The Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR) of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern, led by Prof. Mark A. Rubin, MD, was established in 1994 by the University of Bern and the Inselspital (Bern University Hospital). The DBMR is divided in 14 Research Programs with about 100 participating individual labs and several Independent Research Labs whose research spans across all biomedical fields. To realize its mission to bridge the gap between bench and bedside, the DBMR promotes an integrative perspective to clinical research with a strong emphasis in the development of translational approaches, the use of omics and other cutting-edge technologies, and extensive interaction and collaboration between laboratory-based and patient-oriented clinical research. The DBMR is also committed to fostering the careers of young academics.
For changes on the DBMR website, please see instructions here.
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Ambizione grants are aimed at young researchers (up to 4 years post PhD/9 years post medical exam) who wish to conduct, manage and lead an independent project for a maximum of 4 years at a Swiss higher education institution.
ERC Starting Grants support researchers with 0-10 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal with up to 1.5€ million for 5 years.
Congratulations to all awardees of the prizes announced at the DBMR BioMedical Research Day 2026!
At the DBMR BioMedical Research on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, Christina Grimm and Elham Kashani were announced as the co-awardees of the Johanna Dürmüller-Bol DBMR Research Award 2026. Congratulations! Read more.
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research, PD Dr. Thomas Marti announced Dr. Chrysanthi Kouri as the winner of the prize for the best DBMR Publication 2025 for her showing that phenotypic variability in individuals with NR5A1/SF-1 variants, ranging from mild undervirilization to complete gonadal dysgenesis, may result from the interplay of multiple genetic variants than from a single variant in NR5A1/SF-1 alone, which was published in EBioMedicine. Congratulations! Read more.
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research, Matthias Brunner was announced as the winner of the DBMR Technician of 2026 Award for her technical contribution to the biomedical research at the DBMR! Read more.
Congratulations to Melanie Cristine Scalise who received the Alumni MedBern Research Award. Read more about her project.
Congratulations to Anja Helmer, Lara Marie Aschenbrenner, and Kai Busslinger, this year's winners of the Best Preclinical Project, Best Clinical Project, and Best Project by a Medical Student. Read more about their projects.
ERC Advanced Grants support outstanding established researchers with a ground-breaking project idea with up to 2.5€ million for 5 years.
19 August 2026
15:00 − 16:00
DBMR, Murtenstrasse 50, Room H810
Lecture Title: Better algorithms for better science
7 September 2026
17:00 − 18:00
DBMR, Murtenstrasse 24, Room EG050, 3008 Bern
DBMR Research Conference Lecture title: Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs): from biology to exploitation in Vaccinology and Cancer Immunotherapy
Sleep and wakefulness are controlled by hypothalamic networks, but the stability of individual neurons was unknown. Using longitudinal recordings in freely moving mice, a team led by the Adamantidis lab (ZEN Program) has published a new study in Nature Communications showing that single-neuron preferences shifted across days, while the distribution of active neurons in each sleep state remained stable. Although sleep deprivation minimally affected the selectivity of these activity patterns, the sleep-promoting drug diazepam recruited NREM sleep-active cells that were previously inactive or wake-active. These findings indicate that while individual neurons exhibit dynamic, state-dependent shifts in their activity, the overall organization of sleep-wake neural populations remains stable.
The Yilmaz Lab (Systems Biomedicine of Cellular Development and Signaling in Health and Disease Program) demonstrate that the key to the success of a fecal transplant is not the diversity or the dose of the transplanted bacteria, but whether the “good” bacterial strains establish themselves. The study, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the IBDNet and BCPM was published in Cell Reports. They report that although donor species frequently appear, only specific lineages achieve stable strain integration. Repeated perturbation exposes intrinsic evolutionary constraints that limit durable colonization within the human gut ecosystem. The results suggest that future microbiome treatments and the screening of stool donors should no longer be evaluated solely based on species diversity, but rather specifically for suitable bacterial strains.
