Institute of Anatomy

Altes Anatomie-Gebäude an der Brühlstrasse

The Institute is responsible for teaching macroanatomy, histology, and embryology. Research topics and expertise include imaging across scales (electron microscopy, microCT, ligh sheet microscopy), neuroscience, cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular research.

To the Institute’s website

Director

Prof. Antonin Djonov

Profile

  • The Institute of Anatomy is responsible for teaching in macroscopic anatomy, histology, and embryology among other disciplines. It is in charge of ~ 10% of the whole teaching within the Faculty of Medicine and more than 50% of the preclinical disciplines. It leads four blocks of the human medicine and dentistry Bachelor curriculum from the Faculty of Medicine. Further teaching occurs within the Masters for Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, as well as the Vetsuisse Faculty and the Faculty of Science. It also contributes to teaching at the Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences.
  • The Institute is the leading house in Switzerland in the field of clinical anatomy. It organizes clinical courses in almost every medical field to educate young residents and doctors including testing new surgical methods.
  • Nine groups perform research on cardiac and pulmonary development and repair, ultrastructure and function of respiratory cilia, synapses and bacterial pore-forming toxins, neuroinflammation and brain infections, development and applications of microCT-based imaging, microbeam radiation therapy as well as innovative teaching methods.
  • Advanced imaging technology from single molecule to mesoscopic imaging is a shared research focus. It is an important contributor to the Microscopy Imaging Center through electron-, light-, and x-ray microscopy.
  • It hosts the National Center for the Diagnosis of Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD-UNIBE) in collaboration of the Department of Pediatrics of the Inselspital.
  • There are active collaborations with 46 institutions around the world..

External Partners

  • Dubochet Center for Imaging,
  • Federal Institute of Metrology METAS
  • Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos (CNIC)
  • Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)
  • Mayo Clinic Rochester, USA
  • John Hopkins University, USA
  • Lund University (Lund, Sweden)
  • Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA)
  • Institut Straumann AG
  • University of Veterinary Medicine (Vienna, Austria)

Grants

  • Beams of Hope: Advancing Microbeam Radiotherapy towards Clinical Application (HopeInRadiotherapy) (SNF 220064)
  • Designing Inhibitors Against Clostridial Pore-Forming Toxins: A Structure-Based Approach (DISPERSE) (SNF 10000175)
  • Role of Mitochondrial Metabolism on zebrafish heart regeneration (SNF10002235)
  • ERC Consolidator grant 819717 – TransReg
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 (2023-2027) Regenerate IT
  • H2020-SC1-2019-Single-Stage-RTD REANIMA-874764
  • MIRACLE: MIcrobeam RAdiotherapy– paradigm change in CLinical cancEr treatment (SNF 10002984)
  • BIND Grant, University of Bern

Highlights 2025

3D visualization of enhanced gold nanoparticle accumulation in melanoma following MRT treatment

Novel Cancer Therapy Approach Using Synchrotron Microbeam Radiotherapy

The group of Prof. Valentin Djonov introduces a novel approach in cancer therapy employing synchrotron Microbeam Radiotherapy (MRT) as an effective enhancer of drug delivery. MRT increases vascular transpermeability, creating a "permeability window" that accelerates gold nanoparticle (AuNP) extravasation by 2.5-fold and increases the median survival time of mice bearing melanoma by 6.6-fold (1).

In a subsequent study, the group demonstrated that the permeability window is also maintained when using a clinical orthovoltage system, further supporting the potential clinical application of MRT (2).

Ongoing animal and human clinical trials are demonstrating exceptional tumor control and high normal tissue tolerance.

Fernandez-Palomo et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2025

Fazzari et al., Sci Rep. 2025

 

Cryo-section of a yeast cell imaged by cryo-electron microscopy showing ribosomes (red) localized with near-atomic precision, with the detailed lower panel displaying the 3.1 Å resolution density map and fitted atomic structures obtained through averaging

CEMOVIS achieves near-atomic resolution of cellular structures

Benoît Zuber's team, in collaboration with Nikolaus Grigorieff's group at UMass Chan Medical School, demonstrated that an imaging technique called CEMOVIS can visualize structures inside cells with near-atomic precision. By cutting ultra-thin slices from frozen yeast cells and analyzing them with powerful electron microscopes, they reconstructed cellular components called ribosomes in extraordinary detail. Unlike the current standard method that destroys most of the sample and images only tiny areas, CEMOVIS preserves the entire sample in consecutive slices, providing vastly more material to study. This makes CEMOVIS especially valuable for examining tissues, where understanding interactions between multiple cells is essential.

Elferich et al., IUCrJ. 2025

Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac function in 3 week old offspring of injured and uninjured male mice

Paternal cardiac lesions lead to cardiac adaptation in offspring in mice

Following a cardiac injury, distal organs are subjected to stress that leads to the alteration of the physiological functions of other organs. What is still largely unknown is if a cardiac lesion can affect the reproductive system and therefore transmit heritable alterations to the following generations. Using the mouse model, the Mercader group found that offspring of males that underwent cardiac cryoinjury during their early postnatal life reveal an enhanced transitory ventricular plasticity associated with improved LV compliance. Furthermore, these animals responded differently to cardiac injury. This initial study performed in the mouse model suggests that cardiac damage performed in neonates has long lasting effects, being paternally transmitted to the F1 generation.

Coppe et al., Circulation. 2025

MicroangioCT of the peri-implant vasculature of a minipig mandibula, including 3D-rendering of segmented vasculature (panel D).

Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac function in 3 week old offspring of injured and uninjured male mice

The study of Ruslan Hlushchuk’s team introduces a technique for microCT-based visualization of microvasculature within bone tissue in various small and large animal models. Moreover, it demonstrates that this approach is suitable for simultaneous imaging and subsequent analysis of peri-implant hard and soft tissues, as well as their vascularization, in the vicinity of metal implants in a large animal model.

Haberthür et al., Tomogr. Mater. Struct. 2025