Johan AuwerxJohan Auwerx is Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he occupies the Nestle Chair in Energy Metabolism. Dr. Auwerx has been using molecular physiology and systems genetics to understand metabolism in health, aging and disease. Much of his work focused on understanding how diet, exercise and hormones control metabolism through changing the expression of genes by altering the activity of transcription factors and their associated cofactors. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of nuclear receptors - a particular class of transcription factors - into drugs, which now are used to treat high blood lipid levels, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Auwerx was amongst the first to recognize that transcriptional cofactors, which fine-tune the activity of transcription factors, act as energy sensors/effectors that influence metabolic homeostasis. His research validated these cofactors as novel targets to treat metabolic diseases, and spurred the clinical use of natural compounds, such as resveratrol, as modulators of these cofactor pathways.
Johan Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003 and is the recipient of a dozen of international scientific prizes, including the Danone International Nutrition Award, the Oskar Minkowski Prize, and the Morgagni Gold Medal. His work is highly cited by his peers with a h-factor of over 100. He is an editorial board member of several journals, including Cell Metabolism, Molecular Systems Biology, The EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Cell, and Science. Dr. Auwerx co-founded a handful of biotech companies, including Carex, PhytoDia, and most recently Mitobridge, and has served on several scientific advisory boards.
Dr. Auwerx received both his MD and PhD in Molecular Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Rolf GruetterAwards:
1999 Young Investigator Award Plenary Lectureship
, International Society for Neurochemistry
2011 Fellow
, ESMRMB
2011 Teaching Award
, Section Sciences de la Vie, EPFL
Theo LasserDe nationalité allemande, né en 1952 à Lauchheim (Baden-Württemberg). Après des études de physique à l'Université Fridericiana de Karlsruhe, il y obtient son diplôme de physique en 1978.
En 1979, il rejoint l'Institut de Recherches franco-allemand à Saint-Louis (France) comme collaborateur scientifique. En 1986, il rejoint la division de recherche de Carl Zeiss à Oberkochen (Allemagne) où il développe principalement divers systèmes laser pour des applications médicales. Dès 1990, il dirige le laboratoire laser de la division médicale. En 1993, il prend la direction de l'unité "laser d'ophtalmologie". Dès le début 1995, il est chargé de restructurer et regrouper les nombreuses activités d'ophtalmologie chez Carl Zeiss et de les transférer à Jena. Durant cette période, il réalise des nouveaux instruments de réfraction, des biomicroscopes et des caméras rétiniennes.
Dès janvier 1998, il dirige la recherche de Carl Zeiss à Jena où il initie de nouveaux projets en microscopie, en microtechnique et en recherche médicale. En juillet 1998, il est nommé professeur ordinaire en optique biomédicale à l'Institut d'optique appliquée. Au sein du Département de microtechnique, son activité de recherche porte sur la photonique biomédicale. Il participe à l'enseignement d'optique et d'instrumentation biomédicale.
Short CV
1972 Physics University of Karlsruhe (Germany)
1979 l'Institut de Recherches franco-allemand à Saint-Louis (France)
1986 central research division Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen (Germany)
1990 Med - Division, ophthalmic lasers
1994 Ophthalmology division, Carl Zeiss Jena
1998 Head of Central research Carl Zeiss Jena
1998 full Professor Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Switzerland
Denis GilletDenis Gillet received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 1988, and the Ph.D. degree in Information Systems also from the EPFL in 1995. During 1992 he was appointed as Research Fellow at the Information Systems Laboratory of Stanford University in the United States. He is currently Maître d'enseignement et de recherche at the EPFL School of Engineering, where he leads the React research group. His current research interests include Technologies Enhanced Learning (TEL), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Human Devices Interaction (HDI) and Optimal Coordination of Complex and Distributed Systems. Denis Gillet is affiliated at EPFL with the Center for Intelligent Systems and the Center for Digital Education.
