Department of Thoracic Surgery

Inselspital Bern

With its expertise, technical and medical equipment, and rapid integration of the latest research and study results into medical practice, the Department operates at the highest level. Thoracic surgery treats diseases and injuries of the chest wall and all organs within the chest cavity except the heart and aorta.

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Profile

  • Evaluation and therapeutic improvements of uniportal minimally-invasive thoracic surgery techniques
  • Investigation of different clinical and functional parameters with the aim of achieving better outcomes and improving patient comfort
  • Identify the molecular mechanisms conferring resistance to clinical standard therapies, with the goal of unraveling druggable vulnerabilities - the ‘Achilles’ heel’ - of therapy-resistant cancer cells for the development of innovative strategies to more effectively treat lung cancer and MPM
  • Investigate how nucleotide/lactate metabolism and the DNA damage response machinery are linked to the tumor-initiating capacity and chemotherapy response of NSCLC cancer stem cells
  • Teaching students of medicine as well as graduate students at the Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)

External Partners

ETH Zurich and the universities of Basel, Lausanne, Vienna, Essen, Changsha (China), and Shanghai (China)

Grants

  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Swiss Cancer Research
  • China Scholarship Council
  • Stiftung zur Krebsbekämpfung
  • Bern Center for Precision Medicine
  • ISREC Foundation
  • Novartis Foundation