Department of Urology

Inselspital Bern

The Department offers a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic services for all urological diseases. Many complex examinations and special procedures are performed on a regular basis, such as tumor surgery on the bladder, prostate, and kidneys, minimally invasive prostate therapies, or minimally invasive endoscopic procedures.

To the Inselspital website

Director

Prof. Beat Roth

Profile

The Department provides comprehensive diagnostics and therapies for urological diseases, including major surgeries on the bladder, prostate, and kidneys (such as cystectomy, bladder replacement, prostatectomy, and (partial) nephrectomy). It also offers minimally invasive prostate therapies (TUR-P, HIFU, thermotherapy, laser-enucleation), endoscopic, laparoscopic, and robotic surgeries on kidneys and adrenal glands, urethral surgery, and complex reconstructive procedures.

External Partners

Prof. Marianna Rapsomaniki, UNIL/CHUV Lausanne; Prof. Alvaro Aytes Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge, Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance / Prostate Cancer Lab, Barcelona, Spain; Prof. Theodore Alexandrov EMBL-Heidelberg, Structural and Computational Biology / Spatial Metabolomics Lab, Heidelberg, Germany; Prof. Rosalyn Adam, Urological Diseases Research Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, USA; Prof. Todd Purves, Duke University, Durham USA; Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics; TKI University of Bern; ETH Zürich; Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich; ZHAW and EPFL; Prof. Ilaria Lucca, head of the department of Urology, CHUV, Lausanne; Prof. Joseph Liao Stanford University; Prof. Phil A. Beachy Stanford University; Prof. Marcus Drake, Department of Surgery & Cancer, Imperial College; Prof. Sarah Waters University of Oxford; Prof. Dirk Lange, Stone Center, University of British Columbia; Swiss Paraplegic Center, Dr Andrew Gammie; Bristol Urological Institute

Research & Academic Partners

  • Haute École Arc Ingénierie (HE-Arc) – project coordinator
  • University of Bern
  • ETH Zurich, specifically ETHZ’s NEXUS Personalized Health
  • University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)
  • CSEM (Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique)
  • SSF SIPBB (Swiss Innovation Park Biel/Bienne)

Grants

3RCC (OC-2019-003); SNF Sinergia (202297); SNF SPARK (228930); SNF SPARK (212298); Innosuisse (101.951 IP-LS, 104.320 IP-LS); Wilhelm Sander Stiftung (2022.136.1); Schweizerische Krebsliga (KFS-5510-02-2022-R); EUREKA Eurostar (E!5995; E!6012) ISREC-TANDEM (CCP 10-3224-9); Novartis 23B099; SF Board Medical Faculty; Swiss National Science SISF; SNF R’Equip (229688); International Foundation for Research in Paraplegia (P195); UROPOT - Leenaards Foundation 2023; Swiss Paraplegic Foundation (BIPED), Bridge Discovery (40B2-0_226466), Bern MedTech Collaboration call 2024 and 2025 (PV-CATH-LUTDs, USAC-URO-DEVs), Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF (205320_204965);

Title: Unveiling Mediators of Heterogeneity in PDAC carrying TP53 and KRAS mutations
Institute: Swiss National Science Foundation External Lead Agency / Weave projects LS (Life Sciences)
01/11/2025-31/12/2029 CHF 2,500,000

Title: PROMETEX: Metabolically instructed personalized therapy selection for prostate cancer.
Institute: Swiss National Science Foundation – Sinergia
01/07/2021-30/06/2026 CHF 2’600’000

Title: Identification of a single cell proteomic spatial atlas of bladder cancer to characterize disease heterogeneity by imaging mass cytometry.
Institute: WihlemSander Foundation
30/09/2024-01/10/2025 CHF 170’000

Title: NIAC inhibitors for RCC
Institute: EUREKA Eurostar
01/11/2024-31/10/2026 CHF 900’000
DOPPL
AtG Therapeutics

Title: CK1 inhibitors for pancreatic adeno carcinoma
Institute: EUREKA Eurostar
01/11/2024-31/10/2027 CHF 1’000’000
CasInvent Pharma (Czech Republic)
eepLife (France)
AlveoliX (Switzerland)

Title: Single-centre’ phase 2’ open label’ two independent arms study assessing organoid-driven tumoral chemosensitivity in metastatic pancreatic cancer
nstitute: Hirslanden
01/11/2024-31/10/2026 CHF 500’000

Title: ORION
Institute: Innosuisse-FLAGSHIP
01/11/2025-31/10/2029 CHF 12’000’000

Highlights 2025

Membership of the AAEU – Prof. Beat Roth

The election of Professor Beat Roth to the Academic Association of European Urology (AAEU) highlights the strong international reputation of the Department of Urology at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. The AAEU is a highly selective academic society that brings together a small number of the world’s leading urologists from Europe and beyond.