A new study shows that strokes in the thalamus disrupt sleep and memory by altering key brain rhythms. Using a novel mouse model, a team led by the Gutierrez Herrera lab (ZEN Program) found that targeted sound stimulation during deep sleep restored sleep stability, brain connectivity, and cognitive function. These results, now published in STROKE, reveal the brain’s capacity for sleep-dependent recovery after injury.
A research team from the Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine at Inselspital and the Systems Biomedicine of Cellular Development and Signaling in Health and Disease Program at the DBMR has developed and validated a machine-learning model integrating intraoperative vital-sign dynamics to predict postoperative infections immediately at the end of surgery. This approach allows patients who are in risk of developing pos-operative complications to receive early care and in a targeted manner. The results were recently published in npj Digital Medicine and highlighted in the lastest issue of the Uni Aktuell.
Congratulations to Prof. Sarah Longnus, on the approval of the SNSF Project “Ex-situ heart perfusion (ESHP) in donation after circulatory death (DCD) heart transplantation: New options for optimizing heart preservation with state-of-the-art cardiac imaging”. The overall research goals are to identify clinically relevant approaches to optimize clinical protocols for DCD heart transplantation and ESHP, ultimately to improve outcomes for all patients with advanced heart failure, but with a particular emphasis on pediatric patients, for whom no technology permitting access to these options for increased transplantation possibilities is available.
Prof. Mark Rubin, Cancer Therapy Resistance Program and DBMR director, is the 3rd most cited Swiss researcher (worldwide ranking 309) according to the Research.com ranking "Best Medicine Scientists 2026". The 5th edition of the Research.com Best Medicine Scientists Ranking is grounded in bibliometric data primarily sourced from OpenAlex and CrossRef, and only researchers with a D-index of at least 70 were included in the list. The data for the current ranking were collected in mid-January 2026.
We congratulate the promotion of Prof. Antoine Adamantidis (ZEN Program) to Full Professor of System Neurophysiology at the University of Bern. This promotion recognizes his outstanding contributions to research and teaching, as well as his internationally recognized expertise in the field of system neurophysiology. His research on sleep-wake networks and neural circuits has significantly contributed to the international understanding of sleep processes.
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research on July 1, PD Dr. Michaela Medová announced the winner of the Benoît Pochon Prize 2025. The DBMR congratulates Dr. Saranda Nimani, this year’s winner. Read more.
We are delighted to announce the promotion of PD Dr. med. Patrick Dorn (Oncology-Thoracic Malignancies Program) to Associate Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Bern. Prof. Dorn's scientific work focuses on thoracic malignancies, innovative surgical treatment concepts, minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery, as well as regenerative medicine and lung stem cell biology. Together with his team, he investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor initiation, tumor progression, and therapy resistance, with the goal of developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for patients with thoracic diseases.
Lea Lingg, former PhD student in the Rottenberg lab (Cancer Therapy Resistance Program and Institute of Animal Pathology), received the Best PhD Thesis 2025 Award of the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences for her thesis “Refining Precision Oncology: Understanding Mechanisms of Therapy Response in BRCA1;p53-Deficient Mammary Tumors”. Congratulations!
We warmly congratulate Louise de Meuron from the Blood Research Program (Allam Group) on being awarded a Scholarship in Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship (TMBE) at the sitem-insel School in Bern. This program emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship in biomedicine, encouraging the development of impactful translational research.
Congratulations to Dr. med Anne-Murielle Hollinger (Bill Lab, Translational Cancer Research Program), the recipient of the Swiss Cancer Institute/Roche Young Investigator Award 2026 for her project on metaplastic breast cancer. The study aims to improve understanding of treatment responses and identify new approaches to support future treatment decisions.
Murtenstrasse 28 CH-3008 Bern
Phone: +41 31 684 04 80 sekretariat.dbmr@unibe.ch
