The Institute of Parasitology Bern carries out research on parasitic diseases of domestic and farm animals, and of humans, and is involved in teaching and diagnostic services and consulting.
In terms of research, the focus is on the study of pathogenetic processes that occur during parasitic infections, as well as on the development of new therapeutic approaches. The main topics of interest are zoonotic helminthiases (echinococcosis, fasciolosis), and abortion-causing protozoans (neosporosis, toxoplasmosis, tritrichomonosis). More information can be found under the following link: www.ipa.vetsuisse.unibe.ch/index_eng.html.
Background of the research project: alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is an infection of the liver with the larval stage (metacestode) of the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. These metacestodes are characterized by a tumorlike, infiltrative growth, which can also lead to metastasis formation in other organs. If untreated, the infection with E. multilocularis is lethal for humans, dogs, monkeys, and other animals. Curative chemotherapeutical treatment of AE is not possible, as the current drugs in use do not act parasiticidal. For this reason, our goal is to investigate and develop novel treatment options against AE.
At our institute, we apply in vitro cultures of the parasite for drug screening and drug characterization, and investigate also basic, cellular and molecular biological questions. These analyses are complemented with transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic analyses. We focus on the mitochondrial energy metabolism of the parasite and the host-parasite interaction. Selected topics are also being investigated in the mouse model. More information to our current projects can be found here: www.ipa.vetsuisse.unibe.ch/research/group_lundstroem_stadelmann/index_eng.html