Weekly BioEngineering Talks (Lunch Provided)
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\r\nINVITED SPEAKERS:
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\r\nOrganic electrochemical transistors for enhanced potentiometric sensing of neurochemicals
\r\nDr. Emily Schafer, EPFL Laboratory of Chemical Nanotechnology
\r\nHost: Prof. Nako Nakatsuka
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\r\nData-driven protein engineering for sensing and biosynthesis of new-to-nature thioesters
\r\nDr. Sebastian Barthel, EPFL Laboratory of Synthetic and Applied Microbiology
\r\nHost: Prof. Markus Jeschek
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\r\nBioEngineering Talks mandatory EDBB Seminar Attendance (1st-Year PhD Students)\r\n
Weekly BioEngineering Talks ( Lunch Provided)
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\r\nINVITED SPEAKER:
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\r\nA full-stack viral toolkit for systems neuroscience
\r\nProf. Lief Fenno, University of Basel Biozentrum
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\r\nAbstract:
\r\n Understanding and manipulating neural circuits requires technologies enabling access to specific cells, manipulation of genome structure, and delivery of increasingly complex genetic programs. I will describe viral technologies developed by my group that address each of these challenges. These include INTRSECT, a Boolean viral targeting strategy for cell-type- and circuit-specific access; VESPA, a novel split-AAV platform that enables efficient reassembly and expression of genetic payloads too large for a single AAV; and CRISPR/Cas9-based strategies for precise, cell-type- and circuit-specific gene knockdown. Together, these tools form an integrated viral toolkit for programmable access to and manipulation of neural circuits across multiple levels of biological complexity.
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\r\nBio:
\r\nDr. Lief Fenno is a physician-scientist at The University of Texas at Austin and Dell Medical School. His research integrates systems neuroscience, synthetic biology, and bioengineering to develop genetic, viral, and neuromodulation technologies for programmable control of neural circuits in vivo. His laboratory develops molecular and viral platforms for selectively accessing and manipulating defined neural populations, alongside approaches for neural stimulation and emerging therapeutic applications. His work spans fundamental circuit neuroscience, neurotechnology, and the translation of biological tools to treatment of brain disorders. Dr. Fenno is also a board-certified addiction psychiatrist, Chair of the American Psychiatric Association Council on Addiction Psychiatry, and is active in commercial scientific translation and biotechnology innovation.
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\r\nSTUDENT SPEAKER:
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\r\nTBD
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\r\nBioEngineering Talks mandatory EDBB Seminar Attendance (1st-Year PhD Students)\r\n
Weekly BioEngineering Talks (Lunch Provided)
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\r\nINVITED SPEAKER:
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\r\nAdvancing Multidimensional Single-Molecule localization microscopy: development and applications in nuclear organization
\r\nDr. Bassam Hajj, Institut Curie, Paris
\r\nHost: Prof. Aleksandra Radenovic
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\r\nAbstract:
\r\nSingle-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) has revolutionized our understanding of biological processes by providing access to spatial scales beyond the diffraction limit of conventional optical microscopy. In the study of the cell nucleus, SMLM has offered unique insights into its organization and function at the nanoscale. Nuclear architecture is structured across multiple spatial scales in three dimensions and is highly dynamic. Understanding the mechanisms that govern nuclear organization therefore requires imaging approaches capable of capturing molecular dynamics across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales and in diverse biological contexts. Although SMLM can routinely achieve spatial resolutions in the tens-of-nanometers range, many biologically relevant structures and processes remain beyond its reach. For example, resolving the precise organization of DNA at the molecular scale remains challenging, as it would require a substantial improvement in spatial resolution over conventional SMLM, while also addressing the high density and degree of molecular compaction within the nucleus.
\r\nOver the years, we have developed complementary strategies to address these challenges by introducing additional dimensions and observables into SMLM measurements. In this presentation, I will first discuss our approaches to three-dimensional single-molecule imaging, including multifocus microscopy and volumetric light-sheet excitation, which enable fast and sensitive imaging over extended volumes and in complex biological samples such as cell colonies. While these approaches provide access to the three-dimensional and temporal dimensions required to investigate nuclear organization, spatial resolution alone is not always sufficient to distinguish molecular arrangements. We have therefore extended SMLM further by implementing polarization-resolved multifocus microscopy (PolMFM), which combines three-dimensional localization with information on molecular orientation.
