Mats Julius StensrudTeaching & PhD PhD Students Ignacio Gonzalez Perez, Gellért Géza Perényi, Lorenzo Gasparollo, Julien David Laurendeau Past EPFL PhD Students Matias Janvin, Amit Sawant Courses Causal thinking MATH-352 This course will give a unified presentation of modern methods for causal inference. We focus on concepts, and we will present examples and ideas from various scientific disciplines, including medicine, computer science, engineering, economics and epidemiology. Probability and statistics (
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.
Lothar HelmTeaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Oleg Yazyev, Loïck Moriggi, Gabriella Eva Bodizs, Hugues Jaccard, Bibimaryam Mousavi, Shima Karimi, Estel Canet Martinez Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Meriem Benmelouka, Estel Canet Martinez
Arnaud BertschTeaching & PhD PhD Students Tao Zhang, Pol Torres Vila, Nicolas Bruno Minazzo Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Joan Teixidor, Clémentine Sophie Sarah Lipp, Nicolas Grégoire Maïno, Jiande Zhou, Jongeon Park Courses Advanced microfabrication practicals MICRO-373 This TP allows for in-depth training on advanced micro and nanofabrication methods in a clean-room environment for selected applications, gain deeper knowledge in MEMS/NEMS processes, work in a small group together with PhD stude
Henning Paul-Julius StahlbergMission
We use high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy to study neurodegeneration and other protein systems. We also develop novel imaging technology in the areas of electron microscopy hardware and applications, sample preparation, data collection schemes, and data analysis software systems. The Stahlberg group is supported by the University of Lausanne, Faculty of Medicine and Biology, and by the EPFL, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Physics Institute. The LBEM is a research laboratory of both UNIL and EPFL.
Esther AmstadEsther Amstad studied material science at ETH in Zurich. She also carried out her PhD thesis at the same University under the supervision of Prof. Marcus Textor; for her thesis, she worked on the surface modification and steric stabilization of oxide nanoparticles. As a postdoctoral fellow, she joined the experimental condensed soft matter group of David A. Weitz at Harvard University where she used droplet based microfluidics to assemble different types of functional micro- and nanomaterials. In addition, she developped new microfluidic devices that enable the production of very small, airborne drops as well as devices that produce highly monodisperse emulsion drops at a very high throughput. In June 2014, Esther joined the material science department (IMX) of EPFL where she is leading the Soft Materials Laboratory (SMAL).
Thierry MeyerThierry Meyer received in 1986 a diploma degree (MSc) in chemical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL). He was awarded in 1989 a PhD at EPFL for his thesis on micromixing in highly viscous polymeric media. He joined the Institute of Chemical Engineering from 1989 till 1993 as senior scientist in the field of polymerization reactions. In 1994 he joined Ciba-Geigy SA in the pigment division as successively development chemist, head of development a.i. and finally production manager for high performance pigments. Returning to the Institute of Chemical Engineering at EPFL in Lausanne by the end of 1998, he was nominated maître denseignement et de recherche (MER) for leading a new research group in the field of polymers and supercritical fluids, and teaching to chemists, chemical engineers and material sciences, disciplines as process development, introduction to chemical engineering, polymer and organic chemistry at master and bachelor program. In 2005 he owned the responsibility of the Occupational Health and Safety of the school of basic sciences on top of his research activities dealing with risk management and supercritical fluids. He is presently teaching introduction to chemical engineering at bachelor level, risk management at master level and specific courses on safety and engineering risk management in continuing education. He acts also as consultant and expert in risk assessment and chemical engineering matters by the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) of the World Business Organization, by several consultancy companies and by major and SMEs chemical industries. Thierry Meyer is currently member of several international associations of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering, American institution of chemical engineering, American chemical society and senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was elected chairman of the European Working Party on Polymer Reaction Engineering from 2001 till 2006. He his currently the Swiss academic member of the European Working Party on Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion as well as of the European Working Party on Education. He is member of several editorial boards: Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Journal of Chemical Health and Safety.
Amela Groso2016 - Present: DSPS-Safety Competence Center, EPFL andISIC-Group of Chemical and Physical Safety2007 - 2016:Occupational Safety and Health at the Faculty of Basic Sciences, EPFL Education : 2004 - 2006 : Postdoctoral fellow at the beamline for Microtomography, Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 2000 - 2004: PhD student of Prof. Margaritondo G., Institut de physique de la matière complexe, EPFL, SwitzerlandPhD, physics 1997 - 2000: Holder of research fellowship for training on beamlines and experimental stations at the Elettra, Synchrotron Light Source, Trieste (Italy). 1991 - 1997: MSc in Physics, Physics department of the University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Rudolf HoviusExpertise
•Protein structure, expression & purification•Molecular interaction & receptor activation•Fluorescence imaging & spectroscopySignalling & sensing
Mission
=> Teaching: Lecture courses, tutorials and practicals in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry of membranes and signalling processes. Participating to the Commission d'Enseignement and Commission de l'Ecole Doctorale of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.=> Research interests: Protein function and structure, Membrane protein (especially recepto
Stewart ColeProfessor Stewart Cole is an international authority in bacterial molecular-genetics and genomics. He has made outstanding contributions in several fields including: bacterial anaerobic electron transport; genome analysis of retroviruses and papillomaviruses; antibiotic resistance mechanisms; and the molecular microbiology of toxigenic clostridia. His studies on isoniazid and multidrug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, together with his pioneering work on the pathogenicity, evolution and genomics of the tubercle and leprosy bacilli, have made him an undisputed leader in the field of mycobacterial research. The findings of his research are of direct relevance to public health and disease-control in both the developing world and the industrialised nations. He has published over 250 scientific papers and review articles, and holds many patents.
Horst PickTeaching & PhD PhD Students Vivek Prakash, Yang Wang Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Olivia Baud, Thamani Dahoun, Enio Daniel Zanchetta Courses Biotechnology lab (for CGC) ChE-433 This laboratory-training course is designed to give students a comprehensive insight into laboratory research techniques in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical biotechnology with practices employed in the industry. Accompanying lectures provide the theoretical background. Chemosensory receptors:
César PulgarinProf. C. Pulgarin is Chemist from Lausanne University, Master in environmental chemistry from Geneva University, Ph D in synthesis bio-inspired of natural substances from Neuchâtel University. During his education he carried out several industrial trainings.
Since March 1989, he has been working at the EPFL where he is leader of the Advanced Oxidation Processes Group (GPAO) active in the development chemical, photochemical, electrochemical, ultrasonic processes, their coupling between them and with biological systems to degrade chemical and microbiological pollutants in water and air. He has an H index of 40 and he is the world most cited author in 1) TiO2 photo-assisted bacterial inactivation in water and 2) Coupling of photochemical and biological processes for pollutant degradation. He has been involved in ten African, South American and European international research projects. He has been Swiss representative in COST program 540.
