![\"\"](\"https://www.epfl.ch/labs/deplanckelab/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Fondation-Latsis-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
The EPFL Latsis Symposium 2026: “Decoding the Cell: Modeling, Predicting, and Engineering Cellular States” will be held on October 29-30, 2026, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
\r\n
\r\nThis international gathering will bring together leading scientists in single-cell analysis, computational modeling, and cellular engineering to explore how recent breakthroughs in multi-omics technologies, predictive algorithms, and synthetic biology are reshaping our understanding of cellular function.
\r\n
\r\nThrough interdisciplinary talks and discussions, the symposium will spotlight advances in single-cell multi-modal data integration, predictive modeling of cell identity and behavior, and the engineering of synthetic cell states. By connecting researchers across experimental and computational domains, the event aims to establish new conceptual and technological frameworks for modeling and controlling cellular systems.
\r\n
\r\nHosted by EPFL, the symposium will foster scientific exchange, spark new collaborations, and accelerate progress toward next-generation cell-based therapies, disease models, and synthetic biological innovations.
\r\n
\r\nJoin us in Lausanne to connect with the global community shaping the future of cell understanding and engineering.
\r\n
\r\nSPEAKERS:
\r\n• Gray Camp – Research Group Leader at the Roche Institute for Translational Bioengineering (ITB) in Basel
\r\n• Barbara Engelhardt – Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes & Professor, Department of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University
\r\n• Jeremy Gunawardena – Professor, Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS), Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona
\r\n• Muzlifah Haniffa – Head of the Cellular Genomics Programme and Deputy Director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the University of Cambridge
\r\n• Anshul Kundaje – Associate Professor of Genetics and Computer Science at Stanford University
\r\n• Prisca Liberali – Professor at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETHZ & Senior Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research
\r\n• Ewa Paluch – Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge
\r\n• Steve Quake – Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics, Stanford University
\r\n• Sussane Rafelski – Sr. Director, Quantitative Biology at the Allen Institute for Cell Science
\r\n• Kevin Tsia – Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Program Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of Hong Kong
\r\n• Bo Wang – Chief AI Scientist, Vector Institute & Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
\r\n
\r\nGenerously supported by\r\n
For more than two decades leading professional organizations have called for a reform of the mathematics education of biology and life sciences students. Reflecting the growing importance of mathematics in life sciences research, such reform should bridge the gap between the mathematics students learn and the mathematics used in research.
\r\n
\r\nIn this talk, Steve Bennoun, UCLA, will present how the study of modeling and dynamical systems can be used to create a first-year course that introduces mathematical concepts used in life sciences research in a contextualized way.
\r\n
\r\nStudents first learn to write models for important biological systems such as hormone levels, epidemiological models, and predator-prey models.
\r\n
\r\nTaking a geometrical approach, students learn how to determine the long-term behaviors of models by studying phase plane trajectories and the stability of equilibrium points.
\r\n
\r\nThis enables the study of the concept of “biological switch” or how a cell can start or stop the production of a protein. This is followed by the important notion of qualitative change in a biological systems, or bifurcation.
\r\n
\r\nStudents learn in particular about Hopf bifurcations or how a system can start or stop oscillating. The second part of the course moves somewhat away from the geometrical approach and focuses on how to determine the stability of equilibrium points using the linearization of a model, motivating the study of the necessary notions from linear algebra by studying discrete-time models.
\r\n
\r\nThis talk will end with a discussion focusing on research by Sanders et al. (2021) suggesting that such a course supports students success and can reduce equity gaps.
\r\n
\r\n- - - - - - - - - - - - -
\r\n
\r\nlunch&LEARN sessions are intended for anyone who teaches at EPFL.
\r\nThis session is hybrid and can be attended in person or followed via zoom.
\r\nMost sessions are recorded and can be found on the Center LEARN's YouTube channel.
\r\nTo get in touch with the team, to suggest a session, or to make inquiries, please send an email to lunchLEARN@groupes.epfl.ch
This presentation treats space and mobility as inseparable, where space is produced through movement, coordination, and pause, while mobility is always spatially formatted by routes, nodes, and boundaries. Their intersection is therefore not an overlap but a relational field in which placement and movement continuously reify one another. This perspective invites complex mixed methods approaches based on methodological mapping across different forms of evidence, which can show how movements cluster or stretch, while narrative interviews, participatory mapping, and field observation can uncover how actors interpret routes, obstacles, and anchors in everyday life. The aim is not merely conventional triangulation, but conceptual integration: Using different methods to move between patterns in systems and interpretation of experience. Mixed methods research can theorize space-mobility while also exploring how they are experienced, governed, and contested.
\r\n
\r\nManfred Max Bergman is Chair of Social Research and Methodology at the University of Basel and Director of the Social Transitions Research Group. He works on methodological innovations to the study of sustainability transitions, inequality, health, corporate responsibility, and social change, with particular expertise in mixed methods research and case study design. He has contributed to scholarship on mobility, inequality, and public space through international comparative and interdisciplinary projects, and previously served as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. His current international engagements include service on the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Indo-Swiss Joint Scientific Board, collaboration with ICSSR in India on an innovative research methods training programme, and a visiting professorship at NUS in Singapore focused on implementation science and transdisciplinary research.
","image_description":"","creation_date":"2025-10-15T15:06:09","last_modification_date":"2025-10-15T15:07:46","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"UNIL, Extranef, room 126","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Mindy Z. Xiaolan - University of Texas at Austin","organizer":"","contact":"sophie.cadenakauz@epfl.ch","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/118152/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/112/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/3/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/116/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/105/?format=json"]},{"id":70974,"title":"Brown Bag Seminar in Finance","slug":"brown-bag-seminar-in-finance-13","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/brown-bag-seminar-in-finance-13","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32361/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32361/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32361/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-06-16","end_date":"2026-06-16","start_time":"12:15:00","end_time":"13:15:00","description":"","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-01-27T10:56:12","last_modification_date":"2026-01-27T10:56:12","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"UNIL, Extranef, room 126","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Mingyang Liu - PhD student, Imperial College London","organizer":"","contact":"sophie.cadenakauz@epfl.ch\r\n\r\n ","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":2,"fr_label":"Public averti","en_label":"Informed public"},"registration":{"id":2,"fr_label":"Sur invitation","en_label":"Invitation required"},"keywords":"","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/119483/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/3/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/116/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/39/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/105/?format=json"]},{"id":71250,"title":"MechE Colloquium: When Materials Bend the Rules: Buckling Response of Slender Structures Born of Constitutive Nonlinearities","slug":"meche-colloquium-when-materials-bend-the-rules-buc","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/meche-colloquium-when-materials-bend-the-rules-buc","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32609/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32609/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/32609/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-04-14","end_date":"2026-04-14","start_time":"12:00:00","end_time":"13:00:00","description":"Abstract: Buckling of slender structures, such as perforated columns and cylindrical shells, underpins a wide range of systems and processes, from the structural failure of rocket fuselages and grain silos to engineered devices such as shock absorbers and crumple zones. Historically, research has primarily focused on predicting the onset of buckling—that is, the loss of the original configuration under excessive loading—rather than on understanding how structures evolve in the post-buckling regime. Recently, however, the study of buckling has experienced a renaissance, with post-buckling mechanical responses increasingly exploited to achieve new functionalities, for example enhancing fracture resistance in stretchable electronics and flexible displays.