Celebrating Excellence:
Dr. Saranda Nimani Receives the Prestigious Benoît Pochon Prize 2025
AlbPhD Circle proudly congratulates our member, Dr. Saranda Nimani, on receiving the prestigious Benoît Pochon Prize 2025 from the Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR) at the University of Bern.
The Benoît Pochon Prize is awarded annually to a doctoral researcher whose work demonstrates exceptional scientific quality, innovation, and research productivity. Receiving this distinction is a remarkable achievement and reflects Dr. Nimani's outstanding contribution to cardiovascular medicine and translational research.
The award recognizes her MD-PhD thesis, "QT Syndromes: Arrhythmogenic Mechanisms and Novel Therapeutic Approaches," completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Katja E. Odening.
Reflecting on the occasion, Dr. Nimani shared that returning to Bern to receive the award felt incredibly special. She expressed her sincere gratitude to the Department for BioMedical Research for this recognition to her supervisor, Prof. Odening, for her mentorship and support, and to the entire research team in Bern for making her scientific journey both rewarding and memorable.
Research That Could Shape the Future of Genetic Heart Disease Treatments
Every heartbeat is triggered by a precisely coordinated wave of electrical signals that propagates through the heart. In inherited conditions such as short QT syndrome (SQTS) and long QT syndrome (LQTS), genetic alterations disrupt this finely tuned electrical coordination, significantly increasing the risk of life-threatening rhythm disorders and sudden cardiac death. While available therapies help manage symptoms and reduce arrhythmia risk, they do not address the underlying disease mechanisms.
To address this unmet need, Dr. Nimani's research explored an innovative suppression-replacement (SupRep) gene therapy strategy designed to silence the faulty gene while introducing a functional replacement. Unlike many gene therapies that target specific disease-causing genetic variants, this strategy targets the entire gene, offering the potential to benefit patients regardless of the specific genetic variant underlying their disease.
Using genetically modified rabbit models of SQTS and LQTS that closely mimic human disease, Dr. Nimani’s work demonstrated the therapeutic potential of this approach, with initial efficacy studies showing restoration of the physiological phenotype in both models.
These findings provide the first in vivo evidence of gene therapy efficacy in medium-sized animal models of SQTS and LQTS, marking an important step toward the development of precision therapies for these and related inherited cardiac disorders.
Advancing Precision Medicine
Dr. Nimani's work has already contributed to several high-impact scientific publications, including studies published in the European Heart Journal, and has received international recognition through multiple scientific awards and distinctions for her contributions to the field of cardiac gene therapy.
Her achievement exemplifies the mission of AlbPhD Circle: celebrating researchers whose work pushes scientific boundaries while creating meaningful impact for patients and society.
We extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Saranda Nimani on this well-deserved recognition and wish her continued success as she advances innovative therapies for inherited heart diseases.
