Tracy Laabs, new director of the Wyss Center

For more than a decade, Tracy Laabs has helped shape the development of the Wyss Center. A founding figure of the institution, she has played a key role in advancing innovation and bringing scientific breakthroughs closer to the patients who need them. On July 1, 2026, she takes on the role of director, opening a new chapter in the organization’s history. With a decade of experience behind her and an eye on what’s ahead, she shares her vision for brain health and the role the Wyss Center aims to play.

1. You’ve been with the Wyss Center since its earliest days. Looking back, what do you think has changed the most in the field of neurotechnology over the past decade?
Indeed, I joined the Wyss Center as the Founding Deputy Director in 2015. Back then neurotechnology was largely a scientific ambition. Research projects were making headlines for allowing paralyzed individuals to type on computers and control robotic arms using only their thoughts, but these systems were not in a state to be translated outside the lab. At the same time, clinical neurotechnologies like deep brain stimulation were established treatments with limited features and limited adoption. What has changed most profoundly over the past decade is the convergence of disciplines: neuroscience, engineering, and clinical application are no longer parallel tracks. They’re intersecting in real time. We’re seeing AI reshape how we analyze brain data, how we design therapies, and how we personalize treatment. Tools that once seemed decades away are now in clinical translation. The field has matured from asking “could this work?” to “how do we get this to patients, and how fast?

2. The Wyss Center is often described as a bridge between research and patients. In your view, where is the weakest link still today?
The metaphor of a bridge is apt, but I’d say the weakest link remains the span between proof of concept and clinical readiness. Promising science exists in abundance. What is harder (and what requires a very specific kind of organizational focus) is the derisking process: the rigorous translation work that turns a compelling research result into something a clinician can use and a patient can trust. Regulatory pathways, funding for early-stage clinical trials, and the infrastructure to support spinoff companies through their first years, these are all areas where the gap still shows. That is precisely where the Wyss Center has chosen to concentrate its energy, and where I intend to continue pushing.

3.What does a place like Campus Biotech bring to the development of innovations in brain health?
Campus Biotech is genuinely unique. It’s not just a building or a collection of facilities, it’s an ecosystem where academic rigor, clinical proximity, and entrepreneurial ambition coexist on the same campus. The access to cutting-edge infrastructure, combined with the presence of partners like EPFL, the University of Geneva, and HUG, means that the journey from a scientific idea to a patient-facing therapy can unfold in a more connected, accelerated way than almost anywhere else. The support from the state of Geneva adds another layer, there is genuine institutional will here to make innovation in brain health happen. That combination is rare.

4. Over the course of your career, has there been a moment — a meeting, an experience — that really cemented your belief that neurotechnology could change lives?
There is one moment I return to often. A patient who had been unable to communicate with his family for years was able to do so for the first time; thanks to technology our team had been working on. I remember people gathered around a screen, watching it happen in real time. There was no celebration, no noise. Just this profound stillness, because everyone in that room understood what they were witnessing. That moment made abstract everything that had come before, the papers, the grants, the late nights, and made it completely concrete. Science changed that person’s life. That is the North Star I carry into this role.

5. As a woman leading a major scientific institution, how do you see the role of women in neurotechnology and scientific leadership today, and what changes would you still like to see accelerate in the field?
I am proud to be a woman leading a major scientific institution, and I think it is important that leadership reflects the diversity of the people we aim to serve. At the same time, I would like to get to a point where women in these roles is not noteworthy.

6. Now that you are stepping into the role of Director, what are the key priorities or next steps for the Wyss Center in the coming years and what should the field of neurotechnology expect from you?
Three things matter most to me as I step into this role: that the people we work with feel the thread of continuity in our mission, that our partners and stakeholders feel confident in the direction we’re heading, and that everyone (staff, collaborators, and above all the patients we serve) feels the genuine possibility of what lies ahead.

And that starts close to home. On Campus Biotech, our partnerships with EPFL, the University of Geneva, and HUG form the backbone of how we move science toward clinical impact. Within Switzerland, our collaboration with the Swiss Data Science Center is opening new frontiers in how we work with brain data at scale. And from there, we reach further out in the world arena, because neurotechnology is a global endeavor, and we intend to play at that level.

What the field should expect from Wyss Geneva is an organization that is adaptive, ambitious, and focused on one thing above all: getting transformative neurotechnology to the patients who need it, through our venture pipeline, through the AI Hub, and through science that doesn’t stop at the lab door.