Organization Executive Board and Central Administration

Innovation Office

UniBE Venture Fellowship

The UniBE Venture Fellowship program supports researchers from all disciplines at the University of Bern and the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital to translate their scientific results into innovative products or services, and take their first steps on their entrepreneurial journey. The goal of the Fellowship is to develop application-focused research to validate the Proof-of-Concept and determine the potential for commercialization with the aim to start her/his own business, and acquire entrepreneurial skills and develop a relevant network. Candidates must have earned a Master, PhD or medical degree prior to the start of the Fellowship period.

UniBE Venture Fellows 2022

Dr. Felix Baier

Felix Baier is a postdoctoral fellow in the Visceral Surgery Research Laboratory in the Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR), where he works closely with Inselspital, University Hospital Bern. He completed his PhD at the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB) of the University of Bern summa cum laude in 2019.

He is conducting research on new treatment methods for cholestatic liver diseases. Typical symptoms of cholestasis are jaundice and itchiness, which emerge when the digestive fluid (bile acid), produced by the liver, is unable to flow into the intestines. Roughly 10 percent of all liver transplantations in Europe are linked to this disease.

Matheus Notter

Matheus Notter is PhD candidate at the Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFIK), with specialization in microbiology. He will defend his PhD thesis in May 2022. Notter obtained his Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Fribourg and his Master degree in Biomedical Sciences from at the University of Bern.

He committed to fighting antibiotic resistance. In the framework of the Interfaculty Research Cooperation (IRC) “One Health” of the University of Bern, substances have been discovered which fight the bacteria Helicobacter pylori. This bacterium can be found in the stomach and leads to chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer. With the planned spinoff Enzoxa, Notter and his team is looking to introduce on the market a novel treatment against this pathogen. His research is a collaboration between the Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) and the Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFIK).

Florence von Gunten

Florence von Gunten was awarded the Master in Psychology from the University of Bern in 2020 and is currently enrolled in the MAS program in Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship at the sitem-insel school as well as in the MAS program in Psychotherapy of the University of Bern. She brings a lot of hands-on experience as a graduate nurse and assistant psychologist at the University Psychiatric Services Bern (UPD), amongst others.

With YLAH her and her team are developing an internet-based application for psychotherapists, which allows for a continued therapy of patients on daily basis. The effectiveness and the efficiency of the therapy will be improved thanks to automatically generated therapeutic advice in between the in-person sessions. The advantages of this Blended Psychotherapy approach were illustrated in the research work of Prof. Thomas Berger at the Institute for Psychology. He was recently awarded with the Marcel Benoist Prize for his internet-based psychotherapy program. Lastly, ILAH will enable the collection of important therapy-specific information for the purpose of quality assurance.

Dr. Olivier Schären

Olivier Schären completed his PhD degree at the Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFIK) in July 2021 and is conducting now his research as a postdoc in the same institute. Previously, he obtained his Bachelor in Biology as well as his Master in Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Bern.

He is developing a genetically modified life vaccine to fight avian pathogenic E. coli. A first market study has shown that E. coli infection of livestock is costly for producers and is currently treated with antibiotics. With the spin-off project Santella, Schären and his team are developing a new vaccine, based on the research conducted during his PhD studies, to lessen the use of antibiotic treatments and thereby contribute to combating antibiotic resistance.