Membership is reserved for senior academic clinicians and research leaders who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to urological science, innovation, and education. Professor Roth’s inclusion in this distinguished circle reflects not only his personal academic achievements, but also the excellence, visibility, and global standing of the Urological University Clinic at Inselspital Bern.

This recognition underscores Inselspital’s role as an internationally respected center for academic urology and clinical/translational research.

To the website of the Association of Academic European Urologists (AAEU)

High-resolution 3D reconstruction of the vascular network of a healthy mouse bladder, generated using micro-CT imaging combined with a vascular contrast agent. This image reveals the dense and highly organized bladder vasculature under physiological conditions, providing a reference framework for studying vascular remodeling and edema formation following spinal cord injury.

3D Visualization of Bladder Vasculature Links Vascular Remodeling to Edema After SCI

In a close collaboration with Dr. med. Ruslan Hlushchuk at the MikroCT Facility, Institut für Anatomie, we achieved high-resolution 3D mapping of the mouse bladder vasculature using state-of-the-art micro-CT imaging.

This approach allowed us to visualize and quantify vascular architecture changes in the bladder wall, providing critical insights into edema formation following spinal cord injury (SCI). By resolving the fine microvascular networks, our work links vascular remodeling and permeability to bladder wall swelling—an underexplored but clinically relevant mechanism contributing to neurogenic bladder dysfunction.

This collaboration establishes micro-CT–based vascular mapping as a powerful tool to study bladder pathophysiology, opening new avenues to investigate vascular-driven mechanisms of edema, inflammation, and tissue remodeling after neurological injury

Ex vivo experiment with acoustic microrobots delivered into the bladder via trans-urethral catheterization, and imaged following ultrasound activation

Visualization and tracking of microrobots delivered into mouse bladder

Microrobots capable of being wirelessly manipulated within the human body can revolutionize the future of medicine and offer innovative solutions in non-invasive therapeutics and surgical procedures. In collaboration with Acoustic Robotics Systems Lab, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, we adapted magnetomotive ultrasound imaging concepts for the real-time visualization of magnetic field-responsive microrobots. The real-time a colored flow map (CFM-mode) ultrasound imaging of individual high acoustic contrast bubble-based microrobots (~73 μm in diameter) was successfully carried out in the ex vivo mouse bladder model, showcasing the potential dual functionality of acoustic microrobots: wireless propulsion with real-time ultrasound imaging.

Dillinger et al., Sci Adv. 2025

Ureteral stents bypass urinary obstructions but can become blocked by biofilm and encrustation. The novel stent design uses ultrasound-activated surface microstructures to enable non-invasive self-cleaning via acoustic streaming

SonoStent project

The development of a novel ultrasound-activated cilia technology to non-invasively clean implanted stents and catheters highlights the strength of the translational research and clinical innovation emerging from the close collaboration between the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, the Department of Urology at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and ETH Zürich.

In a study led by PD Dr. Francesco Clavica (Urogenital Engineering Group, ARTORG Center, University of Bern and Department of Urology at Inselspital) and Prof. Daniel Ahmed (Acoustic Robotics Systems Lab, ARTORG Center / ETH Zürich), the research team replicated the architecture and flow conditions of stented ureters and demonstrated that ultrasound-activated artificial cilia on the stent surface can efficiently remove biofilms and encrustations. These findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Amado et al. 2025).

With the support of the University of Bern Innovation Office (Venture Fellow Dr. Cornel Dillinger) and a multimillion BRIDGE Discovery grant, in collaboration with OST Buchs, the next step is to develop a prototype that will be tested in animal models.

These achievements highlight the innovative potential of Bern’s interdisciplinary research ecosystem and represent an important step toward the future clinical translation of next-generation smart implants.

Overview of the multi-layer platform combining organoid cultures, transcriptomics, and drug response modeling for prostate cancer research.

Multi-Layer Stratified Oncology Platform for Prostate Cancer

This study presents an innovative platform integrating transcriptomic profiling, patient-derived prostate cancer organoids, and computational drug response modeling. The approach enables precise stratification of patients and prediction of therapeutic efficacy, paving the way for personalized oncology solutions.

Kang et al., J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2025