalmology Department of the University Eye Hospital Basel and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Basel. He is an acting vice president of the national Glaucoma Group in Switzerland, member of ARVO-Swiss, and a member of Glaucoma Expert Committee of the European Vision Institute Clinical Research Network. His research focuses on the application of blood flow measurements in the identification of glaucoma patients with vascular risk.

Prof. Dr. med. Henner Hanssen

Sponsor/ Coordinating Investigator

Henner Hanssen is Associate Professor of Preventive Sports Medicine and Head of the Department of Preventive Sports Medicine and Systems Physiology at the DSBG. His research focuses on the effect of exercise therapies on vascular health and ageing in chronic inflammatory diseases over the life course. It involves systems physiology and mechanistic approaches with a focus on retinal vascular analysis as a microvascular biomarker for cardiovascular risk. He is a member of numerous international committees and research networks.

Valentin Schuhmann, MSc

Study Coordinator, PhD Candidate

Valentin Schuhmann is a sports scientist with a Master’s degree in High-Performance Sport from the University of Saarland. He is responsible for the coordination of the study in collaboration with Emma-Liina Fingerroos. Valentin Schuhmann performs all the measurements for the large arteries and is responsible for the participant contact.  

Emma-Liina Fingerroos, MSc

Study Coordinator, PhD Candidate

Emma-Liina Fingerroos is a sports scientist with a Master’s degree in Sport Science from the University of Konstanz. She is responsible for the coordination of the study in collaboration with Valentin Shuhmann. Emma-Liina Fingerroos performs all of the retinal measurements.

DPhil Holger Burchert

Postdoctoral Researcher

Holger Burchert is a medical scientist who joined Professor Hanssen’s team in January 2023 after completing his PhD at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on cardiovascular risk in children who were born prematurely. Apart from that, he explores novel ways to accurately determine cardiac output during exercise testing.

Dr. Julia Kröpfl

Senior Researcher

Julia Kröpfl is a molecular biologist and has been responsible for commissioning and setting up the new molecular biology laboratory at the DSBG since mid-2020. She previously worked for 6 years as a postdoc at ETH Zurich in the field of sports physiology. Her scientific focus to date has been on the influence of acute stress and training on regeneration in the peripheral blood by circulating stem cells in healthy individuals and heart failure patients.

Egbert Ritter, MD

Medical Doctor

Egbert Ritter, Sports Scientist and Physician, has been working at the Department of Preventive Medicine and Systems Physiology, DSBG, University of Basel since early 2023. He completed his BSc & MSc in Sports Science in Innsbruck, where he specialized in Exercise Physiology. To dive even deeper into physiology and offer an optimal understanding of Exercise Medicine, he completed his Medical Degree in Freiburg. At DSBG, he is now doing his specialization in Internal Medicine and Sports Medicine, working with patients in the outpatient clinic, teaching sports students and supporting research projects.