As a not-for-profit organization federating Swiss bioinformatics, SIB brings together employees and affiliated members from Switzerland’s leading schools of higher education and research institutes. Most of our employees work as part of the SIB Hub, while a third of SIB employees is embedded into affiliated groups where we co-develop a Resource. SIB Members are part of research and service groups from our partner institutions, led by Group Leaders. Our unique governance structure described below ensures a high level of efficiency by embedding solutions into research and leveraging Switzerland’s network of bioinformatics competences. 

A bird’s eye view of our organization

 

 

SIB organization in 2024

Foundation Council

Highest authority in the institute, with supervisory powers, the Foundation Council’s responsibilities include changes to SIB’s statutes, nomination of Group Leaders, and approval of the annual budget and financial report. 

It includes representatives of SIB’s partner institutions.

Read the Foundation Council's collaborative report on the unique contributions of SIB

President

  • Mrs Simone de Montmollin, National Councillor, President of the Science, Education and Culture Committee SECC.

Founding members

  • Prof. Ron Appel, former SIB Executive Director;
  • Prof. Amos Bairoch, Group Leader, SIB and University of Geneva;
  • Dr Philipp Bucher, Associate Group Leader, SIB;
  • Prof. Denis Hochstrasser, former Vice Rector, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. C. Victor Jongeneel, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, USA;
  • Prof. Manuel Peitsch, Honorary Professor, University of Basel.

Ex officio members

  • Prof. Hugues Abriel, Vice Rector for Research, University of Bern;
  • Mr Thomas Baenninger, Chief Financial Officer, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR);
  • Prof. Thomas Bieber, Director, Cardio-CARE AG;
  • Prof. Francesco Bertoni, Deputy Director IOR;
  • Prof. Enrica Bordignon, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva;
  • Prof. Edouard Bugnion, Vice President for Information Systems, EPFL;
  • Prof. Emmanuele Carpanzano, Director, Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI);
  • Prof. Sébastien Castelltort, Vice-Rector, Research and Sustainability, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. Andrea Cavallaro, Director, IDIAP;
  • Prof. Estelle Doudet, Vice Rector "Research", University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Patrick Gagliardini, Vice Rector for Research at the Universita della Svizzera italiana (USI);
  • Prof. Antoine Geissbühler, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva;
  • Prof. Doron Merkler, Department of Pathology and Immunology, University of Geneva;
  • Dr Vincent Peiris, Dean, School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), HES-SO;
  • Prof. Jean-Marc Piveteau, President, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW);
  • Prof. Bernard Ries, Vice-Rector International Relations, Digitalisation and Young Researchers, University of Fribourg;
  • Prof. Davide F. Robbiani, Director, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB);
  • Prof. Patrick Ruch, Head of Research, School of Business Administration (HEG-Geneva), HES-SO;
  • Prof. Nicolas Salamin, Director, Department of Computational Biology (DBC), University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Gebhard Schertler, Division Head of Biology and Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI);
  • Prof. Falko Schlottig, Director, FHNW School of Life Sciences;
  • Prof. Dirk Schübeler, Co-Director, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI);
  • Prof. Torsten Schwede, Vice Rector of Research and Talent Promotion, University of Basel;
  • Prof. Elisabeth Stark, Vice President Research, University of Zurich;
  • Prof. Margot Thome Miazza, Vice-Dean, Research and Innovation, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne;
  • Prof. Jürg Utzinger, Director, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH);
  • Prof. Dr Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research, ETH Zurich.

Co-opted member

  • Prof. Alfonso Valencia, Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors takes the decisions necessary to achieve the aims of the institute, such as validating the strategy and internal procedures, and allocating federal funds to service and infrastructure activities.

It consists of five persons: two Group Leaders elected jointly by the Council of Group Leaders and the Board of Directors, two external members and the Executive Director. Members of the Board are appointed for a renewable five-year period.

  • Dr Jérôme Wojcik (Chairman), Industrial Data Scientist & Entrepreneur;
  • Prof. Christophe Dessimoz, SIB Executive Director;
  • PD Dr Katja Bärenfaller, Group Leader, SIB and Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF);
  • Prof. Richard Neher, Group Leader, SIB and University of Basel;
  • Dr Marie Owens Thomsen, SVP Sustainability & Chief Economist, IATA.

Scientific Advisory Board

The Scientific Advisory Board acts as an independent consultative body, providing recommendations to the Board of Directors and the Executive Management. Its main tasks consist of selecting and monitoring services and infrastructure activities, such as the SIB Resources

It is made up of at least five members, who are internationally renowned scientists in the various fields of bioinformatics.

  • Prof. Alfonso Valencia (Chairman), Life Sciences Department Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Spain;
  • Prof. Melissa Haendel, Director of Precision Health & Translational Informatics and Professor of Genetics at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, USA;
  • Prof. Oliver Kohlbacher, Director of the Institute for Translational Bioinformatics, University Medical Center, Tübingen, Germany;
  • Prof. Claudine Médigue, Head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics Analyses for Genomics and Metabolism (LABGeM), Génoscope & CNRS, Evry, France
  • Prof. Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, Department of Pathology and Department of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA;
  • Prof. Christine Orengo, Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, United Kingdom;
  • Prof. Ron Shamir, Computational Genomics Group at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Council of Group Leaders

The Council discusses all matters relating to SIB Groups as a whole and proposes new Group Leaders for nomination. The Council also elects its representatives on the Board of Directors. 

It consists of the Group Leaders and the Executive Director.

Browse all groups

SIB Hub

The SIB Hub includes the groups and teams comprising and headed by SIB Employees. This includes the executive management, our scientific groups collaborating with external partners and other SIB Groups across our three pillars (coordination, centre of excellence and open resources), as well as the specialized support teams who are dedicated to serving SIB's projects and activities.

Directors' office

Defines and implements the institute's strategic goals as well as the organization’s representation at the national and international level. 

SIB Groups at the Hub

Clinical Bioinformatics group

SIB's Clinical Bioinformatics provides expertise and support for the organization, analysis and interpretation of patient-related data...

Environmental Bioinformatics group

The Environmental Bioinformatics group is developing data science solutions to address environmental challenges...

Personalized Health Informatics group

SIB's Personalized Health Informatics (PHI) plays a key role in the development of the Swiss Personalized Health landscape...

Swiss-Prot Knowledgebases group

The Swiss-Prot team excels in the art of generating machine-readable knowledge of biology...

Training group

The SIB Training group coordinates the institute’s bioinformatics training and course offer...

Vital-IT Computational Biology group

The Vital-IT group acts as a key sustainable bioinformatics resource serving national and international projects...

Support teams

Biodata Resources

Coordinates the portfolio of SIB Resources, from selection to key indicators monitoring and dedicated support.

Communications and Scientific Events

Ensures the transmission to scientific audiences and society of the advances made possible by the science of biological and biomedical data.

Finance and Grants Management

Manages allocated funds, including reporting to funders and advising Principal Investigators on financial management of grants.

Information Technology

Builds reliable technology platforms to ensure secure and seamless access to information resources and high-quality technology services.

Legal and Technology Transfer

Ensures compliance of SIB and transfer of its knowledge to partners and provides skilled support for biomedical research.

People and Culture

Nurtures an inclusive, respectful and stimulating working culture in which employees offer their best while developing themselves.