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.
Tamar Kohn2014 - present Associate Professor, EPFL and adjunct researcher, Eawag 2007 - 2013 Assistant Professor, EPFL 2004 - 2006 Postdoctoral researcher, UC Berkeley 2000 - 2004 PhD, Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University 1999 Diploma, Environmental Sciences, ETHZ
Sandro CarraraSandro Carrara a été nommé IEEE Fellow pour ses remarquables réalisations dans le domaine de la conception de biocapteurs CMOS à l'échelle nanométrique. Il a également reçu le prix "IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award" en 2016 pour son leadership dans le domaine émergent du co-design des interfaces Bio/Nano/CMOS. Il est un Professeur titulaire à l' EPFL à Lausanne (Suisse) et responsable du groupe de recherche "Bio/CMOS Interfaces" (BCI). Il est ancien professeur de biocapteurs optiques et électriques au Département de génie électrique et de biophysique (DIBE) de l'Université de Gênes (Italie) et ancien professeur de nanotechnologie à l'Université de Bologne (Italie). Il est titulaire d'un doctorat en biochimie et de biophysique de l'Université de Padoue (Italie), une master en physique de l'Université de Gênes (Italie), et un diplôme en électronique de l'Institut National de Technologie à Albenga (Italie). Ses intérêts scientifiques sont sur les phénomènes électriques de films nano-bio-structuré, et comprennent CMOS conception de biopuces à base de protéines et de l'ADN. Le long de sa carrière, il a publié 7 livres, l'un comme auteur avec Springer sur les interfaces Bio/CMOS et, plus récemment, un manuel de bioélectronique avec La prestigieuse Cambridge University Press. Il a également publié plus de 250 articles scientifiques et est l'auteur de 13 brevets. Il est maintenant chef rédacteur du Journal IEEE Sensors; il est également fondateur et chef rédacteur du Journal BioNanoScience par Springer, et rédacteur adjoint de IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Biomedical Systems. Il est membre du IEEE Sensors Council et de son comité exécutif. Il était membre du Conseil des gouverneurs de la IEEE Circuits And Systems Society (CASS). Il a été nommé IEEE conférencier émérite pour les années 2017-2019 pour le Conseil IEEE Sensors, et de la société CASS pour les années 2013-2014. Son travail a reçu plusieurs reconnaissances internationales: plusieurs Top-25 Hottest-articles (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, et deux fois en 2012) publiés dans des journaux internationales très fort impact telles que Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Sensors And Actuators B, IEEE Sensors, et Thin Solid Films; un Award à une conference de l'OTAN en 1996 pour la contribution originale à la physique de la conductivité à électron unique dans les nano-particules; six "Best Paper Awards" pour des articles présentés à la conférence IEEE Sensors Conference en 2019 (Montreal), IEEE NGCAS en 2017 (Genoa), MOBIHEALTH en 2016 (Milan), IEEE PRIME en 2015 (Glasgow), en 2010 (Berlin) et en 2009 (Cork), un prix de la meilleure affiche au rencontre annuel de Nanotera en 2011 (Berne), et un prix de la meilleure affiche au NanoEurope Symposium en 2009 (Rapperswil). De 1997 à 2000, il a été membre d'un comité international au ELETTRA Synchrotron à Trieste. De 2000 à 2003, il était responsable scientifique d'un Programme national de recherche (PNR) dans le dépôt de nanobiotechnologie. Il était un expert internationalement estimé du comité d'évaluation de l'Académie de Finlande dans un programme de recherche pour les années 2010-2013. Il a été le président général (General Chair) de la Conférence IEEE BioCAS 2014, le premier conférence internationale dans le domaine des circuits et des systèmes pour les applications biomédicales.
Hubert GiraultEducation: 1979 - Engineering diploma from Grenoble Institute of Technology. FRANCE. 1982 - PhD- Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton. Thesis entitled : Interfacial studies using drop image processing techniques. Positions : 1982 - 1984 SERC Research Fellow. University of Southampton. 1984 - 1985 CNRS Research Fellow. University of Southampton. 1985 - 1992 Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. 1992 - Professor of Physical Chemistry, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 2011 - 2014 Dean of Bachelor and Master studies Hubert Girault is the author of 2 textbooks, the co-author of about 600 scientific publications with more than 20'000 citations and the co-inventor of more than 15 patents. During his academic career, he has supervised 70 PhD students. 30 alumni of his laboratory are now Professors. Honours: Faraday medal 2006, Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry 2007, Reilley Award 2015. Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (USA), Shikata International medal, Polarography Society of Japan. Associate editor of Chemical Science
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.
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)
