Dermatology foundation models
researchScalable, self-supervised vision models pretrained on large, heterogeneous skin-image collections — a shared backbone for diagnosis, segmentation, and retrieval.
University of Basel · University Hospital Basel
The Navarini Lab builds artificial intelligence for dermatology, grounds it in the biology of inflammatory skin disease, and tests it where it matters — in patient care. One group, three vantage points on the same question: how do we see skin disease more clearly?
Digital Dermatology · Department of Biomedical Engineering
Foundation models and computer vision that learn the visual language of skin — built to generalise across every skin tone and to work alongside clinicians rather than replace them.
Scalable, self-supervised vision models pretrained on large, heterogeneous skin-image collections — a shared backbone for diagnosis, segmentation, and retrieval.
An open dataset of pigment-rich paediatric skin disease from Sub-Saharan Africa — 4,901 images from 1,653 patients — closing the diversity gap in dermatology AI. (MICCAI 2024)
Datasets and methods that measure and correct how skin-tone imbalance degrades model performance — so tools work for everyone.
Clinician-plus-AI melanoma screening, validated at planet scale — including independent validation in Korea. (NPJ Digital Medicine 2025)
Generative models that show the future cost of sun exposure — a novel, image-driven route to skin-cancer prevention.
Immunology & skin biology · Department of Biomedicine
The wet-lab counterpart to the models: dissecting the immunology and genetics of inflammatory skin disease, and growing living skin to study it in a dish.
3D cultures of healthy and diseased epidermis — a model of Darier disease and other monogenic keratinocyte disorders, built for high-throughput drug screening.
Why some medications trigger life-threatening skin reactions (SJS/TEN) — tracing IL-1 family cytokines and CD8⁺ T-cell–driven keratinocyte death.
The molecular drivers of a chronic inflammatory disease affecting millions — the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 and JAK/STAT signalling.
Dermatology & Allergology · University Hospital Basel
Where research meets patients: prospective imaging trials, large clinical registries, and the day-to-day practice that keeps every question honest.
3D total-body photography (VECTRA) for early melanoma detection in high-risk patients — prospective evaluation of AI-powered whole-body screening.
Deep clinical phenotyping of generalised pustular psoriasis across 500+ patients in Europe and Egypt — flare patterns, comorbidity, and outcomes.
Contributing to the European Baseline Series — tracking emerging allergens across large multicentre patch-test cohorts.
One group across three homes at the University of Basel — the engineering department (DBE), the biomedicine department (DBM), and the clinic (USB).
Principal Investigator · Chair of Dermatology & Allergology, USB
PhD candidate
PhD candidate
Researcher
Researcher
Collaborators · Hochschule Luzern (HSLU)
Professor of Computer Science, HSLU
Lecturer, HSLU
Lecturer, HSLU
Laboratory Lead
Postdoctoral researcher · epidermal organoids
PhD candidate · organoids & neutrophils
PhD candidate · organoids & immune cells
Laboratory technician
Trial Unit Lead
Clinical rotation
Clinical rotation
+ MD doctoral and master students.
Dermatology & Allergology, University Hospital Basel
Burgfelderstrasse 101 · 4055 Basel · Switzerland