Cathrin BriskenCathrin Brisken, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Dr. Brisken is internationally recognized for her work on endocrine control of mammary gland development and breast carcinogenesis.
Dr. Brisken received her MD and her PhD degree in Biophysics from the Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany. She completed her postdoctoral work in cancer biology with Dr. R.A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, USA. She previously held appointments at the Cancer Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston and the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC).
Research in Dr. Brisken’s laboratory focuses on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of estrogen and progesterone receptor signaling in the breast and the respective roles of these hormones and hormonally active compounds in carcinogenesis. The aim is to understand how recurrent exposures to endogenous and exogenous hormones contribute to breast carcinogenesis in order to better prevent and treat the disease. The laboratory has pioneered in vivo approaches to genetically dissect the role of the reproductive hormones in driving mouse mammary gland development and shown how they control intercellular communication. Dr. Brisken’s group has developed ex vivo and humanized mouse models using patient samples to study hormone action in human tissues in normal settings and during disease progression.
Dr. Brisken is member of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) Biological Protocol Working Group. She served as Dean of EPFL Doctoral School (more than 2000 PhD students in 18 PhD programs), as member of the Hinterzartener Kreis, the oncology think-tank associated with the German Science Foundation, and numerous Swiss, European, and AACR committees. She co-founded the International Cancer Prevention Institute.
Diego GhezziProf. Diego Ghezzi holds the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering at the School of Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He received his M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering (2004) and Ph.D. in Bioengineering (2008) from Politecnico di Milano. From 2008 to 2013, he completed his postdoctoral training at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova at the Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies; where he was promoted to Researcher in 2013. In 2015, he was appointed as Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the EPFL Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering.
Thierry MeyerOriginaire de Genève, né en 1961, Thierry Meyer reçoit en 1986 son diplôme (MSC) dingénieur chimiste de lEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Il reçoit en 1989 son doctorat (PhD) à EPFL pour sa thèse sur le micromélange dans des milieux fortement visqueux. Il rejoint l'institut du génie chimique de 1989 jusqu'à 1993 en tant que scientifique senior dans le domaine des réactions de polymérisation. Il entre, en 1994, à la division " Pigments " de Ciba-Geigy SA, où il travaille au développement et à la mise en production de plusieurs pigments de hautes performances. Il assume la fonction de chef de projets pour l'introduction de nouveaux pigments en fabrication. En 1997, il est nommé chef de fabrication pour la production de la division pigments de Ciba Spécialités Chimiques SA à Monthey. Il est pendant cette même période nommé chargé de cours à l'EPFL. Retournant à l'institut du génie chimique d'EPFL à Lausanne vers la fin de 1998, il a été nommé « d'enseignement de maître et de recherche » (MER) pour mener un nouveau groupe de recherche dans le domaine des polymères et les fluides supercritiques, et enseigner aux chimistes, ingénieurs chimistes et en sciences des matériaux, les disciplines telles que le développement de procédés, l'introduction au génie chimique, le chimie organique et des polymères au programme de bachelor et master. En 2005 il assume la responsabilité du service de Sécurité et Santé au Travail de la faculté des sciences de base en plus de ses activités de recherches traitant de la gestion des risques (risk management) et des fluides supercritiques. Il enseigne actuellement l'introduction au génie chimique au niveau bachelor, le risk management au niveau master et des cours de formation continue dans le domaine de la sécurité (safety) et de la gestion des risques (engineering risk management). Il agit également comme consultant et expert en matière de risk management et génie chimique auprès du tribunal de l'ICC (chambre de commerce internationale) du World Business Organization, auprès de plusieurs bureaux d'études et de consultants ainsi quauprès dindustries. Thierry Meyer est actuellement membre de plusieurs associations internationales de la fédération Européenne du génie chimique et de la société chimique Américaine et American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Il a été élu Président de la European Working Party on Polymer Reaction Engineering de 2001 jusqu'à 2006. Il est actuellement le représentant académique Suisse dans la European Working Party on Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion et dans la European Working Party on Education. Il est membre de plusieurs editorial boards: Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Journal of Chemical Health and Safety.
Maria Giulia PretiMaria Giulia Preti received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) in 2013, after her M. Sc. (2009) and B. Sc. (2007) in Biomedical Engineering, as well at Politecnico di Milano. During her Ph.D., mentored by Prof. Giuseppe Baselli, she focused on advanced techniques of brain magnetic resonance imaging, in particular she developed a method of groupwise fMRI-guided tractography, that revealed to be useful in the in-vivo investigation of the pathophysiological changes across the evolution of Alzheimers disease. For this project, she had been collaborating full-time with the hospital Fondazione Don Gnocchi in Milan (Magnetic Resonance Laboratory). In 2011, she was awarded a Progetto Rocca fellowship from MIT-Italy and spent a visiting research period at the MIT and Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA), under the supervision of Prof. Nikos Makris, where she could focus on the anatomical study of specific neruonal bundles.
She has joined Prof. Van De Ville group at EPFL as a post-doc in 2013. Her current research aims at understanding the connections between brain functionality and brain microscopic anatomy by using advanced techniques of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In particular, she is working on functional MRI, functional connectivity, diffusion tensor imaging and tractography, integration of MRI with other techniques (e.g. EEG), and the application of these methods to several clinical contexts, e.g., epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Freddy RadtkeFreddy Radtke obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Zürich in 1994. In 1995, he started his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Michel Aguet at Genentech, Inc. (San Francisco, USA). In 1997, he returned to Switzerland with Michel Aguet and finished his postdoctoral fellowship at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in Lausanne. From 1999‑2005, he was a group leader and Associate Member at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Freddy Radtke then joined ISREC in January 2006 as a senior scientist and in July 2006, he was appointed Associate Professor at the EPFL School of Life Sciences
