Department of Pediatrics

Inselspital Bern

In one of Switzerland’s leading children’s hospitals, the Department of Pediatrics offers outstanding medical care and conducts internationally recognized, cutting‑edge research. Multidisciplinary teams are dedicated to advancing pediatric medicine and improving outcomes.

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Director

Prof. Matthias Kopp

Profile

  • Academic title of Associate Professor achieved by Rhoikos Furtwängler, Caroline Roduit, Claudia Böttcher; PD-Title achieved by Caroline Roduit and Nicolas Waespe.
  • 10 leading research groups in the field of Pediatric Pneumology (P. Latzin), Pediatric Allergology (M. Kopp, C. Roduit), Pediatric Endocrinology/Diabetology and Metabolism (C.E. Flück, A.V. Pandey), Neuropediatric (A. Klein), Hematology/Oncology (R. Furtwängler), Pediatric Infectious Diseases (C. Aebi), Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Education (I. Steiner), Neonatology (A. Kidszun), Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine (T. Riedel)
  • Research groups are involved in basic & clinical as well as translational research projects. Central to the department's research is the collaboration and leading role in multiple existing birth cohorts and clinical registries, e.g.: BILD, SCILD, Swiss Cerebral Palsy Registry (Swiss-CP-Reg); Swiss registry for neuromuscular disorders (Swiss-Reg-NMD); Swiss Pediatric Inflammatory Brain Disease Registry (Swiss-Ped-IBrainD); Swiss Neonatal Network & Follow-Up Group (SwissNeoNet); Swiss Neuropediatric Stroke Registry (SNPSR); Swiss IBD Cohort Study; Swiss Autoimmune Hepatitis Cohort Study (SASL3), I-DSD registry, Swiss DSD Cohort Study
  • Training of PhD students in programs of the Graduate Schools, MD students and postgraduate training in pediatrics
  • Clinical research is supported by PedNet Bern, a clinical pediatric hub of the SwissPedNet
  • Publications

External Partners

Universities and large hospitals in Switzerland and abroad, national and international research institutions. International: German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Germany; International Sex Development & Maturation (SDM) registries, Glasgow, UK.

Grants

  • SNSF Project Grants: 197725, 207893, 10006173 (C. Flück), 204518, 229294, 235645, 239532, 10007186 (A. Pandey), 212587 (S. Grunt), 10002244 (R. Everts), 10002556, 10004139 (P. Latzin), 10004175 (L. Müller-Urech), 221791 (A. Kidszun), 193039 (M. Steinlin).
  • EU Funding: Horizon2020 DIAMONDS, Partner (2020-2024) (C. Aebi); UNCAN-Connect Call HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01, Partner (E. Brack)
  • SPHN & PHRT: NDS SwissPedHealth (P. Latzin)
  • Sitem-insel Support Funds (SIFS) (R. Everts)
  • CSEM-Sitem-Insel Grant (P. Latzin)
  • UniBE: Initiator Grant (S. Cornaz Buros), MCID funding (E. Seydoux); SF Board Grant, medical faculty (M. Kopp)
  • Young investigator grants for patient-oriented research (with protected research time) in 2025: Sophie Jaisli, Nina Schöbi
  • Scholarships: SERI, Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships, and from the Republic of China (A. Pandey)
  • IFCAH-ESPE grant (C. Böttcher)
  • KinderInsel Grants (Awarded in 2025: C. Saner, S. Salzmann, V. Pfeifle, V. Umlauf, K. Held, S. Schmidt)
  • Grants from various foundations (e.g. Stiftung KinderInsel Bern, Stiftung für Experimentelle Tumorforschung, Berner Stiftung für krebskranke Kinder und Jugendliche, Fondation Zoé4Life, Anna Müller Grocholski Stiftung, Wilhelm Doerenkamp-Stiftung, Jaka Stiftung, Beatrice Borer Stiftung, Fondation Art-Thérapie, Stiftung Walter und Anne Marie Boveri, Palatin Foundation)

Highlights 2025

Paediatric parapneumonic effusion – a twenty-year clinical narrative

Clinical and microbiological data of 278 children admitted to the University Children’s Hospital Bern with parapneumonic effusion (PPE) in the last 20 years were analyzed. As internationally accepted management guidelines were lacking, medical care for these patients remained challenging and differed between periods. We found relevant morbidity with median length of hospital stay of 15 days and admission to the PICU in around 50%. Furthermore, we demonstrated considerable clinical differences in patients with PPE caused by S. pneumoniae versus S. pyogenes. S. pneumoniae was associated with substantially greater lung damage.

Bregy L et al., Infection. 2025

Education and participation in children and adolescents with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Switzerland

Swiss boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy were surveyed about mobility, educational challenges, executive functions, social participation, and quality of life. The majority reported a good quality of life, which correlated with social participation. Difficulties in executive functions were associated with lower participation and well-being, highlighting the need for personalized neuropsychological support.

Henzi et al., Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2025

Antibodies are predictive for diagnosis of celiac disease in pediatric type 1 diabetes

IgA anti-transglutaminase 2 (TGA-IgA)-antibody-levels are used to screen for celiac disease in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, TGA-IGA-levels can fluctuate in T1D and there is no antibody-threshold for performing biopsies to confirm a diagnosis of celiac disease. Our two-center retrospective study in 588 youths with T1D aimed to define an optimal TGA-IgA cut-off for performing diagnostic biopsies for confirmation and to assess whether tracking TGA-IgA evolution or adding other antibodies can improve biopsy indications.

A TGA-IgA cut-off of approximately 6.1× the upper limit of normal best predicted biopsy-confirmed celiac disease, and combining TGA-IgA with deamidated gliadin peptides-IgG further improved diagnostic accuracy, while elevated TGA-IgA at diabetes onset predicted early celiac disease diagnosis.

Müller et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2025