Mahmut Selman SakarExpertise
robotics, mechanobiology, microtechnology, smart materials, biomedical devices
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Lorenzo Francesco John Noseda, Nikita Norkin, Elif Ezgi Inan, Houman Javaheri, Mehdi Ali Gadiri, Julian Leon Raub, Junsun Hwang Past EPFL PhD Students Erik Mailand, Raquel Filipa Penacho Parreira, Murat Kaynak, Lucio Pancaldi-Giubbini, Fazil Emre Uslu, Matthias Rüegg, Ece Özelçi, Emilie Vuille-Dit-Bille Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Laura Joan Hermans, Sourabh Monnappa Kuppanda Jafri
Gaspard PardonDr. Gaspard Pardon graduated with a MSc in Microengineering from EPFL in 2008, with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His graduate research focussed on the engineering of novel micro- and nanofluidic devices for rapid Point-of-Care diagnostics of infectious diseases, including the detection of airborne pathogens.
In 2016, Gaspard moved to the Silicon Valley in California where he conducted a postdoc at Stanford University. There, he developed novel in vitro cardiac models, a.k.a. organ-on-chip, using cardiac cells differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells. He focussed his research and technological developments on the study of genetic cardiomyopathies, including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Since March 2021, Gaspard joined EPFL to become Head of the Bioengineering and Technology platform at the AGORA Translational Cancer Research Center. This platform aims to provide infrastructure and support in the use, development and translation of bioengineering technologies and to foster cross-disciplinary collaborations centered around bioengineering between the researchers from the partner institution: CHUV, HUG, UNIL, EPFL, Ludwig Cancer Research Center and ISREC, as well as with industrial partners in the biotech and pharma industry.
Dominique PiolettiDominique Pioletti received his Master in Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in 1992. He pursued his education in the same Institution and obtained his PhD in biomechanics in 1997. He developed original constitutive laws taking into account viscoelasticity in large deformations. Then he spent two years at UCSD as post-doc fellow acquiring know-how in cell and molecular biology. He was interested in particular to gene expression of bone cells in contact to orthopedic implant. In April 2006, Dominique Pioletti was appointed Assistant Professor tenure-track at the EPFL and is director of the Laboratory of Biomechanical Orthopedics. His research topics include biomechanics and tissue engineering of musculo-skeletal tissues; mechano-transduction in bone; development of orthopedic implant as drug delivery system. Since 2013, he has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.
Philippe MüllhauptExpertise
Nonlinear Control (Geometry and Algebra)Classical DynamicsRoboticsStatistics
Mission
Provide rigorous technical and scientific training in nonlinear control, classical mechanics, and statistical theory
Current Work
Research and teaching in the fields of control theory, statistics, dynamical systems, and general mechanics.
Philippe Mullhaupt received his Diplôme d Education Ing�nieur | Electricit� 1993 – 1993 EPFL DEA | Automatique et Traitement du Signal 199
Alexandre TerrierExpertise
BiomechanicsJoint biomechanicsMecano-biologyOrthopaedic researchPatient-specific modellingContinuum mechanicsFinite Element AnalysisExperimental testingStatistical analyses
Expertise
BiomechanicsJoint biomechanicsMecano-biologyOrthopaedic researchPatient-specific modellingContinuum mechanicsFinite Element AnalysisExperimental testingStatistical analyses
Mission
Develop patient-specific models of human joints and their replacement, in parallel with a database of patients, in order to test statistic
Anne-Laure Mahul MellierExpertise
Cellular Biology: Cell culture of mammalian cell lines (U2OS, N2a, M17, SH-S5Y5, Cos, HeLa, HEK, MCF7), Astrocytic and neuronal primary cultures (hippocampus, cortex, striatum, midbrain) from P0 mouse or rat pups or from E16-E19 mice embryos, iPSC neuronal cultures (proliferation, passaging, differentiation in iNeurons or iDopaminergic neurons), Cellular transfection (DNA plasmid, siRNA, shRNA), Lentiviruses production and infection of neuronal primary cultures or mammalian cell lines, Samples pre
Christian IseliTeaching & PhD Courses Bioinformatic Analysis of RNA-sequencing (Fall) BIO-693(a) Bioinformatic Analysis of RNA-sequencing (Spring) BIO-693(b) This course will take place at EPFL in June 2026, from 8th to 12th, in room AAC 137.It introduces the workflows and techniques that are used for the analysis of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data. It empowers students to understand and analyze their own data. Methods: omics in biomedical research BIOENG-519 High-throughp
Nicolas Jean Philippe GuexTeaching & PhD Courses Bioinformatic Analysis of RNA-sequencing (Fall) BIO-693(a) Bioinformatic Analysis of RNA-sequencing (Spring) BIO-693(b) This course will take place at EPFL in June 2026, from 8th to 12th, in room AAC 137.It introduces the workflows and techniques that are used for the analysis of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data. It empowers students to understand and analyze their own data. Methods: omics in biomedical research BIOENG-519 High-throughp
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.
Paolo De Los RiosPaolo De Los Rios earned his master in Electronic Engineering at the Turin Institute of Technology (Politecnico di Torino) in May 1993. In November 1993 he moved to Trieste, Italy, to enter the PhD program in Theoretical Condensed Matter Theory at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA/ISAS) where he obtained the PhD degree in October 1996 for his work on the statistical physics of disordered systems. After a one year postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, in November 1997 he moved to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to join the group of Prof. Yi-Cheng Zhang. There he has worked on various applications of statistical physics to complex systems. In September 2000 he has been appointed Assistant Professor in Statistical Physics of Living Matter and Complex Systems at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Since April 2010 he is Associate Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Didier TronoAfter obtaining an M.D. from the University of Geneva and completing a clinical training in pathology, internal medicine and infectious diseases in Geneva and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Didier Trono embarked in a scientific career at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research of MIT. In 1990, he joined the faculty of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to launch a center for AIDS research. He moved back to Europe seven years later, before taking the reins of the newly created EPFL School of Life Sciences, which he directed from 2004 to 2012. He is now actively engaged in the efforts of Switzerland to integrate new technologies in the fields of precision medicine and personalized health.
