Nicolas MERMOD, UNIL-IBT Vanessa HANIFA, Alcimed

Nicolas MERMOD, UNIL-IBT session A / 9:00 – 10:00Pr. Nicolas Mermod is Professor of Biotechnology at the Faculty ofBiology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne, and a co-founder ofSelexis SA, a biotech company. He completed his PhD at the Universityof Geneva in environmental biotechnology, followed by post-doctoralstudies at the University of California Berkley, USA, in the laboratory ofProfessor Robert Tjian. Nicolas then joined the University of Lausanneas an Assistant Professor of the Swiss National Science Foundation, tobecome full Professor and the director of the Institute of Biotechnology. Today, Nicolasheads the Institute of Biotechnology, a laboratory of over 20 scientists at the Center forBiotechnology UNIL-EPFL. He has gained recognition in the field of the control of geneexpression in biotechnology from publications in peer reviewed and renowned journals,and he has authored a number of patents on epigenetic regulatory elements and genetransfer.—www.unil.ch/biotechVanessa HANIFA, Alcimed session A / 9:00 – 10:00Vanessa graduated from INA Paris-Grignon, a top leading BioscienceEngineering School in France. Within Alcimed, Vanessa has conductedmore than 100 projects related to life sciences. Vanessa has beenespecially in charge of conducting projects aiming at evaluatingthe potential market of a new product / technology, in building thecorresponding business plan and in elaborating the best market entry /reinforcement strategies. Vanessa is now in charge of the Food BusinessUnit in Switzerland.—www.alcimed.com1

Igor FISCH, Selexis SA session A / 9:00 – 10:00Dr. Igor Fisch co-founded Selexis SA in March 2001 and has beenthe company’s Chairman and CEO since its inception. Igor grew thecompany, reaching its break-even point in 2005 to a profitable serviceand licensing business based on it proprietary technology. Igor bringsthe company his extensive network amongst key decision makers in theBiotech and Pharmaceutical industry and has demonstrated track recordfor executing major licensing deals in the industry worldwide.Igor is a member of the Board of Directors of Affitech A/S, a biopharmaceutical companydedicated to the discovery and development of human antibody based therapeutics. Heco-founded BioXpress SA, a provider of high-quality biosmilars. and sits on its AdvisoryBoard. He is a Board Member of Stemergie SA, a Swiss company that develops treatmentsand diagnostics for cancers by targeting cancer-initiating cells. He previously was a BoardMember of Viroblock SA, a company that he helped create, which is developing a uniquerange of proprietary anti-viral products. Igor is on the board of the Venture kick initiative,which provides support and funding to translate promising business ideas from SwissUniversities into start-up companies.An accomplished protein chemist and molecular biologist, Igor previously was a professorat the Center for Biotechnology at the University of Lausanne and the EPFL. He obtainedhis PhD under the direction of Professor Robin Offord at the University of Geneva andpursued his post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Sir Gregory Winter at the MedicalResearch Council (MRC) in Cambridge, UK. In parallel to his research and teachingactivities, Igor obtained several awards including the De Vigier Prize and the NETS BestPrize.—www.selexis.comDaniel CHERIX, UNIL-DEE SESSION B /10:30 – 11:30Pr. Daniel Cherix is born in Lausanne and worked on ants ecology andnecrophagous flies.He is now retired after 30 years as curator at the Museum of zoology inLausanne and associate professor at the Departement of Ecology andEvolution. He is still active with medias and is currently member of theboard of the Swiss Academy of Science.—www.unil.ch/dee2

Gabriela MONTORZI, COHRED Group SESSION B /10:30 – 11:30Dr. Gabriela Montorzi is Programme Manager at COHRED. She ensuresthe implementation of activities aimed at strengthening research andinnovation systems in low and middle income countries. Such activitiesinclude, policy development to define the aims and values that guidenational research and innovation; priority setting to inform on the keyresearch and innovation areas where countries should focus theirinvestment; and management guidance to define the operationalframework necessary to ensure coherence between policies, priorities and action.Before that she was a Process Officer at COHRED, responsible for organisationalmanagement including the setting and follow-up of workflow processes; a fellow at theWorld Health Organisation’s Ethics Review Committee, involved in the evaluation andanalysis of research ethics review processes; and a cardiovascular research scientist atthe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, involved in interdisciplinary research.Gabriela holds a PhD in Life Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology –Switzerland, an MA in Bioethics and Law from the University of Barcelona – Spain, and aBA in Biology from San Luis University – Argentina.—www.cohred.orgYvette MADRID, PATH SESSION B /10:30 – 11:30Dr. Yvette Madrid is leading a Grand Challenges Exploration project onthe use of barcodes in vaccine supply chains in resource constrainedsettings. Dr. Madrid has over fifteen years of experience in global health.She began her global health work with the World Health Organization,examining market forces and the economic factors affecting accessto essential medicines. Dr. Madrid subsequently turned her attentionto vaccines and focused on the key determinants leading to theintroduction of new and underutilized vaccine introduction. While working as a consultantshe continued to work on market and financing issues relevant to global health productintroduction and equitable access. Prior to her public health experience, Dr. Madrid workedfor a multinational pharmaceutical firm in clinical research and in marketing. She holds aPh.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.—www.path.org3

