Three appointments, two promotions and four Veniae docendi

The University Council has appointed Professor Lukas Jeker as clinical professor of transplantation immunology in the Faculty of Medicine. He will take up his new position at University Hospital Basel on 1 December 2026. Lukas Jeker is a research group leader in the Department of Biomedicine and was tenure-track assistant professor of experimental transplantation immunology and nephrology at the University of Basel from 2017 to 2024.

Lukas Jeker studied medicine at the University of Basel and in Paris, and obtained doctorates in both medicine and immunology. From 2007 to 2010, he was a postdoc researcher at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he subsequently worked as assistant adjunct professor until 2014. In 2013, he was awarded a professorship by the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2016, he completed his habilitation in experimental medicine at the University of Basel.

Jeker’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of immune regulation and the development of new types of cell therapies. A particular area of focus is on what is known as epitope engineering: using modern techniques, cells are modified in such a way that they are protected against certain therapeutic attacks. This opens up new prospects for stem cell transplantation, the treatment of blood cancer and, in the long term, for the development of strategies that enable immunological tolerance in organ transplants. Jeker's appointment will further strengthen the focus on cell therapies in Basel.

Jeker received a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his research and the Jonas Memorial Award (USA) for his work on the topic of cellular immunotherapies. In 2020, he also founded the biotechnology company Cimeio Therapeutics, which develops his research findings for clinical application.

Professor Bonnie Murphy has been appointed professor of mechanistic structural biology at the Faculty of Science. She will take up her position at the Biozentrum on 1 August 2027.

Since 2020, Bonnie Murphy has led an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main. Before that, she conducted research at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, where she specialized in structural investigation of membrane proteins using cryo-electron microscopy. She received her D.Phil. in chemistry from the University of Oxford in 2013 and earned her bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from St. Francis Xavier University in Canada.

Murphy's research investigates the structural and molecular basis of biological reactions involving electron transfer. A particular focus is on microbial metabolic processes that play a role in shaping our climate, including CO₂ fixation, sulfur cycling and methane production. She also studies redox systems associated with human health and disease. Using cryo-electron microscopy, her research group visualizes protein complexes in different reaction states, enabling them to investigate how these complexes function at the atomic level. In addition, she develops new methods to allow researchers to get a fuller picture of how different species like ions and lipids, bound to biological complexes, affect their atomic structure and function.

Murphy has received several awards for her research. These include the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize (2023) and the Clara Immerwahr Award (2025). In 2023, she also received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council and was selected as an EMBO Young Investigator.

The new tenure-track assistant professor of theological ethics will be Professor Maximilian Schell. He will take up his position in the Faculty of Theology on 1 February 2027.

Since 2026, Schell has been a postdoctoral lecturer (Akademischer Rat) at the Chair of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After studying Protestant theology and psychology in Bochum, he worked there as a research associate in the Faculty of Protestant Theology, where he obtained his doctorate in 2020 with a dissertation on public theologies of reconciliation, taking post-genocide Rwanda as a case study. He has held teaching appointments in Oldenburg and Rome and served as interim professor of systematic theology (ethics) in Göttingen.

Schell’s research focuses on peace ethics, medical and psychiatric ethics, and the ethics of science and academia. In his work on peace ethics, he asks what guidance theological ethics can offer in times of hybrid warfare, increasing military violence and growing geopolitical tensions. He is particularly committed to dialogue with the Global South: he has repeatedly conducted research and taught in Rwanda and cooperates with theological and church institutions in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa. In medical ethics, he develops perspectives from theological anthropology on mental disorders and examines ethical challenges in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

He also works on the freedom and responsibility of science and academia. Since 2025, he has led an international and interdisciplinary research project on the meaning, conceptualisation and implementation of academic freedom in different regions of the world. Alongside his research, he is especially dedicated to knowledge transfer to the wider public and to supporting the next generation of researchers worldwide.

The University Council has promoted Professor Sabine Rumpf to associate professor. Sabine Rumpf has been a tenure-track assistant professor of ecology in the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Science since 2022. The promotion and thus the granting of tenure will be announced with effect from the 2027 spring semester.

Professor Mirka Henninger will also be promoted to associate professor effective 1 February 2027. Mirka Henninger was appointed tenure-track assistant professor of statistics and data science in the Faculty of Psychology in 2024. The promotion also grants her tenure.

Senate awards Venia docendi

At the request of the Faculty of Medicine, the Senate, at its meeting on 5 November 2026, has granted the Venia docendi and the degree of Dr. habil. to the following individuals. These people are therefore entitled to use the title of lecturer (Privatdozent, PD) and the academic degree of Dr. habil.

• PD Dr. Nikolaus Buchmann for cardiology (with simultaneous “Umhabilitation”, transfer of authorization to teach)
• Dr. Henriette Franz for anatomy and cell biology
• Dr. Ladina Greuter for neurosurgery
• Dr. Victor Schulze-Zachau for neuroradiology