Department for BioMedical Research

Forschungsgebäude an der Murtenstrasse 24 - 28

The DBMR is the Faculty’s research department in biomedicine. To bridge laboratory-based and biomedical patient-oriented clinical research, the DBMR promotes an integrative perspective to clinical research with a strong emphasis on developing translational approaches.

To the DBMR website

Director, Group Leader

Prof. Mark Rubin

Profile

  • Providing researchers from the Inselspital with an infrastructure to perform translational research
  • Facilitating scientific interactions and instrumentation for researchers
  • More than 100 groups of the Department are organized in 14 Research Programs and 8 Independent Research Labs
  • Teaching in the Programs Master of Biomedical Engineering, Master of Biomedical Sciences, Bachelor of Human Medicine, Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Science
  • Responsible for operating state-of-the-art technology core facilities that serve the broader research community of the University of Bern

External Partners

AlveoliX (CH), CSL Behring AG (CH), EPFL, Lausanne (CH), ETH Zurich (CH), HUG, Geneva University Hospital (CH), Novartis (CH), Roche (CH), RMS Foundation (CH), University of Basel, Basel (CH), University of Lausanne (CH), University of Zurich (CH), Catholic University of Louvain (BE), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (DE), Technical University of Dresden (DE), Technical University of Munich (DE), Aarhus University (DK), The Institute of Gustav Roussy, Paris (FR), Erasmus University Medical Center (NL), Stanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (USA), Weil Cornell Medicine (USA), University of Connecticut (USA), The Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute (USA), Columbia University (USA), Yale University (USA), Genentech (USA)

Grants

  • SNSF Starting Grant:  IMMUNOCODE - Decoding the Role of Immune Aging in Regenerative Cell State Dysfunction in Pulmonary Fibrosis. PI: Dr. Janine Gote-Schniering
  • BINC Foundation: Immune imprinting by microbial metabolites: Unlocking new pathways for bone and brain development. PI: Prof. Ziad Al Nabhani
  • SNSF Spark: Implant Free Spinal Fusion for the Elderly – Improved Biologics using Synergistic Action of BMP-2 Analog L51P and Prostaglandin Receptor EP4 Modulation, PI: PD Dr. Sonja Häckel
  • Wilhelm Sander Stiftung: Unraveling Chromatin Remodeling Mechanisms in Regulating Lineage Plasticity in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, PI: Prof. Mark A. Rubin and Dr. Irene Paassen.
  • Inosuisse Flagship Initiative: ORION, Host: HE-Arc Ingénierie, co-PI: Prof. Dr. Marianna Kruithof-de Julio
  • Inosuisse Flagship Initiative: National AI Initiative for Precision Oncology (NAIPO), Host: EPFL, PIs: Prof. Dr. Deborah Stroka and Dr. med. Simon Häfliger

Highlights 2025

Prof. Mark Rubin and the award winners: (from left to right) Fabio Ryser, PD Dr. Michaela Medová (in representation of Dr. Liana Hayrapetyan), Isabel Baertschi, Sebastian Jordi, Noëlle Dommann, Berenice K. Maier, Adrian Segiser, Benedetta Coppe, and Prof. Mark Rubin.

Day of BioMedical Research 2025

The event was held in July 2025. More than 130 posters were submitted, from which five were selected for the DBMR Poster Prizes and Alumni MedBern Research Prize. Highlights of the event included the lecture of the keynote speakers Prof. Dr. Raphael Gottardo (Director of the Biomedical Data Science Center, Lausanne University Hospital) and Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier (DBMR) and the announcement of several awards, including the Best DBMR Publication 2024, the Benoît Pochon Prize 2024, the DBMR Technician of the Year 2025, and of Dr. Benedetta Coppe as the winner of the Johanna Dürmüller-Bol DBMR Research Award 2025 for her project “Impact of Cardiac Injury on Male Reproductive System and Gametes Chromatin Accessibility”.

To the report on the DBMR website

Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier

New Professorship for Omics Data Science for Transcriptomics

In July 2025, Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier joined the DBMR as Assistant Professor (tenure track) for Omics Data Science for Transcriptomics. Prof. Luisier holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Basel. She has over a decade of interdisciplinary research in RNA biology and its role in complex human disorders. Prior to joining the DBMR, Prof. Luisier led the Biological Data Science Group at Idiap (Martigny), an AI research institute, developing cutting-edge methods for the integrative analysis of molecular, clinical, and imaging data. The Luisier Group focuses on developing cutting-edge AI technologies to multimodal data in collaboration with experts labs in AI and clinicians with the aim to unravel the intricate molecular and cellular mechanisms driving neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, paving the way for innovative therapeutic strategies.

To the Luisier Lab

Dr. Janine Gote-Schniering

Dr. Janine Gote-Schniering receives a SNSF Starting Grant

Dr. Janine Gote-Schniering from the Lung Precision Medicine Program received a Starting Grant from the SNSF for her research project " IMMUNOCODE - Decoding the Role of Immune Aging in Regenerative Cell State Dysfunction in Pulmonary Fibrosis”, which will identify novel therapeutic targets to reverse immune-mediated regenerative failure and fibrosis in the lung, with broader implications for age-related tissue dysfunction and fibrosis across multiple organs.

To the media release of the University of Bern

Prof. Mark A. Rubin and Dr. Irene Paassen

Wilhelm Sander Stiftung funded a prostate cancer project

Prof. Mark A. Rubin and Dr. Irene Paassen from the Cancer Therapy Research Program received funding from the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung to investigate which SWI/SNF complex subunits and interactors are essential for the initiation and progression of lineage plasticity in prostate cancer, and will define the clonal dynamics underlying this plasticity.