DBMR University Bern

Take a look at our latest CDX2 article by our PhD students: Nils Bodmer Rina Mehmeti and Kristin Uth (now all graduated 🌷)!
Big THANKS to all co-authors 🥂.

rdcu.be/eu0Pk

@unibe.ch @dbmr-unibe.bsky.social @snf-fns.ch @lifesciswitzerland.bsky.social #gcb #UCI #cancer #tumorbudding #itmp

Impressions of the DBMR Day of BioMedical Research 2025! Thank you to all participants, reviewers, @rgottardo.bsky.social and Raphaëlle Luisier, our sponsors @merckgroup.bsky.social, Promega, Huberlab and Witec, and organizing team. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2026! @unibe.ch #Inselspital

👏 Congratulations to all awardees of the Day of BioMedical Research 2025 🏆 – Adrian Segiser, @noelledommann.bsky.social, @lianahay.bsky.social, Benedetta Coppe, Isabel Bärtschi, Fabio Ryser, Sebastian Jordi, Berenice Maier @unibe.ch 👉 tinyurl.com/yf9ndv5x

🎤 Wonderful insights from Prof. Raphaelle Luisier on the power of #RNA language models and #histopathology foundation models to open new paths in tackling complex diseases.
#BioAI @unibe.ch

The review committee for the 🏆 Johanna Dürmüller-Bol DBMR Research Award 2025 will be busy trying to select one of these #reseachprojects. @unibe.ch

🎤 Excellent talk by Prof @rgottardo.bsky.social ‬from @unil.bsky.social and #EPFL on how to use #DataScience to accelerate clinical and translation insights. @unibe.ch

🎤Dean Prof. Claudio Bassetti giving us an overview of the initiatives of the Faculty of Medicine @unibe.ch

The DBMR Day of BioMedical Research 2025 has just started – great to see you all! @marubin1.bsky.social @unibe.ch #Inselspital

The DBMR Day of BioMedical Research 2025 is tomorrow! Join us – there will be plenty of good science to learn from! @unibe.ch @rgottardo.bsky.social ‪#Inselspital

DBMR Day of BioMedical Research 2025
2 weeks to go! We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Please find the program here tinyurl.com/47hzf989

👏The Cancer Research Network Bern held its Annual Retreat on June 5 in Gurten - featuring 100+ researchers, 15 talks & 38 posters. Great to see strong participation from DBMR researchers in key discussion on cancer research. Full news: tinyurl.com/CRNBern2025 @unibe.ch

🎉 Excited to welcome Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier as Assistant Prof in #Omics Data Science for #Transcriptomics! Starting June 2, 2025, she leads research applying #AI & #bioinformatics to tackle neurodegenerative diseases & #cancer. 👉 tiny.cc/yjql001 @nccr-rna-disease.bsky.social @unibe.ch

Excited to share one of our latest reviews, along with the cover of Trends in Biotechnology by Mete Duman! In our review, together with Prof. Fatih Inci and his team, we dive into how organ-on-a-chip technology is revolutionizing IBD research @unibe.ch @dbmr-unibe.bsky.social
📄 lnkd.in/dZWst3bp

🎉 Congrats to @marubin1.bsky.social & Dr. Irene Paassen! Their new project on how #SWI/SNF complex subunits influence the changes in #prostatecancer under therapy just got funded by the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung. @unibe.ch

See what our 450+ researchers have accomplished in 2024 – our Annual Report is now available! tiny.cc/lrdh001
@unibe.ch

Peptide-Modified Lipid Nanoparticles Boost the Antitumor Efficacy of RNA Therapeutics RNA therapeutics offer a promising approach to cancer treatment by precisely regulating cancer-related genes. While lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are currently the most advanced nonviral clinically approved vectors for RNA therapeutics, their antitumor efficacy is limited by their unspecific hepatic accumulation after systemic administration. Thus, there is an urgent need to enhance the delivery efficiency of LNPs to target tumor-residing tissues. Here, we conjugated the cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44)-specific targeting peptide A6 (KPSSPPEE) to the cholesterol of LNPs via PEG, named AKPC-LNP, enabling specific tumor delivery. This modification significantly improved delivery to breast cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo, as shown by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. We further used AKPC-siYT to codeliver siRNAs targeting the transcriptional coactivators YAP and TAZ, achieving potent gene silencing and increased cell death in both 2D cultures and 3D tumor spheroids, outperforming unmodified LNPs. In a breast tumor cell xenografted zebrafish model, systemically administered AKPC-siYT induced robust silencing of YAP/TAZ and downstream genes and significantly enhanced tumor suppression compared to unmodified LNPs. Additionally, AKPC-siYT effectively reduced proliferation in prostate cancer organoids and tumor growth in a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model. Overall, we developed highly efficient AKPC-LNPs carrying RNA therapeutics for targeted cancer therapy.

🔎 In a study out now @pubs.acs.org, researchers from the Cancer Resistance Research Program @mariannakruithof.bsky.social and international collaborators have developed an efficient nonviral delivery system for #RNAtherapeutics aimed at #cancer therapy: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... @unibe.ch

The DBMR is pleased to announce that Prof. Marianna Tryfonidou, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, will have a special lecture at our DBMR Research Conference. tinyurl.com/3n6mvkhn

✍️ A reminder that the call for applications for the Johanna Dürmüller-Bol DBMR Research Award is open until April 15 ➡️ tiny.cc/86jivz @unibe.ch

“Many diseases are linked to changed microbiota” Stephanie Ganal-Vonarburg investigates how the gut microbiota can influence the human immune system. In the video, she talks about her research and the challenges of doing science as a mother of young...

Stephanie Ganal-Vonarburg investigates how the gut #microbiota can influence the human immune system. In the video, she talks about her research and the challenges of doing science as a mother of young children 👉 www.uniaktuell.unibe.ch/2025/many_di...

Ubiquinol-mediated suppression of mitochondria-associated ferroptosis is a targetable function of lactate dehydrogenase B in cancer Nature Communications - Lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB) is known to fuel cancer cells by converting lactate to pyruvate. Here, the authors identify that LDHB protects cancer cells from...

🔎 In a study out now @naturecomms.bsky.social, a team from the Oncology-Thoracic Malignancies Research Program has shown that LDHB protects #cancer cells from mitochondrion-associated #ferroptosis and that its inhibition sensitizes tumor cells to radiotherapy: rdcu.be/ed1aV @unibern.bsky.social