The Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern is engaged in research with the aim to advance veterinary medicine for the benefit of animals, humans, and the environment. Core thematic areas of research have been specified to promote collaboration within and beyond the faculty. These include Animal Health and Welfare, Infectious Diseases and One Health, and Sustainability and Biodiversity.
The faculty maintains a Faculty Clinical Research Platform (FCRP) to foster early-career clinician scientists and facilitate collaborative clinical research. It also hosts the Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases (MCID), a strategic center of the University of Bern, aimed at determining the origins of infectious disease risks, preparing for emerging diseases and managing these risks.
The faculty plays an active role in the use and further development of all of the university’s core facilities, notably the Experimental Animal Center (EAC), the Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit (IBU), the Microscopy Imaging Center (MIC), the Next Generation Sequencing Platform (NGSP), and the Data Science Lab (DSL). This involvement enables the faculty to leverage state-of-the-art research infrastructure for veterinary and biomedical research, as well as contributing to its strategic advancement.
Research Project
Alpacas and llamas show diverse fleece types and colors. The livestock genetics team with international partners studies genome data to uncover genetic variants driving inherited traits and rare diseases like deafness in blue-eyed white animals.
Anna Letko, Cord Drögemüller
The incidence of postpartum disorders in sows is rising with prolonged farrowing. This study evaluates the effect of oral ketoprofen on the health of sows and their piglets during the lactational period.
Francesca Grech, Alexander Grahofer
The Rottenberg group aims to understand mechanisms of radio- and chemotherapy resistance in cancer in humans and animals. They search for approaches to overcome resistance, which is the main cause of death of patients with metastasized tumors.
Sven Rottenberg
Res
Straw-bedded outdoor areas for veal calves have been shown to be associated with better health (lower antibiotic use and death rate) than unsheltered areas under experimental conditions. This concept is now tested under “real life” conditions.
Jens Becker, Mireille Meylan, Philipp Schnydrig
Research
An international research team with participation from Bern has conducted the world's first comprehensive genetic study of cancer in domestic cats. The study shows that some of the genetic changes in cat tumors closely resemble those found in human cancers. These parallels open up new perspectives for developing targeted cancer therapies, particularly for breast cancer.
press release
Researchers at the Institute of Animal Pathology, the Institute of Anatomy, and EPFL were able to identify the cellular receptor of the NetF toxin and visualize its binding at the molecular level.NetF is a pore-forming-toxin secreted by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens and thought to play a role in enteritis in dogs and horses. The results, published in Nature Communications, represent an important step toward new therapeutics for bacterial infections.
8. Mai 2026
bis 9. Mai 2026
Schloss Münchenwiler
Münchenwiler Seminar
The Münchenwiler Seminar of the Collegium Generale is a platform for faculty members and academic staff to discuss current social and higher education policy issues. Among others, Hanno Würbel will speak on “How to Deal with Personal Biases in (Animal Welfare) Science.”
Register by April 20
Katja Moser talks about her journey in developing a diagnostic test for bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) in the blog of the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI).
Read now!
PhD student Michael Muturi was awarded the Student Poster Prize at the COLOSS Conference in Copenhagen for his poster “Small hive beetles (cf.) can infest natural stingless bee nests in Africa.”
Laura R. Voitl, PhD student in the Livestock Genetics team at the Institute of Genetics, was awarded the PAG 33 Travel Grant to present her work entitled "Assessing SNV and SV Callers using HiFi Long Read WGS to Find Causal Variants for Mendelian Traits in Goats" at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference.
The 2025 Faculty Award for the best veterinary dissertation goes to Cleo Schwarz from the Institute of Genetics. Schwarz identified the genetic variant responsible for a neurodegenerative disease in Miniature American Shepherd dogs.
10. März 2026
12:15
Hörsaal Anatomie / Zoom
Science@Lunch
Yael Langenegger
14:00
Hörsaal Anatomie
Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare / PhD Defense
Michelle Gygax
19:30 − 22:30
online
Vetsuisse Nutztierabend
H. Nathues und Mitarbeitende
11. März 2026
09:00
PhD Defense
Jan Franzen
13:00
Länggassstrasse 124, Hörsaal 2. OG / online
Midterm Evaluation
Sara Alonso Jiménez
12. März 2026
08:30
Hörsaal Paraklinik / online
Doctoral thesis defense
Soyomi Seibold
16. März 2026
bis 19. März 2026
Woche des Gehirns
17. März 2026
Maximilian von Riedheim
VPHI-Webinar
Maurice Karani
18. März 2026
18:15 − 21:00
Hochschulzentrum vonRoll
Clinical Neuroscience Bern
19. März 2026
09:00 − 17:00
Vetsuisse-Campus
Vetsuisse-Fakultät
intern, Anmeldung erforderlich
12:30 − 13:30
UniS / online
Weiterbildung
Anmeldung
24. März 2026
10:30
Hörsaal Paraklinik
DIP Seminar
Wes Van Voorhis
Koral Baud
25. März 2026
DIP Seminar / Midterm Evaluation
Rebeca Scalco
26. März 2026
16:15
Anna Jenny
Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare
Bernhard Voelkl
31. März 2026
Eugenia Ancarola
Valerie Hungerbühler and Sofia Zambrano
1. April 2026
18:15 − 19:45
Auditorium maximum, Raum 110, Hochschulstrasse 4
Ringvorlesung: Wie wir sprechen
Judith Burkart
2. April 2026
17:00
Hörsaal Bremgartenstrasse