Jürg Gertsch studied Cultural Anthropology, Neurosciences and Biochemistry at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Biozentrum Basel and University of Sussex (MSc 1997). He obtained his PhD in natural product chemistry and pharmaceutical biology at the ETH Zürich in 2002 in the group of Otto Sticher. Afterwards, he did postdoctoral research in the group of Karl-Heinz Altmann, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich. He then became a group leader at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the ETH Zürich. He was a visiting researcher at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, University of Guadalajara, Mexico and the University of Cagliari, Sardegna. In 2009 he was appointed as tenure track assistant professor at the University of Bern.

He is currently a full professor and Deputy Director at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of Bern and member of management and KTT delegate of the National Centre of Competence in Research NCCR TransCure. His research group focusses on molecular pharmacology, chemical biology and the endocannabinoid system. He is a chair in the pharmacy curriculum at the University of Bern and ETH Zurich and serves as editorial board member of different scientific journals and as consultant for two pharmaceutical companies. In 2019 he co-founded Synendos Therapeutics, a start-up company developing selective endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitors. His research combines basic research and drug discovery. Jürg Gertsch and his research group have published more than 130 research papers on molecular pharmacology of cannabinoids, biochemistry and the endocannabinoid system. His research is funded by the SNSF, EU, industry collaborations.