Urs Albrecht studied Biochemistry at the University of Zürich and subsequently did a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Bern, working on RNA splicing and studying polydna viruses in a parasitic wasp.
In 1993 he joined the Department of Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA, where he performed seminal work on Period genes in humans and mice that earned him a position as Assistant Professor. In 1999 he joined the Max-Planck Institute for experimental Endocrinology in Hannover, Germany, where he established his research group working on circadian clocks. He returned to Switzerland in 2001 as Associate Professor to the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Fribourg where he still leads a research group as full Professor.
His research interests are centered around the question how different tissue clocks adjust to environmental cues and how the brain integrated this information to produce coherent systemic and metabolic rhythms.