Four new professors at the University of Basel
In 2026, three new professors will take up positions in the Faculty of Medicine, while one professor will be joining the Faculty of Psychology. In addition to these appointments, the University Council has approved two promotions.
16 December 2025
The University Council has appointed Prof. Dr. Mira Katan Kahles as Clinical Professor of Neurology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel, with an appointment at University Hospital Basel. She will assume her position on 1 January 2026. Since June 2024, she has served as Interim Head of the Department of Neurology at University Hospital Basel. Previously, she held several senior leadership roles there, including Deputy Head of the Department and Head of Inpatient Neurology, Acute Neurology, and the Stroke Center.
Mira Katan Kahles studied medicine at the University of Zurich, where she received her MD in 2006. She completed her neurology training at University Hospital Basel, followed by advanced clinical and scientific training in the United States, including a fellowship at Columbia University in New York and a Master’s degree in Biostatistics and Epidemiology. After returning to Switzerland, she obtained her habilitation at the University of Zurich and subsequently returned to University Hospital Basel.
Her scientific focus lies in neurological and neurovascular diseases, with a particular emphasis on biomarker-based precision medicine. Her research integrates molecular characterization, clinical phenotyping, and population-based analyses to identify disease-specific biological signatures and to define their prognostic value and relevance for therapeutic stratification.
With this appointment, Prof. Katan Kahles strengthens the University of Basel’s profile in clinical and translational neurosciences and contributes to its international visibility in research, teaching, and highly specialized neurological care. Mira Katan and Cristina Granziera will jointly take over as heads of department at the Clinic of Neurology at the University Hospital Basel.
Professorship in Translational Imaging
Prof. Dr. Dr. Cristina Granziera will become the new Clinical Professor of Translational Imaging at the University of Basel’s Faculty of Medicine, based at the University Hospital Basel. She is Senior Physician for Neurology at the University Hospital Basel, Titular Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Basel, and Co-CEO of the Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB).
Cristina Granziera has an extensive international scientific and clinical career. She received her doctorate in medicine from the University of Padua in 2001 and her doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Lausanne in 2007, where she also completed her habilitation in 2014. Her academic career then took her to Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her research focuses on understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative, and cerebrovascular diseases and using this knowledge to develop new approaches to diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. She has made a decisive contribution to identifying biomarkers of tissue repair in multiple sclerosis, characterizing the principles of structural brain plasticity after stroke, and describing neurodegenerative processes that drive clinical deterioration. In addition, she develops integrative models that combine imaging techniques, clinical data, biomarkers, digital parameters, and AI-supported analyses to more accurately capture and predict the dynamics of chronic inflammatory and degenerative diseases. This work opens up new perspectives for personalized neurology and innovative therapeutic strategies.
Cristina Granziera will also take up her new position on January 1, 2026.
Professorship in reproductive medicine
Professor Frauke von Versen will become the new clinical professor of reproductive medicine/gynecological endocrinology at the Faculty of Medicine. She will take up her role at the University Hospital Basel on 1 April 2026 and will also be head of department for reproductive medicine and gynecological endocrinology at the University Hospital Basel.
She is currently an attending physician in the field of gynecological endocrinology and reproductive medicine at the Women’s Health Clinic at the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (MHH), where she also leads her own research group on reproductive medicine and molecular perinatology. After studying medicine in Berlin, Baltimore, Tel Aviv and Bern, she obtained her doctorate from Humboldt University in 2003 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pittsburgh (USA).
At the MHH she completed her habilitation in the field of experimental gynecology with a focus on preeclampsia and later received an adjunct professorship. International research stays, including as a visiting professor at Stanford University, and a Heisenberg fellowship from the DFG round off her academic career.
Frauke von Versen’s current research focuses on the causes of different maternal and neonatal outcomes after assisted reproduction, factors in reproductive and vascular aging, and the pathomechanisms of endometriosis. Her work combines clinical research with basic science and translational medicine. She contributes to several medical guidelines, including those on hormonal contraception, hypertensive pregnancy diseases and long Covid.
Professorship in human development
Professor Mariëtte van Loon will become the new assistant professor with tenure track for human development at the Faculty of Psychology. She will take up her position on 1 July 2026. Mariëtte van Loon has been an SNSF professor at the University of Zurich since August 2023, where she heads the “Metacognitive Development in Children and Adolescents” research group in the Department of Psychology. She previously worked at the University of Bern, most recently as a postdoc and team leader for study and examination coordination in the field of psychology and neuroscience.
She obtained her doctorate in educational psychology from Maastricht University in 2014 and completed her habilitation at the University of Bern in 2022. She gained international research experience at Kent State University in the USA. Mariëtte van Loon explores the question of how children and young people can observe, control and improve their own learning – a process known as “metacognition”. She investigates how these abilities develop individually and how they are influenced by social factors.
Her research combines psychological theories with empirical studies and aims to better understand and specifically promote learning processes. Particular attention is paid to fluctuations in learning behavior over short and long periods of time.
Two promotions
The University Council has promoted Professor Alfred Früh to associate professor. Früh has been an assistant professor with tenure track for private law with a focus on life sciences law and intellectual property law at the Faculty of Law since 1 February 2021. The promotion will take effect from the spring semester of 2026.
Professor Marion Schulze will also be promoted to associate professor effective 1 February 2026. Marion Schulze has been a tenure-track assistant professor of gender studies and cultural anthropology in the Department of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since 2020.
