Biosafety
University of Bern supports the WHO
The Biosafety Center of the Institute for Infectious Diseases has been designated by the WHO as a Collaborating Center. It is one of only five such WHO Biosafety Collaborating Centers worldwide.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has appointed the Biosafety Center of the Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFIK) at the University of Bern as a Collaborating Center. In this role, the Biosafety Center will support the WHO with advice, training and the development of guidelines and instructions. It is the only WHO Biosafety Collaborating Center in the world to be based at a university. Moreover, there are only five such WHO Collaborating Centers in the field of biosafety and biosecurity worldwide.
In this interview, Kathrin Summermatter, Head of the Biosafety Centre, explains how this award came about and what it means to her and the IFIK.
Kathrin Summermatter
Is the head and founder of the Biosafety Center. She has decades of experience in the operation of safety laboratories and has worked several times as an expert for the WHO to inspect laboratories in the USA and Russia working with the highly contagious smallpox viruses. In 2021, she was also appointed by the WHO as one of 26 experts on a panel on the emergence of new pathogens.