Life Sciences at the EPFL - Mission and Challenge

Biomedical research will increasingly rely on quantitative approaches and high-end technologies, and the future of life sciences lies at the crossroads of biology, basic sciences, informatics and engineering.

Accordingly, the School of Life Sciences trains a new breed of researchers whose combined skills in these various fields are set to address fundamental biological questions and to attack the major medical problems of our times with the true spirit of systems biologists.

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News Media

This week's events at the SV  -  SV Events  -  EPFL News/Press releases

For your calendars...

• New...Come and join the EPFL Life Sciences Seminars - Fall 2009 Program - Venue: room SV 1717a, next to the "Ornithorynque Restaurant" - Fridays at 4 pm  

Past events...  

Our special congratulations to...

• ...the Life Sciences and Technologies students for their Master's degree awarded at the EPFL 2009 Dies Academicus (Journée Magistrale)...Our warm congratulations to Peter Beard for his "Polysphères 2009" award delivered by the EPFL student association - the AGEpoly - this award is given to some professors each year in recognition of their outstanding teaching skills and of their personal investment in the students...
  
  
• A Gold Medal and a "Best New BioBrick Part or Device Engineered Prize" awarded at MIT during the annual iGEM jamboree held October 30 thru November 2, 2009 by the interdisciplinary team of 10 undergrads (Bachelor's and Master's students enrolled in EPFL's Life Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering curricula; coached by Sebastian Maerkl, Bart Deplancke and Matteo Dal Peraro as instructors and by three PhD students of the Biotech & Bioeng Program, this EPFL second participation in the IGEM - international Genetically Engineered Machine competition - landed a great success last week with a project nicknamed "E.colight", aiming at demonstrating the ability of light-sensitive fusion proteins to regulate gene expression through light control...more

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH - APPOINTMENTS

• Stewart Cole and his team of geneticists, microbiologists, and archeologists has followed the leprosy bacteria's traces from the lab to the Silk Road and the tombs of Egyptian mummies...more in "Nature Genetic" and...here
  
  
• The EMBO - European Molecular Biology Organization - elects Gisou van der Goot, Yann Barrandon and Didier Trono among the leading life scientists; the EMBO elects new members annually on the basis of scientific excellence, putting a spotlight on the most outstanding representatives of the current generation of life scientists...more
  
  
• Henry Markram hosted by the prestigious TED Foundation, Oxford, UK, to present the Blue Brain Project - His speech is online
  
  
• Our warm congratulations to Gisou van der Goot, professor at the Institute of Global Health of the EPFL Life Sciences, who received the 2009 Marcel Benoist Prize; this is the first time this prize has been awarded to a woman, as well as the first time EPFL has been undividedly awarded the prize...more
  
  
• Pierre Magistretti, Director Brain Mind Institute, has been endorsed by the Governing Council of the International Brain Research Organization, the IBRO, as its next Secretary-General; his three-year term of office begins in January 2010...more
  
  
• Johan Auwerx has received the Danone International Prize for Nutrition for his research in molecular nutrition; more precisely, his studies focus on the mechanism of shedding of fat from adipose tissue, thereby paving the way for new preventive and therapeutic strategies to combat obesity and cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension...more
  
  
• Our warm congratulations to Hilal Lashuel and his group, at the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Neuroproteomics of the School of Life Sciences, who are among the eight young EPFL scientists to be awarded an ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grant; the 1.5 Million Euro grant is for five years and will support research by Prof. Lashuel and his team aimed at developing Novel tools for real time monitoring and quantification of protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. This funding scheme targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders...more

Past news...