Unit | Biostatistics

The Biostatistics unit engages in collaborative, basic and applied statistical research in the fields of epidemiology, parasitology and infection biology. Primary areas of applications involve malaria, anaemia, neglected diseases, HIV, mortality, cancer and environmental epidemiology. Research is mainly funded by Swiss National Foundation (SNSF), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and a European research Council (ERC) Advance Grant.

Major areas of methodological research

  • Spatio-temporal modelling for disease burden estimation and surveillance
  • Diagnostic error evaluation
  • Cohort data modelling
  • Exposure modelling
  • Causal inference
  • Meta analysis
  • Bayesian computation

Services

The unit leads Swiss TPH's scientific support services. This service is provided in collaboration with the Public Health Computing group and includes consulting for study design, data management support, statistical analysis, consulting in the fields of biomathematics and bioinformatics, and software development. Clients come from within Swiss TPH and externally. Read more about our Data Services
 

Teaching

The unit is also heavily engaged in teaching Statistics and Epidemiology to medical undergraduates, MSc students and PhD students, both in curricular courses of the University of Basel and in external courses. The Unit is involved in Swiss Master of Public Health Programme, European Course in Tropical Epidemiology and Postgraduate Programme for University Professionals in Insurance Medicine.

Statistics and Epidemiology Teaching

Statistics and epidemiology teaching is provided within the programs of the University of Basel. Within this program we organise the following courses:

Latest Publications

All Publications

Baumann S et al. Serum pentosidine in relation to obesity in patients with type 2 diabetes and healthy controls. Calcif Tissue Int. 2025;116:25. DOI: 10.1007/s00223-024-01338-6

Isaiah P.M, Nyawanda B, Okoyo C, Oloo J.O, Steinmann P. Schistosomiasis status and health impact in preschool-aged children in hard-to-reach areas and populations of Homa Bay County, Kenya. Acta Trop. 2025;261(107511). DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2024.107511

Plass D et al. Estimating the environmental burden of disease resulting from exposure to chemicals in European countries - potentials and challenges revealed in selected case studies. Environ Res. 2025(in press). DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2025.120828

Alchalabi L, Schaffner E, Imboden M, Difloe-Geisert J.C, Zitzmann N.U, Probst-Hensch N. Removable dental prostheses and difficulties with chewing among frail individuals: results from the Swiss SAPALDIA cohort. Swiss Dent J. 2024;134(2):53-71. DOI: 10.61872/sdj-2024-02-04

Bapolisi W.A et al. Engaging men in women's empowerment: impact of a complex gender transformative intervention on household socio-economic and health outcomes in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo using a longitudinal survey. BMC Public Health. 2024;24(1):443. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-17717-5