Researchers led by Nobel Prize winner Charles Rice from Rockefeller University and Volker Thiel from the University of Bern and the Institute of Virology and Immunology have developed a non-infectious model of SARS-CoV-2 that makes it easier, faster, and safer to study the virus and new variants. The realistic model also allows for better testing of drugs.

In his scientific work, Jens Becker developed a new concept for calf fattening that enables more animal-friendly and sustainable veal production with an 80% reduction in antibiotic use, improved animal health, and unchanged profitability.

Nora Schreiber and Julia Maria Bruggisser were awarded the Young Scientist Paper Award 2021. Unfortunately, the award ceremony could not take place as part of Science and Barbecue Day this year. However, the two winners presented their work via Zoom. Thank you very much! The two winners impressed the evaluators with their work, and we would like to congratulate them once again on this success!

An international consortium of researchers, including the Institute of Genetics at the University of Bern, has demonstrated how coat colors are inherited in dogs. They also proved that a gene variant responsible for light-colored coats in dogs and wolves originates from a now extinct relative of the wolf and is more than two million years old.

Thanks to support from the Vinetum Foundation, the University of Bern is able to establish an endowed professorship for wild bee health. This is intended to help combat the global decline in wild bees.

With a few simple measures, farmers can drastically reduce their use of antibiotics and improve animal welfare without putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. This has been demonstrated by researchers in Bern in a practical test of their specially developed “open-air calf” method, which is unique in Switzerland to date.

How dangerous are new mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus? An international team involving the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA), and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (Germany) has developed a method that can accurately determine the transmissibility of new virus mutants.