Institute of Anatomy

Altes Anatomie-Gebäude an der Brühlstrasse

The Institute's scope of duties comprises preclinical teaching in human, dental, and veterinary medical curricula, as well as in many other paramedical fields. The research focus is on the skeleton and smooth muscles, the lung and its development, particle interactions in the lung, and stereology.

To the Institute’s website

Profile:

  • 93 employees plus 151 assistants for practical courses, 25 different nationalities
  • Teaching of macroscopic anatomy, histology, and embryology. Leading four blocks of the medical Bachelor curriculum. Teaching of students of the Medical Faculty, Vetsuisse Faculty, and Phil. nat. Faculty, as well as students at the Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)
  • Roughly 10% of the teaching of the Faculty of Medicine and more than 50% of the preclinical disciplines
  • Leading house in Switzerland in the field of clinical anatomy. Clinical courses in almost every medical field to educate young residents and doctors including testing new surgical methods
  • Nine groups perform diverse research but share the use of advanced imaging technologies. The topics include cardiac development and repair, pulmonary development, structure and function of respiratory cilia, structure of bacterial pore-forming toxins, neutralization of bacterial toxins, neuroinflammation and brain infections, ultrastructure and function of synapses, development of microCT-based imaging, teaching methods and novel radiotherapy approaches (e.g., microbeam radiation therapy)
  • An important contributor to the Microscopy Imaging Center by electron-, light-, and x-ray microscopy
  • National center for the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD-UNIBE) in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics of the Inselspital
  • Active collaborations with 46 institutions around the world

External Partners:

SNSF grants:

  • How does the 3-dimensional structure of the pulmonary acinus develop, regenerate, and change during breathing? What are the functional consequences for ventilation and particle deposition? (175953)
  • Microbeam Radiation - a novel angiodisruptive cancer treatment (176038)
  • Synaptic cytomatrix and exocytosis architecture (179520)
  • Unravelling consequences of SARS-CoV-2 mediated inflammatory immune responses in heart and vasculature (198297)
  • Healthrelevant components in atmospheric aerosol (192192)
  • Deciphering the influence of biomechanics and mechanotransduction during cardiac regeneration in normal and pathological contexts (182575)

EU contributions:

  • Eidg. Institut für Metrologie METAS
  • Centro Nacional de Investigacionescardiovasculares Carlos (CNIC), Madrid
  • European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)
  • ERC Consolidator grant 819717 – TransReg
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 (2023-2027) Regenerate IT
  • H2020-SC1-2019-Single-Stage-RTD REANIMA-874764
  • Microglial activation in Complement C4-stratified schizophrenic patients and in a mouse model of C4 overexpression (NEURON-119 microSCHIZ / 185536)

45 international and national contributions (incl. third-party funds):

Novartis, UniBE Initiator Grants, Krebsforschung Schweiz, Krebsliga Bern, The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization, Scherbarth Stiftung, SELF-FUND, Funds for Nanoscience solutions, Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases (MCID)