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Johan 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.

Cathrin Brisken, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Dr. Brisken is internationally recognized for her work on endocrine control of mammary gland development and breast carcinogenesis. Dr. Brisken received her MD and her PhD degree in Biophysics from the Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany. She completed her postdoctoral work in cancer biology with Dr. R.A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, USA. She previously held appointments at the Cancer Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston and the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC). Research in Dr. Brisken’s laboratory focuses on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of estrogen and progesterone receptor signaling in the breast and the respective roles of these hormones and hormonally active compounds in carcinogenesis. The aim is to understand how recurrent exposures to endogenous and exogenous hormones contribute to breast carcinogenesis in order to better prevent and treat the disease. The laboratory has pioneered in vivo approaches to genetically dissect the role of the reproductive hormones in driving mouse mammary gland development and shown how they control intercellular communication. Dr. Brisken’s group has developed ex vivo and humanized mouse models using patient samples to study hormone action in human tissues in normal settings and during disease progression. Dr. Brisken is member of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) Biological Protocol Working Group. She served as Dean of EPFL Doctoral School (more than 2000 PhD students in 18 PhD programs), as member of the Hinterzartener Kreis, the oncology think-tank associated with the German Science Foundation, and numerous Swiss, European, and AACR committees. She co-founded the International Cancer Prevention Institute.

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, L’Hebdo, 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.

De nationalité allemande, né en 1952 à Lauchheim (Baden-Württemberg, Allemagne). Après des études de physique à l'Université Fridericiana de Karlsruhe il y obtient son diplôme de physique en 1978. En 1979, il rejoint l'Institut de Recherches franco-allemand à Saint-Louis (France) comme collaborateur scientifique. En 1986, il entre à la division de recherche de Carl Zeiss à Oberkochen (Allemagne) où il développe principalement divers systèmes laser principalement pour des applications médicales. Dès 1990, il dirige le laboratoire laser de la division médicale. En 1993, il prend la direction de l'unité "laser d'ophtalmologie". En 1995, il est chargé de restructurer et regrouper les nombreuses activités d'ophtalmologie chez Carl Zeiss et de son transfert à Jena. Durant cette période, il réalise des nouveaux instruments de réfraction, des biomicroscopes et des caméras rétiniennes. Dès janvier 1998, il dirige la recherche de Carl Zeiss à Jena où il initie de nouveaux projets en microscopie, en métrologie optique, en microtechnique et en recherche médicale. En juillet 1998, il est nommé professeur ordinaire en optique biomédicale à l'Institut d'Optique Appliquée. Au sein du Département de microtechnique, son activité de recherche porte sur la optique biomédicale et en particulier la microscopie. Il participe à l'enseignement de l'optique et de microscopie. Short CV 1972 Physics University of Karlsruhe (Germany) 1979 l'Institut de Recherches franco-allemand à Saint-Louis (France) 1986 central research division Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen (Germany) 1990 Med - Division, ophthalmic lasers 1994 Ophthalmology division, Carl Zeiss Jena 1998 Head of Central research Carl Zeiss Jena 1998 full Professor Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Switzerland