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
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
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is an inherited disease leading to complete blindness. Researchers at the Vetsuisse Faculty investigate the causal genetic defect to enable genetic testing and avoiding the breeding of further affected dogs.
Tosso Leeb
Farrowing duration in sows is increasing, raising the risk of puerperal disorders. This study evaluated the effect of intrauterine phytotherapeutic treatment on clinical parameters during the puerperium and on subsequent litter performance.
Philipp T. Egli, Alexander Grahofer
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
jusqu'à 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.
16 mars 2026
jusqu'à 19 mars 2026
Woche des Gehirns
17 mars 2026
12:15
Hörsaal Anatomie / Zoom
Science@Lunch
Maximilian von Riedheim
14:00
online
VPHI-Webinar
Maurice Karani
18 mars 2026
18:15 − 21:00
Hochschulzentrum vonRoll
Clinical Neuroscience Bern
19 mars 2026
09:00 − 17:00
Vetsuisse-Campus
Faculté Vetsuisse
intern, Anmeldung erforderlich
12:30 − 13:30
UniS / online
Formation continue
Anmeldung
24 mars 2026
10:30
Hörsaal Paraklinik
DIP Seminar
Wes Van Voorhis
Koral Baud
25 mars 2026
Hörsaal Paraklinik / online
Rebeca Scalco
26 mars 2026
16:15
Anna Jenny
Hörsaal Anatomie
Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare
Bernhard Voelkl
31 mars 2026
Eugenia Ancarola
Valerie Hungerbühler and Sofia Zambrano
1 avril 2026
18:15 − 19:45
Auditorium maximum, Raum 110, Hochschulstrasse 4
Ringvorlesung: Wie wir sprechen
Judith Burkart
2 avril 2026
17:00
Hörsaal Bremgartenstrasse
9 avril 2026
tba
14 avril 2026
20:15
NLG, Länggassstrasse 124b, Bern / online
Soirée Vetsuisse des animaux de rente
Nutztierklinik BE
21 avril 2026
23 avril 2026
Perrine Mitschler
24 avril 2026