Vibrant awarded FONGIT Grant to tackle anxiety
Vibrant, a new project developed at the Wyss Center, has been awarded a CHF 50,000 FONGIT Innovation Fund (FIF) Grant to advance its pioneering digital platform for anxiety.
This innovative project combines immersive virtual reality with real-time heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback to retrain emotional regulation circuits, reduce anxiety, and identify biomarkers that could guide personalized and adaptive mental health care.
The FIF Grant will support the translation of Vibrant’s research into prototype development and its preparation for product launch.
Addressing an urgent need in mental health care
Anxiety disorders affect approximately one in five people worldwide over their lifetime and are among the most prevalent and disabling psychiatric conditions, often serving as gateways to chronic psychopathology. While evidence-based treatments exist, almost half of patients remain symptomatic, and access is often limited by provider shortages. Scalable, mechanism-based interventions are urgently needed.
Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a key biomarker of autonomic regulation and stress resilience. Reduced HRV not only accompanies anxiety but precedes its onset, suggesting a causal and modifiable mechanism. Targeting HRV offers a pathway to more effective and personalized treatments.
From research to real impact in people’s lives
Vibrant is a closed loop digital therapeutic platform combining immersive virtual reality environments with real-time HRV biofeedback to address both the psychological and physiological substrates of anxiety. This integrative approach has the potential to augment existing treatments or serve as a stand-alone intervention. Currently in development at the Wyss Center under the leadership of Dr. Sriparna Ghosal, Dr. Camille Piguet, Dr. Tracy Laabs, and Dr. Stéphane Pagès, Vibrant is progressing along three main tracks: prototype refinement for usability, clinical validation in patients, and translational preparation towards regulatory approval and adoption.
“Vibrant exemplifies how neurotechnology can move beyond symptom management to deliver precision therapeutics for mental health,” said Dr. Ghosal. “This grant will help us take a crucial step toward adaptive, personalized interventions driven by physiological data. We hope that our platform will bring meaningful change to the lives of young people facing anxiety”.