Faculty of Medicine

Research

The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern offers the best conditions for high-quality and future-oriented research. Close links between basic research, engineering sciences, and the university hospitals provide a unique environment for translational and patient-centered clinical research. Our strategic focus is on cross-disciplinary research priorities.

The excellence of our research is reflected, among other things, in our success in acquiring competitively awarded external funding. Internal funding instruments are specifically designed to complement the external instruments and offer attractive opportunities for early-career researchers in particular.

Collaborative Pairs Pilot Project Award of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Prof. Dr. Antoine Adamantidis and Dr. Ludovic Mure received a Collaborative Pairs Pilot Project Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to study the relationship between altered light perception, sleep disruption, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Light is the main signal that aligns our sleep/wake cycles to the day/night cycles (circadian rhythms). One of the earliest symptoms of AD and related dementias is a disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms. This may appear years before the cognitive symptoms of the disease. Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells appear to play a key role in this early stage of AD. With their combined expertise, Adamantidis and Mure will evaluate how the function of these cells is altered with AD and define the time course of this alteration relative to other AD symptoms such as cognitive decline.

Prof. Dr. Antoine Adamantidis, Director of the Center for Experimental Neurology (ZEN), Department of Neurology, and Dr. Ludovic Mure, Research Group Leader at the Department of Ophthalmology

Pfizer Research Prize 2024 in Neuroscience and Neurology

Dr. Florence Aellen and Prof. Dr. Athina Tzovara received the Pfizer Research Prize in Neuroscience and Neurology for their research on using AI to predict the chances of recovery from a coma.
The researchers showed, for the first time, systematic evidence that a deep learning framework can disentangle auditory processing in coma patients and assist in prognosticating their chances of recovery. This work not only provides novel insights on neural functions that are preserved without consciousness but may further have implications for the field of neuro-critical care and outcome prognostication.

Dr. Florence Aellen and Prof. Dr. Athina Tzovara, Experimental Neurology Center in the Department of Neurology and Institute of Computer Science, University of Bern

Pfizer Research Prize 2024 in Oncology

Dr. Joanna Triscott received the Pfizer Research Prize in Oncology for her research on the role of the lesser-known lipid regulator PI5P4Kα in prostate cancer and its relationship with androgen hormone signaling.
Joanna Triscott and her colleagues showed the importance of lipid regulation during metabolic stress adaptation in prostate cancer, particularly under androgen deprivation. Their work suggests that targeting the enzyme PI5P4Kα could disrupt the metabolic adaptation of prostate cancer as it progresses, which makes PI5P4Kα a potential target for the development of new drugs against prostate cancer.

Dr. Joanna Triscott, Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern

«Young Talents in Clinical Research» Grantees 2023

Congratulations to Luisa von den Driesch and Bernhard M. Siepen for their «Young Talents in Clinical Research» Award, which will give them protected research time for their respective clinical research projects:
Dr. med. Luisa von den Driesch, resident at the University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, will examine the extent to which incidents of suicidal crises and behavior can be predicted through individual short-term changes in variables such as interpersonal interactions, suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal self-injury.
Dr. med. Bernhard M. Siepen, PhD candidate at the Stroke Research Center Bern, Department of Neurology, will conduct an MRI substudy to the MAX-ICH trial, a phase-II trial assessing the feasibility and safety of intensive treatment in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) compared to usual care. The aim of the substudy is to assess MRI surrogate markers for safety and efficacy in patients enrolled in the MAX-ICH trial and to better understand the effect of intensive treatment approaches in ICH.

«Young Talents in Clinical Research» Grantees 2023

Congratulations to Julia Bianca Bardoczi and Cédric Kissling for their «Young Talents in Clinical Research» Award, which will give them protected research time for their respective clinical research projects:
Julia Bianca Bardoczi, MMed, resident at the Department of General Internal Medicine, will compare the clinical benefits of three modern LDL-C-lowering pharmacological treatment options. She will perform a network meta-analysis (NMA), a novel statistical method that allows best-performing treatments to be identified, even when no head-to-head trials are available. This will hopefully contribute to better LDL-C control and optimized management of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. med. Cédric Kissling, resident at the Department of Neurosurgery, will investigate the safe and effective use of a novel type of skull prosthesis in the surgical management of malignant cerebrovascular insults (strokes). The novel prosthesis is applied directly after the customary decompressive surgery (implying the removal of a part of the skull) and provides protection - thus making a so far compulsory second surgery for reimplantation of the removed skull part obsolete.