MCID research projects

As a result of project funding calls launched between June 2021 and September 2024, the MCID has now funded 31 research projects. MCID project funding calls have placed an emphasis on scientific excellence, fostering of talent through funds dedicated to early career researchers, and on multidisciplinarity. 

Projects 2025-2028

Ongoing projects

Tackling pneumococcal diseases with interspecies bacterial peptides

Exploring the potential of interspecies bacterial peptides for tackling pneumococcal diseases

Lucy Hathaway / Yok-Ai Que

Immune response during liver-stage parasitic infections

Understanding immune responses to liver infection by the fox tapeworm and malaria parasite

Britta Lundström-Stadelmann / Philippe Krebs / Deborah Stroka

Morbillivirus fusion protein as a target for antivirals

Broad-spectrum morbillivirus antivirals targeting the fusion protein for human and veterinary health

Philippe Plattet / Dimitrios Fotiadis

Knowledge generation during times of crisis: modelling to inform policy

Use of modelling in policymaking

Rachel Cassidy / Caroline Schlaufer

Harnessing targeted protein degradation to unravel Theileria-induced pathology

Studying the role of Theileria-secreted proteins to understand parasite-induced pathology using protein degradation

Sven Rottenberg / Jean-Louis Reymond

Studying the prevalence of the Strongyloides parasite in Switzerland

Strongyloides stercoralis – prevalence and co-infection in pet dogs and people in Switzerland

Simone Schuller / Cédric Hirzel / Walter Basso / Silja Griss

Dynamics of Swine Influenza A Virus in Switzerland

Deciphering the spread and evolution of Swine Influenza A Virus in humans and pigs in Switzerland

Ronald Dijkman / Jenna Kelly / Heiko Nathues

Investigating Leishmania cases in Bern and Guinea, West Africa

LeishMa-Swi-Gui: A Comprehensive Study of Leishmaniasis Cases in Bern and an Investigation of Endemicity in Guinea, West Africa, focusing on Clinical and Xenosurveillance Methods

Cornelia Staehelin / Alexander Oberli / Ronald Wolf / David Leuenberger

Projects 2022-2025

Ongoing projects

Monoclonal antibodies to target Klebisella pneumoniae

Identification of monoclonal intenstinal antibodies against Klebsiella pneumoniae, an opportunistic pathogen

Tim Rollenske

Boosting influenza vaccine immune responses

Boosting influenza-specific adaptive responses using an adjuvant composed of bacterial lysates

Emilie Seydoux

Maintaining breastfeeding during pandemics

Overcoming barriers to breastfeeding in Switzerland during infectious disease pandemics

Jessica Laine Carmeli

Pathogen surveillance in garden birds

WildGuARDS- Accessing the “Garden Wildlife black box” to improve One Health and infectious disease epidemiology

Saskia Keller

Tackling tick-borne encephalitis

Confronting the rising epidemic of the zoonotic tick-borne encephalitis virus: basic research and anti-viral screening

Stephen Leib / Marco Alves

Study of malaria parasite-viral co-infections

Co-infection of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and malaria: from population level to immunological and cellular interaction

Volker Heussler / Olivier Guenat / Gilles Wandeler

Interplay of infections and the microbiota on outcomes for host health

Understanding the interplay between the immune system, the malaria parasite and the microbiota, with a focus on sepsis

Andrew Macpherson / Volker Heussler

Tracking infectious diseases in menopausal women

menoBalance App: Use of AI methods to design a personalised chronic and infectious disease management medical device

Petra Stute / David Ginsbourger / Ben Spycher / Rowan Iskandar

Transmission of the zoonotic flavivirus, Wesselsbron

Role of sheep and rodent reservoirs for Wesselsbron, a neglected zoonotic flavivirus

Charaf Benarafa / Obdulio García Nicolás

Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 through multi-data integration

Early detection for early action: integrating multiple data sources for monitoring the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in near real-time

Christian Althaus / Guido Beldi / Julien Riou / Raphael Sznitman / Alban Ramette / Kevin Heng / Alexander Leichtle

Polarisation in the Swiss society during the Covid-19 pandemic

Divided pandemic society and Public Health. Polarization in the Covid-19 pandemic response in Switzerland

Annika Frahsa / Markus Freitag / Nicola Low

Monitoring and characterization of Influence A in humans and pigs

An integrative One Health network to monitor and characterize influenza A viruses circulating in the human and pig population

Ronald Dijkman / Andri Rauch / Heiko Nathues / Jenna Kelly / Philipp Latzin / Manuela Funke-Chambour / Gilles Wandeler / Cédric Hirzel / Franziska Suter-Riniker

Treatment of enteropathogenic infections with liposomal nanotraps

Liposomal nanotraps: non-antibiotic compounds for the treatment of enteropathogenic infections in humans and farm animals without contributing to antimicrobial resistance.

Eduard Babiychuk

Completed projects

Viral shut-down of host cell protein production

Deciphering the interplay between viral proteins and host cell mRNA metabolism

Evangelos Karousis

Bacteriophage-treatment of multi-drug resistant bacteria

Use of tailor-made bacteriophages for the treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria

Fabien Labroussaa / Stephen Leib

Blame deflection during the Covid-19 crisis

Governmental blame avoidance strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic

Susanne Hadorn

Ethics at the Science-Policy-Media interface

Ethical Considerations of the Relationship and Interactions between Science, Policy and the Media during the COVID-19 pandemic (ESPRIM)

Bettina Zimmermann

Viral transmission (and prevention measures) in the classroom

Preparedness for surveillance in school rooms in pandemic and epidemic situations: multiple measure approach to estimate transmission and interventions for Covid-19 and seasonal influenza

Lukas Fenner / Philipp Jent / Pascal Bittel / Tina Hascher

Understanding the role of mainstream media in conspiracy theory spread

Preparing the mainstream media for the next pandemic – understanding under which conditions conspiracy-related mainstream media content fosters conspiracy beliefs

Silke Adam

Improving pandemic responses through optimized decision-making

A decision-making framework under severe uncertainty for optimizing future pandemic responses

Rowan Iskandar

Covid-19: Science, Narratives and Policy

Analysing the use of policy narratives by scientists during the Covid-19 pandemic

Caroline Schlaufer

Insecticide resistance and senescence in mosquitoes

The evolution of senescence and insecticide resistance in vector populations

Deborah Stroka

Crisis resistance of policy advisory systems during Covid-19

Comparing the crisis resilience of national policy advisory systems during Covid-19

Fritz Sager