Events In Honour Of 8 MARCH 2024 - Conference on the Vaginal Microbiota Diversity

To celebrate International Women's Rights Day on 8 March 2024, the Office for Equal Opportunities (VPT), the Library, EPFL Alumni, its Women's Club and Polyquity are joining forces to offer you a rich and original programme of events and activities, spread over several dates. 

7 March · 12.15 to 13.15 · Forum Rolex + Broadcasted Live
Lactobacillus Is Not Just For Yogurt! Exploring Our Inner Ecosystems : Journey into the Vaginal Microbiota Diversity 
With Prof. Laura Symul (UCLouvain), Introduction by Gisou van der Goot, Vice President for Responsible Transformation (VPT) & Prof. Marcel Salathé (SV/IC)
Lunch-Conference, Registration not required
In English

Laura Symul is an Assistant Professor at ISBA (Institute for Statistics, Biostatistics, and Actuarial Sciences) at UCLouvain (Belgium) since September 2023. 

Her research focuses on developing statistical methods applied to women’s health and menstrual health in particular. This includes research on fertility, on cycle-related symptoms and on drivers of changes in vaginal microbiota communities. She addresses her research questions by creating parametric and nonparametric statistical models of biological processes that fit to multi-domain clinical data, self-reported digital records (data from mobile phone apps), and publicly available datasets.

She obtained her PhD in computational biology from EPFL, where she worked on the molecular regulation of the circadian clock. In particular, the regulation  of rhythmic gene expression and protein translation combining analyses of -omics data with mathematical models describing the regulatory dynamics to infer quantities otherwise not measurable.

She then completed a postdoc at Stanford University (Department of Statistics), working with Prof. Susan P. Holmes.

More on Laura Symul : 

• Laura Symul, Professor in Statistics (ISBA) - Youtube
• Portrait de Laura Symul dans le Temps - 16 sept. 2020
• Covid-19: Comment le vaccin affecte notre cycle menstruel? - Podacst le Point J (RTS) du 27 janv. 2022