Faculty of Medicine

University Clinics Inselspital

Department of Ophthalmology

Inselspital Bern

The Department was founded in 1834 and is today a reference center for the diagnosis, conservative treatment, and microsurgery of eye diseases and ophthalmological emergencies. It offers state-of-the-art examination techniques and therapeutic procedures and covers the entire conservative and surgical spectrum of ophthalmology.

To the Inselspital website

Profile

  • Teaching students of medicine, biomedicine, and biology as well as graduate students at the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB 6 research groups Investigation of the pathophysiology and treatment of vitreoretinal diseases, glaucoma, neuro-ophthalmologic disorders, and external disease. Clinical research includes phase I-IV studies as well as the development of new imaging modalities for retinal diseases.
  • The Bern Photographic Reading Center (BPRC) is an internationally renowned center for coordination and independent evaluation of images obtained in clinical multicenter trials.
  • Research projects in cooperation with the Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging group at the ARTORG-Center explore new deep-learning approaches for image evaluation.
  • The research groups involved in basic research use state-of-the-art molecular, cellular, and imaging techniques for in vitro, cell culture, ex vivo, and in vivo studies. Research projects in Experimental Ophthalmology focus on the potential of stem cells and progenitor cells in restoring visual function, in ocular immunology and the influence of the microbiome on inflammatory eye diseases, as well as on new avenues to treat them.
  • The ophthalmogenetics group continuously strives to identify new phenotype-genotype correlations in inherited eye diseases by molecular diagnostics and to understand their impact on eye development.

External Partners

Dept. of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Schepens Eye Research Institute/Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.; Dept. of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA; Hôpital Ophtalmique Jules-Gonin, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland; Lab for Retinal Cell Biology, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Augenklinik, Universitätsspital Basel, Switzerland; Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Grants

  • Foundation Bertarelli: Associations between the ocular microbiome and the mucosal immune system in dry eyes
  • Young Talents in Clinical Research: The ocular surface microbiome in health and disease
  • Foundation OPOS: Associations between the ocular microbiome and the immune system in dry eye disease
  • Structural Imaging Assisted Retinal Fluorescence Lifetime Imager (STARFLI) using a high-speed fluorescence lifetime measurement. scheme / JOINT CALL SK-CH 2019
  • Novartis GEMS: Unsolicited research grant for RNA analysis in inherited retinal diseases
  • Foundation Haag-Streit: Development of a keratoconus detection algorithm by deep learning analysis and its validation on Eyestar images in a clinical trial
  • Hans-Goldmann Foundation: Development of human retinal organoids
  • Peter Heule Stiftung: Development of human retinal organoids for RP1-associated Retinitis pigmentosa
  • Huber-Bieg Stiftung: Genetic analyses by inherited retinal diseases
  • Swiss RetinAward: Regulation of photoreceptor fatty acid metabolism by PPARs
  • Peter Major Gedächtnis Stiftung: AI-based classification of retinal features specific to inherited retinal disease from optical coherence tomography images
  • Home-based Visual Field Monitoring