Matthias Lutolf is Full Professor at EPFL’s Institute of Bioengineering, with a cross appointment in the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering. Lutolf was trained as a Materials Engineer at ETH Zurich where he also carried out his PhD studies (with Jeffrey Hubbell) that were awarded with an ETH medal. He continued his research training as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Stem Cell Biology (with Helen Blau) at Stanford University. He has served as the Director of the Institute of Bioengineering from 2014 to 2018. Lutolf is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of stem cell bioengineering and tissue engineering. His research program uniquely combines stem cell biology with engineering principles and quantitative thinking. His team, composed of engineers, chemists, physicists, cell and developmental biologists, strives to develop technologies that have true biological and medicinal function and applicability. Lutolf’s work has led to more than 110 peer-reviewed scientific publications, many of which published in highly reputed journals, more than 25 patents, and the commercialization of several products. Current research in the Lutolf lab is focused on the bioengineering of miniature tissues, termed organoids, that are generated from self-organizing stem cells.
Yann Barrandon graduated in Medicine in Paris where he also trained as a dermatologist and completed his PhD on the long term cultivation of human haematopoietic stem cells in 1982 under the direction of Dr. Catherine Dresch (Centre Hayem, St Louis Hospital). He worked as a post-doctoral fellow (1982-1983) with Pr. Marvin Karasek in the Department of Dermatology at Stanford University CA, and then with Pr. Howard Green, a pioneer in cell therapy, in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Harvard Medical School (1983-1990). During this period, he participated in the world's first transplantations of epidermal stem cells on extensive third degree wounds and contributed several seminal findings including the demonstration of stem cells in cultures of human keratinocytes (PNAS 1987), and that human keratinocyte stem cells could be efficiently transduced by retroviral vectors (Science 1987), in collaboration with Richard Mulligan at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Massachussets Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA). He has also participated to the transfer of the stem cell technology from Harvard University to a spin off biotechnology company, now part of Genzyme Corp.
He returned to France in 1990 as Director of Research at the INSERM and Head of Lab at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. During this period, he demonstrated the presence of multipotent clonogenic stem cells in hair follicles (Cell 1994, 2001) and successfully brought stem cells from bench to bedside demonstrating the usefulness of a fibrin matrix to transplant epidermal stem cells. (Transplantation, 2000). Following his move to Lausanne, Yann Barrandon has shown that oligopotent stem cells are present in the mammalian cornea (Nature 2008), challenging previous dogma. He has also contributed to the characterisation of several skin diseases (Nature Genetics, 1993a, 1993b, 2000, 2005) and towards gene therapy of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. He is a partner in several EEC stem cell consortia (FP6: Therapeuskin and EuroStemCell, FP7: EuroSyStem, OptiStem, BetaCellTherapy).
Current research targets the role of small microenvironmental variations on stem cell behavior, and exploring the potency of stem cells of stratified epithelia (skin, esophagus, ocular surface) and of thymic epithelial cells. The lab is also involved in understanding the factors that regulate stem cell engraftment to improve epithelial cell therapy. An important aspect of the research aims at setting up a pilot clinical trial to demonstrate the feasibility of ex vivo gene therapy to treat Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare but horrendous congenital disease of the skin that results in continuous blistering of the skin, chronic wounds, fusion of fingers and development of carcinoma.
Yann Barrandon was a member of the Faculty Council of the EPFL School of Life Sciences 2006-2008, of the Board of Swiss Stem Cell Network, 2004-2009, and is a member of the EPFL Ethics Committee since 2008. He is a reviewer for major scientific journals and for major granting agencies abroad. He is a member of the board of Directors of the International Society for Differentiation (ISD) and of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) and was a Member of the Board of Directors of the European Tissue Repair Society, 1990-1995. He was elected as EMBO member in 2009.
He has given over 300 invited conferences and seminars worldwide on the biology and the therapeutic use of cutaneous stem cells including:
Gordon Research Conferences, Tissue Repair and Regeneration, June 2005, New London, USA,
Keystone Symposia on Stem Cells, April 2006, Whistler, Canada
Keystone Symposia, Stem Cell Interactions with their Microenvironmental Niche, March 2007, Keystone, USA
Keystone Symposia, Stem Cell Niche Interactions, April 2009, Whistler, Canada
Gordon Research Conferences, Epithelial Stem Cells, June 2009, Les Diablerets, Switzerland
7th Meeting of the International Society Stem Cell Research, July 2009, Barcelona, Spain
16th International Society for Developmental Biologists, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, Sept 2009
Yann Barrandon has given multiple media interviews and participated to different reportages:
LCI, TF1, France 2, France 3, RSR (Radio Suisse Romande), TSR (Television Suisse Romande), and articles in newspapers: Figaro, La Croix, Le Temps, LHebdo, Le Nouvelliste, etc. He was also a participant in the movie A Stem Cell Story, EuroStemCell, Best TV/video production, Tromsø Science Media Festival; Best short film, Scinema (Australia); In competition, Science Film Festival (Bangkok), BaKaFORUM 2007, Vedere la Scienza
He organized the second EuroStemCell international conference Advances in Stem Cell Research supported by the EMBO and held in Lausanne 8-10 September 2006. He regularly participates as faculty to the EEC funded Stem Cell Summer School held in Hydra Greece since 2005.
Philippe Renaud is Professor at the Microsystem Laboratory (LMIS4) at EPFL. He is also the scientific director of the EPFL Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMI). His main research area is related to micronano technologies in biomedical applications (BioMEMS) with emphasis on cell-chips, nanofluidics and bioelectronics. Ph. Renaud is invloved in many scientifics papers in his research area. He received his diploma in physics from the University of Neuchâtel (1983) and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Lausanne (1988). He was postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley (1988-89) and then at the IBM Zürich Research Laboratory in Switzerland (1990-91). In 1992, he joined the Sensors and Actuators group of the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) at Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was appointed assistant professor at EPFL in 1994 and full professor in 1997. In summer 1996, he was visiting professor at the Tohoku University, Japan. Ph. Renaud is active in several scientific committee (scientific journals, international conferences, scientific advisory boards of companies, PhD thesis committee). He is also co-founder of the Nanotech-Montreux conference. Ph. Renaud is committed to valorization of basic research through his involvement in several high-tech start-up companies.
Sandro 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.
