Lijing XinLijing Xin is a research staff scientist and 7T MR Operational Manager at the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Her research interests focus on developing cutting-edge magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging methods for better understanding the brain function and the pathophysiology of neurological diseases. Her journey on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) started from her master project during 2002-2005, where she developed a gradient unit with eddy current compensation and a pulse sequence generator for MRI spectrometer, which enhanced her knowledge in MR instrumentation. Later, she obtained her PhD in physics from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2010, where she focused on developing various novel 1H and 13C magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) acquisition and quantification methods as well as RF coils on high field preclinical MR scanners. Afterwards, she started working on the clinical MR platforms including both 3 and 7T and continued to improve and develop novel acquisition and quantification methods for 1H, 13C and 31P nuclei. She carries on interdisciplinary collaborations with different partners, particularly with clinical partners where translational strategies are performed to explore the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and disease biomarkers for early diagnose and intervention.
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.
Stéphanie LacourStéphanie P. Lacour holds the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology in the School of Engineering at EPFL and leads the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from INSA de Lyon, France, and completed postdoctoral research at Princeton University and the University of Cambridge. She is the recipient of the 2006 MIT TR35, a University Research Fellowship of the Royal Society, European Research Council ERC Starting and POC Grants, and a SNSF-ERC Consolidator Grant. She was elected a 2015 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Didier TronoAprès des études de médecine à l’Université de Genève et une formation clinique en pathologie, médecine interne et maladies infectieuses à Genève et au Massachusetts General Hospital de Boston, Didier Trono s’engage dans une carrière scientifique au Whitehead Institute du MIT. En 1990, il est recruté par le Salk Institute de San Diego pour lancer un centre de recherche sur le SIDA. Il rentre en Europe sept ans plus tard, avant de prendre en 2004 les rênes de la toute nouvelle faculté des Sciences de la Vie de l’EPFL, dont il orchestre le développement et qu’il dirige jusqu’en 2012. Il participe aujourd’hui activement à la coordination des efforts de la Suisse en vue de l’intégration des nouvelles technologies dans le domaine de la médecine de précision et de la santé personnalisée.
Hannes BleulerOriginaire de Zollikon (ZH), Hannes Bleuler est né en 1954 au Maroc où il passa son enfance. Après la maturité latine a Zürich, il entre au Département d'électricité à l'ETHZ. Il obtient son diplôme en automatique, en 1978, et entre en fonction comme assistant à l'Institut de mécanique de la même école.
Il y participe à l'établissement du groupe de mécatronique et obtient son doctorat dans le domaine des paliers magnétiques actifs, activité qui mène à la fondation d'une compagnie avec des collègues et à un premier séjour de deux ans chez Hitachi au Japon.
De 1991 à 1995, il est d'abord Toshiba Professor of Intelligent Mechatronics à l'institut des sciences industrielles de l'Université de Tokyo et ensuite professeur associé régulier au département de microtechnique à cette même université.
Il y travaille en microtechnique (instrumentation) et robotique. A l'EPFL, ses activités se concentrent sur la robotique biomédicale et l'interface homme-machine (interfaces haptiques) et l'entraînement et la simulation de chirurgie. Il est directeur de la section microtechnique 2008-2009. Il anime les relations et les échanges entre l'EPFL et le Japon sur tous les niveaux et donne un cours (2010) sur l'histoire des sciences au Japon dans le cadre du Collège des Humanités.
Daniel ConstamDaniel Constam received his doctoral degree in Natural Sciences from ETH Zürich in the neuroimmunology group of Adriano Fontana (1993). For postdoctoral studies, he joined the laboratory of Elizabeth Robertson as an EMBO fellow at Harvard University to characterize proprotein convertase (PC) functions in mouse models of early embryogenesis (1994-1999). As an ISREC group leader (>2000) and Associate Professor at EPFL (>2007), he initially continued to study pluripotency and lineage differentiation during development and found that several secreted PCs jointly regulate cell-cell adhesion and TGFβ signaling pathways at the cross-roads of stem cell and cancer biology. To map the proteolytic activity of PCs and their relative distribution in exocytic or endocytic vesicles, his lab developed PC-specific FRET sensors for high resolution live imaging in normal cells and in tumour-host interactions. His studies on TGFβ signaling also identified the RNA-binding protein Bicc1 and its self-polymerization in membrane-less organelles as regulators of mRNA translation and cell metabolism that cooperate with primary cilia to prevent cystic growth in renal tubules and in pancreatic and bile ducts.
