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
This project evaluates how computer-guided navigation can improve accuracy and safety when stabilising pelvic injuries in cats to better protect the spinal cord, nearby nerves and other vital structures.
Pia Düver
The project aims to draw conclusions on domestication processes and genetic adaptation to «life as a lab pet» in zebrafish.
Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser
Traumatic spinal cord injuries pose a major challenge in veterinary neurology and can cause severe motor deficits to plegia. The Division of Clinical Neurology aims to develop innovative therapies to improve outcomes.
Veronika Stein, Enrice Hünerfauth, Nicolas Schott
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
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.
May 8, 2026
until May 9, 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.
March 3, 2026
12:15
Hörsaal Anatomie / Zoom
Science@Lunch
Eleonora Benetti
16:15
Hörsaal Bremgartenstrasse
Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare
Csaba Szabo
17:15
Hörsaal Anatomie, 1. OG Länggasstrasse 120
Alumni Vetsuisse-Fakultät Bern
Alexander Grahofer
March 4, 2026
14:00
Hörsaal Anatomie
DIP Seminar
Simone Häberlein
March 5, 2026
online
VPHI-Webinar
Stella Mazeri
17:00
17:00 − 21:00
ISME Clinique, Avenches
Berner Fortbildungsabend
ISME
March 9, 2026
11:00 − 12:00
CoRE-GHA Webinar
Caitlin Uren Viljoen, Juvenal Yosa
March 10, 2026
Yael Langenegger
Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare / PhD Defense
Michelle Gygax
March 12, 2026
March 16, 2026
until March 19, 2026
Woche des Gehirns
March 17, 2026
Maximilian von Riedheim
Maurice Karani
March 18, 2026
18:15 − 21:00
Hochschulzentrum vonRoll
Clinical Neuroscience Bern
March 19, 2026
09:00 − 17:00
Vetsuisse-Campus
Vetsuisse Faculty
intern, Anmeldung erforderlich
12:30 − 13:30
UniS / online
Continuing Education
Anmeldung
March 24, 2026
10:30
Hörsaal Paraklinik
Wes Van Voorhis
March 25, 2026
Hörsaal Paraklinik / online
Rebeca Scalco
March 26, 2026
Anna Jenny