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 13 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.
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ERC SyG enables teams of two to four principal investigators to pool complementary skills, knowledge, and resources in unprecedented ways to jointly address ambitious research problems. The budget can be up to a maximum of 10 € million for a 6-year project.
ERC Starting Grants support talented researchers who are 2-7 years post-PhD (defense) and have a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal with up to 1.5€ million for 5 years.
Impressions of the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research 2025! Thank you to all participants, reviewers, the keynote speakers Prof. Raphael Gottardo and Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier, to our sponsors and organizing team.
At the DBMR BioMedical Research on Wednesday, 2 July 2025, Benedetta Coppe was 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”. Congratulations! Read more.
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research, PD Dr. Thomas Marti announced Dr. Noëlle Dommann as the winner of the prize for the best DBMR Publication 2024 for her paper on aging- dependent decline in replication efficiency in regenerating mouse livers, which was published in Cell. Congratulations! Read more.
Congratulations to Sebastian B. U. Jordi, Fabio Ryser, and Berenice Maier, this year's winners of the Best Preclinical Project, Best Clinical Project, and Best Project by a Medical Student. Read more about their projects.
Congratulations to Isabel Baertschi who received the Alumni MedBern Research Award. Read more about her project.
Congratulations to all awardees of the prizes announced at the DBMR BioMedical Research Day 2025.
ERC Advanced Grants support outstanding established researchers with a ground-breaking project idea with up to 2.5€ million for 5 years.
A new study in Oncogenesis, with first author Yantang Lin from DBMR-OTM, identifies lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB) as a crucial driver of pleural mesothelioma growth and resistance to treatment. Inhibiting LDHB induces DNA damage and significantly enhances the efficacy of cisplatin, both in cell models and in vivo. These findings highlight LDHB as a promising therapeutic target, opening the way for novel strategies.
A new study in Redox Biology, with first author Tuo Zhang from the DBMR-OTM program, uncovers POLR1A as a key suppressor of ferroptosis in cancer cells. The research shows that inhibiting POLR1A boosts the effectiveness of GPX4 blockade, driving ferroptotic tumor cell death both in vitro and in vivo. These findings highlight a promising new strategy to enhance cancer therapy by targeting tumor iron metabolism and mitophagy.
Congratulations to Prof. Mark A. Rubin and Dr. Irene Paassen from the Cancer Therapy Research Program on receiving funding from the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung! The newly funded project will 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.
Prof. Marianna Kruithof-de Julio, and Drs. Sofia Karkampouna and Wanli Cheng, collaborated with an international team to develop an efficient nonviral delivery system for RNA therapeutics aimed at cancer therapy. This system utilizes modified lipid nanoparticles to target CD44-positive prostate cancer organoids. The strategy holds the potential for creating patient-specific therapies to silence tumor-promoting oncogenes and other malfunctioning genes responsible for various diseases. Their study has been published in ACS Nano.
September 8, 2025
17:00 − 18:00
DBMR, Murtenstrasse 24, Room EG050
DBMR Research Conference Lecture Title: Challenging adult progenitor homeostasis, on the road to prostate tumorigenesis
September 6, 2025
16:00 − 23:00
October 6, 2025
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research on July 2, Prof. Dr. Deborah Stroka announced the winner of the Benoît Pochon Prize 2024. The DBMR congratulates Dr. Liana Hayrapetyan, this year’s winner. Read more.
At the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research, Adrian Segiser was announced as the winner of the DBMR Technician of 2025 Award for his technical contribution to the biomedical research at the DBMR! Read more.
We are delighted to welcome Mr. Cédric Lüthi as the newest member of our Technical House Staff. We wish him a great start and every success in his new role!
We are thrilled to announce that Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier has joined the DBMR as Assistant Professor (tenure track) for Omics Data Science for Transcriptomics. She officially assumed her position on June 2, 2025. We are also pleased to welcome Dr. Zhi Ming Xu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Luisier Lab, who is joining the DBMR alongside Prof. Luisier.
Murtenstrasse 28 CH-3008 Bern
Phone: +41 31 684 04 80 sekretariat.dbmr@unibe.ch