Sandrine GerberSandrine Gerber studied chemistry at the "Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris" in France, where she obtained a diploma of chemical engineer in 1993. The same year she obtained a DEA (Master degree) of organic chemistry at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). From 1993 to 1996 she did a PhD in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Pierre Genêt at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris. In 1996, she moved to University of Lausanne for a post-doctoral stay under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Vogel. In 1998, she was appointed Maître-Assistante at the Institute of Organic Chemistry in the University of Lausanne. In 2003, she obtained the habilitation to direct research from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). The same year, she was appointed scientific adjunct at the EPFL and senior scientist (Maître d'Enseignement et de Recherche) in 2006. In December 2014, she was promoted to titular professor. Since September 2007, Sandrine Gerber is deputy to the director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC). She is also member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Chemical Society. Since 2007, Sandrine Gerber is part-time lecturer at the university of Fribourg. She was awarded the Prize Eugene Schueller in 1997, the Prize Dufour for prospective organic chemistry in 2005 and the Werner Prize 2010. She also received a special mention in recognition of exceptional quality of pedagogic competencies in the teaching of basic sciences, given by the Direction of the School of Biology and Medicine from the University of Lausanne, in 2013. In October 2018, she will receive the Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Pierre MagistrettiPierre J. Magistretti is an internationally-recognized neuroscientist who has made significant contributions in the field of brain energy metabolism. His group has discovered some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the coupling between neuronal activity and energy consumption by the brain.
This work has considerable ramifications for the understanding of the origin of the signals detected with the current functional brain imaging techniques used in neurological and psychiatric research (see for example Magistretti et al, Science, 283: 496 497, 1999). He is the author of over 100 articles published in peer-reviewed journals.
He has given over 80 invited lectures at international meetings or at universities in Europe and North America, including the 2000 Talairach Lecture at the Functional Mapping of the Human Brain Conference. In November 2000 he has been a Mc Donnel Visiting Scholar at Washington University School of Medicine.
Pierre J. Magistretti is the President-Elect (2002 2004) of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) which has a membership of over 15000 European neuroscientists. He has been first president of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience (1997-1999) and the first Chairman of the Department of Neurosciences of the University of Lausanne (1996 1998).
Pierre J. Magistretti is Professor of Physiology (since 1988) at the University of Lausanne Medical School. He has been Vice-Dean of the University of Lausanne Medical School from 1996 to 2000. Pierre Magistretti, is Director of the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and Director of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience of the University of Lausanne and CHUV. He is also Director of the NCCR SYNAPSY "the synaptic bases of mental diseases".
POSITIONS AND HONORS
MAIN POSITION HELD
1988-2004 Professor of Physiology, University of Lausanne Medical School
1996-2000 Vice-Dean for Preclinical Departments, University of Lausanne Medical School
2001-2004 Chairman, Department of Physiology, University of Lausanne Medical School
2004-present Professor and Director, Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of Lausanne Medical School and Hospitals (UNIL-CHUV) (Joint appointment with EPFL)
2005-2008 Professor and Co-Director, Brain Mind Institute, Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne (Joint appointment with UNIL-CHUV)
2007-present Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Centre dImagerie Biomédicale (CIBM), an Imaging Consortium of the Universities, University Hospitals of Lausanne and Geneva and of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
2008-present Professor and Director, Brain Mind Institute, Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne Joint appointment with UNIL-CHUV)
2010-present Director, National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR)
The synaptic bases of mental diseases of the Swiss National Science Foundation
2010-present Secretary General, International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)
MAIN HONORS AND AWARDS
1997 Recipient of the Theodore-Ott Prize of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
2001 Elected Member of Academia Europaea
2001 Elected Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, ad personam
2002 Recipient of the Emil Kraepelin Guest Professorship, Max Planck Institute für Psychiatry, Münich
2006 Elected Professor at Collège de France, Paris, International Chair 2007-2008
2009 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship, Canadian Psychological Association
2011 Camillo Golgi Medal Award, Golgi Fondation
2011 Elected Member of the American College of NeuroPsychopharmacology (ACNP)
Michel AguetDr. Michel Aguet, MD, held positions in academia and industry (Associate Professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Zürich; Head of Molecular Oncology, Genentech, So. San Francisco) before he was appointed director of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) (1996-2009). In the context of the integration of ISREC into the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), he was appointed as Full Professor at the newly established School of Life Sciences in 2005. From 2001-2013 he directed the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Molecular Oncology, a national program launched by the Swiss National Science Foundation to encourage translational cancer research and for which ISREC was the leading house. Dr. Aguet has been a SAB member in the pharmaceutical industry, biotech industry and venture capital industry since 1997.
A large part of his scientific career was devoted to exploring the molecular biology of interferons (cloning of the interferon gamma receptor, generation of various interferon signaling mutants in the mouse) and, in collaboration with Prof. Charles Weissmann, to investigating the role of prion related protein PrP in mouse prion disease models. In recent years his research focused on characterizing the role of BCL9 proteins, which are part of the Wnt/beta-catenin transcriptional activation complex, in regulating stem cell traits in intestinal epithelium and colorectal cancer. His laboratory is now closed due to retirement.
