About research at the Department of Biomedicine

The department’s research aims to understand disease at the level where it originates —in genes, proteins, cells, and neural circuits. This knowledge is essential for clinicians and industry partners developing new drugs for cancer and brain disorders, identifying biomarkers that enable more accurate diagnoses, and explaining why certain diseases affect people the way they do.

Much of this work provides the foundation for further clinical research and contributes to improving patient care. The department is also a hub where advanced scientific equipment is made available to the wider Norwegian research community.

Research is organized around four strategic areas that connect the department’s units.

Translational Medicine is at the core of the department’s mission. Research is designed to move from fundamental discoveries to clinical applications through close collaboration with Helse Bergen and the faculty’s clinical institutes.

The brain and nervous system represent a major focus area, covering topics from synaptic plasticity and neural microcircuits to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. This work is centered around the Mohn Research Center for the Brain and the Center for Neuropsychiatric Research.

Research in cancer and drug discovery integrates structural biology, metabolism, vascular biology, and mass cytometry–based blood cancer analysis. The CMYC center and the BiSS and PROBE core facilities serve as key drivers of these efforts.

Open Research Infrastructure is a priority in our department. Its core facilities operate as national resources, and the department contributes to European infrastructure consortia such as EU-OPENSCREEN and NORCRYST.

We organize our research efforts into five research units comprising a total of 25 research groups. These units are structured according to experimental scale and scientific focus, ranging from structural biology and molecular mechanisms to cancer research, neuroscience, and craniofacial development. Each unit contains several independent research groups, each led by its own principal investigator.

A complete overview is available on the Research Units and Groups page.

The institute is home to three research centers and three national core facilities. The centers lead the strategic research questions, the core facilities provide both internal and external researchers with access to advanced scientific equipment.

Research centers

• Mohn Research Center for the Brain (Trond Mohn-funded, host: Department of Biomedicine). Center management: Clive Bramham (UiB) and Edvard Moser (NTNU). Research on synaptic plasticity and dynamics in neural circuits — the foundation for understanding learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease.
• KG Jebsen Center for Myeloid Leukemia (CMYC). Center Director: Bjørn Tore Gjertsen, Co-Director Simona Chera, PI Eivind Valen. Established in 2025 by the KG Jebsen Foundation. Uses single-cell mass cytometry to guide adaptive treatment in acute and chronic myelogenous leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
• Center for Neuropsychiatric Research. Studies what happens in the brain in ADHD and autism — especially challenges with impulse control — by combining genetics, brain research, clinical studies, and population data.
   

See all research centers at the department

Research infrastructure

The core facilities at the Department of Biomedicine, MIC, PROBE, and BiSS consist of scientific instrumentation and highly qualified technical personnel, made broadly accessible to the research communities, and responsible for key shared functions both at the University of Bergen and at the regional and national levels.

• MIC – Molecular Imaging Center. Advanced subcellular, cellular and small animal imaging.  Aarranges on average 2-3 national imaging courses and workshops per year, and all researchers from Norway as well as from abroad, are being welcomed to our facilities!
• PROBE – Proteomics Unit at the University of Bergen. National core facility for large scale protein analysis using mass spectrometry, and a member of the National Network of Advanced Proteomics Infrastructure (external link).
• BiSS – Biophysics, Structural Biology, and Screening. BiSS offers expertise and access to a range of instrumentation to study the interactions of small molecules with macromolecules, protein biophysics, and for crystallization.
   

See all core facilities at the Faculty of Medicine

PhD candidates at the Department of Biomedicine are members of the Bergen Biomedical Research School and are admitted to the PhD program at the Faculty of Medicine. Necessary information and all forms and regulations can be found on the faculty's PhD page.

The research is woven into a European and global network. The institute coordinates TargetRNA, a Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network led by Professor Ruth Brenk, where 16 doctoral candidates are trained across 13 academic and 4 industrial partners in 9 countries to develop RNA-based drugs. Through BiSS, the institute is part of the European chemical biology consortia EU-Openscreen and Nor-Openscreen, and participates in the pandemic preparedness project ISIDORE.

The Mohn Research Center for the Brain is a collaboration between UiB and NTNU/Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience . Master's students are exchanged in and out through the Nordic Biomedical Master Network (Karolinska Institutet, University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland and University of Southern Denmark), and bilateral agreements provide access to Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Strasbourg, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Universidad do Algarve and Lodz University of Technology. Many units have their own, named collaborations with leading groups at, among others, NIH, Heidelberg University, Karolinska Institutet and EMBL — indicated on the individual research group's page.