Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology

Host-Pathogen Interactions

The division host-pathogen interaction has a focus on synthetic genomics and diseases of the hoof. The team deciphers virulence traits as well as pathogenicity mechanisms and contributes to the improvement & development of vaccines and diagnostic assays. Our research covers mycoplasmas, Pasteurellaceae, Dichelobacter spp. and Treponema spp.

Team members

Prof Jörg Jores - Veterinarian
Prof Peter Kuhnert – Molecular Biologist
Dr Thomas Démoulins – Immunologist
Dr Paraskevi Pramateftaki – Technician
Dr Melanie Willimann – Molecular Biologist
Dr Thatcha Yimthin – Biologist
Dr Jing Zhang – Bioinformatician
Isabelle Brodard - Technician
Marilou Bourgeon – Technician
Nora Ranzoni, PhD student
Jan Philip Tscheulin, MSc student

publications

News

2026, May 19: Congratulations to Dr Thatcha Yimthin on her PhD thesis defense!

The thesis entitled: "Deciphering Mycoplasma mycoides interactions with ruminant immune cells” was funded by the SNSF grant entitled: Deciphering Mycoplasma-host interactions using synthetic genomics” (Project number: 310030_201152). Thatcha joined the lab in September 2021 and finished her work in February 2026. The thesis committee consisted of the supervisor Prof Jörg Jores, the co-supervisor Prof Marco Alves, the mentor Prof Siegfried Hapfelmeier-Balmer and the external co-referee Prof Eric Cox.

2026, January 25: Congratulations to Dr Jérémy Cherbuin on his PhD thesis defense!

The thesis entitled: "Integrating Host Immunity, Genomics, and Synthetic Biology to Develop Therapeutic Veterinary Bacteriophages” was mainly funded by the Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases of the University of Bern. Jérémy joined the lab in March 2022 and finished his work in December 2025. We wish him all the best for his future endeavours!