\r\nI will illustrate how these multidimensional approaches can provide new insights into nuclear organization, with examples spanning different biological systems. In particular, I will present evidence for a long-range, crystal-like organization of DNA within the nuclei of mature sperm cells from crickets, demonstrating how multidimensional imaging can reveal structural features that remain inaccessible to conventional localization microscopy.
\r\nFinally, I will discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with visualizing, analyzing, and interactively exploring the multidimensional datasets generated by these approaches. Together, these developments illustrate how extending SMLM beyond conventional two-dimensional localization can provide new ways to interrogate the organization and dynamics of biological systems at the nanoscale.
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\r\nBio:
\r\nBassam Hajj is a physicist and CNRS researcher at Institut Curie in Paris, where he is a member of the Physics of Cells and Cancer unit and co-leads the “Light-based Observation and Control of Cellular Organization” team. His research focuses on the development of advanced optical microscopy techniques, particularly single-molecule localization microscopy, 3D imaging, and multidimensional approaches for studying cellular organization at the nanoscale.
\r\nAfter completing his PhD at École Normale Supérieure de Cachan on electro-optical microscopy, Bassam joined Janelia Research Campus as a postdoctoral researcher, where he worked on multifocus microscopy for fast and sensitive single-molecule imaging. He subsequently returned to Institut Curie and joined the CNRS as a permanent researcher in 2016.
\r\nHis current research combines innovative microscopy, quantitative image analysis, and data visualization to investigate molecular organization and dynamics, with a particular focus on nuclear organization.
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\r\nSTUDENT SPEAKER:
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\r\nTranscription Factor Dose in Stem Cell Reprogramming: Insights from Single-Cell Multi-Omics
\r\nAngelika Gebhart, Deplancke Lab
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\r\nBioEngineering Talks mandatory EDBB Seminar Attendance (1st-Year PhD Students)\r\n
Weekly BioEngineering Talks (Lunch Provided)
\r\n
\r\nINVITED SPEAKER:
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\r\nDe novo design of light-responsive proteins
\r\nDr. Alexander Hilditch, EPFL Laboratory of Protein Design & Immunoengineering
\r\nHost: Prof. Bruno Correia
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\r\nBioEngineering Talks mandatory EDBB Seminar Attendance (1st-Year PhD Students)\r\n
Memories are not static representations but evolve over time through consolidation and their progressive reorganization across distributed brain networks. This process allows memories to remain persistent while also becoming sufficiently flexible to guide behavior in novel situations. In this seminar, Gisella Vetere will discuss how memory engrams are reorganized from learning to remote recall and how distinct neuronal ensembles contribute to the balance between memory specificity and generalization. Combining activity-dependent neuronal tagging, circuit manipulations, and brain-wide analyses, her research seeks to uncover how memories are transformed over time and how these transformations shape adaptive—and potentially maladaptive—behavior.
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Le stress et l’anxiété font aujourd’hui partie intégrante du quotidien, d’autant plus dans un cadre professionnel. Pression de performance, surcharge d’informations, incertitudes et distractions digitales, nous affectent toutes et tous. Lorsqu’ils deviennent chroniques, ces états impactent la santé mentale, le sommeil, la concentration, la motivation, les relations sociales et la qualité du travail.
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\r\nComprendre ces mécanismes, apprendre à les réguler, et surtout identifier ses propres déclencheurs et ressources devient alors essentiel pour évoluer dans un cadre professionnel et promouvoir un travail stable et une qualité de vie plus saine.
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\r\nCette formation vise à renforcer votre résilience, vous permettre d’identifier vos déclencheurs personnels, et d’activer des ressources internes et externes pour retrouver calme, clarté mentale et stabilité au quotidien.
Programmes-cadres européens de la recherche et de l’innovation.
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\r\nVotre laboratoire participe à un ou plusieurs projets européens et une de vos missions est d’en assurer une gestion efficace au niveaux administratif, financier et celui des ressources humaines ? Pour cela, il est important de prendre le temps de vous familiariser avec la structure de ces projets et avec certaines règles de gestion qui leurs sont spécifiques.
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\r\nCette formation vous propose de prendre connaissance des documents contractuels et de leur contenu qui est utile pour votre gestion. Les règles de gestion administrative, financière et RH seront présentées et discutées en se basant sur des cas pratiques.
\r\nLa formation permettra aussi aux participants de se familiariser avec le portail européen et la plateforme de reporting du SEFRI.
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\r\nIl est recommandé de suivre cette formation le plus tôt possible, idéalement vers le commencement du projet.