Maximilien MURONE, Debiopharm SA SESSION C /11:40 – 13:00—www.debiopharm.comAnurag SINGH, Nestlé SESSION C /11:40 – 13:00Anurag Singh, M.D., Ph.D., is currently Senior Scientist in the AllergyGroup at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne. Dr. Singh also holdsan executive MBA in management of technology from EPFL/ UniL HECLausanne. He received his medical training in India and his Ph.D. inImmunology in USA. His responsibilities in his current role encompassleading R&D project teams at the interface of basic science researchand clinical development and his major research focus is on hownutritional interventions can be used to modulate the immune system with respect to allergicdisorders. Dr. Singh has published over 15 research articles in high impact journals and isa co-inventor on 4 patents.—www.research.nestle.com4

Danielle MARTINET, CHUV SESSION C /11:40 – 13:00After a PhD, Dr. Danielle Martinet has followed a postgraduate trainingof 3 years to become a specialist in medical genetics (FAMH title). Sheis working at the CHUV as the head of a genetics diagnostic lab. Shehas developed new diagnostic genetics approaches and she is involvedin the genotype-phenotype correlation in rare diseases. In 2010, incollaboration with local researchers, she received the Leenaards Prize.She is active in the Swiss Medical Genetics Society committees and isone of the four Swiss FAMH experts in the medical genetics field.—www.chuv.chWilliam ENDRES, Medtronics SESSION C /11:40 – 13:00While studying to get his Master in Biology at the UNIL, William worked ina start-up company as graphic designer. The master was complementedby a DESS in Biomedical Engineering at the EPFL leading to a fourmonths project in Kyoto Japan. Back in Switzerland he added anotherpost-graduation study in is curriculum: a DEA in Enterprise Managementcompleted at HEC Genève, specializing in marketing and communication.After a 6 months internship at Wella in Brussels, he started to work forUnilabs, European leader in medical diagnostic as marketing manager to then shift tomarketing and sales analyst and stayed 5 years within the company.In 2010 William joined Medtronic, world leader in medical device, as senior business analystfor the cardiac and rhythm disease management business unit and then for the diabetescare business unit for Europe and Canada.—www.medtronic.ch5

Michael METZLAFF, Bayer SESSION D /13:00 – 14:00Dr. Michael Metzlaff was born on November 26, 1954 in Genthin, Germany.He studied Biology at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenbergfrom 1975 to 1980. He followed graduate studies with a doctorateand a university teaching qualification in the Institute for Genetics atthe same university, and was involved in teaching and research in thefield of plant molecular genetics during the 1980s. Between 1993 and1999 he led a research group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich,UK. During this period his group made a major contribution to elucidating the biologicalphenomenon known as “gene silencing” as part of a Europe-wide research network. In1999 he moved to Plant Genetic Systems, a biotech company in Gent, Belgium, whichlater became the Bayer BioScience innovation center. There he became head of the CropProductivity research group, and he and his team have since been working on improvedstress tolerance and targeted gene regulation in crops. Since February 2012, Michael isSenior Innovation Relations Manager in the Bayer AG Holding, Corporate Development inLeverkusen, Germany.Michael Metzlaff has authored some 50 scientific publications and has submitted numerouspatent applications. He is married with four children.—www.bayer.comAntoine STOCKER, Drosera SA SESSION D /13:00 – 14:00After a Master of biology, evolution and conservation, at the Universityof Lausanne in 2007, Antoine Stocker made different internships andresearches, especially at Agroscope and Pro Natura. During this year,he realised that he needed pratical knowledges to be able to work inenvironmental protection. Therefore, he started in 2008 a Bachelorof nature management, at HEPIA in Geneva. Since autumn 2010,he works at Drosera écologie appliquée SA, active in the french partof Switzerland. The company provides all services related to the environment, such asecological expertises (fauna, flora and landscape), management of natural sites and GIS-CAD softwares. In the company, Antoine Stocker specializes in environmental impactassessments, river restoration, and forestry procedures.—www.drosera-vs.ch6

Katja BAHRDT, Weleda AG SESSION D /13:00 – 14:00Katja Bahrdt is Corporate Sustainability Manager at Weleda Internationalbased in Arlesheim, Switzerland. She has a Masters degree inAgriculture form University of Hohenheim, Germany, and an MBA inCorporate Social Responsibility from the University of Nottingham, UK.During her career she has worked in consultancy and research in ruraldevelopment, marketing and consumer research as well as supply chainmanagement for organic food. In her current position she is responsiblefor the development of strategic sustainability programs as well as the implementationof a biodiversity and fair trade label within her company. Her expertise is in sustainableagriculture, developing corporate sustainability programs including reporting andstakeholder engagement. She is fluent in English and German and has a basic knowledgeof French.—www.weleda.chIveth GONZALEZ, FIND diagnostics Life/Workbalance/15:00 – 16:15Dr. Iveth J. González is a medical doctor from the Universidad del Vallein Colombia and holds a PhD degree in Life Sciences from the Universitéde Lausanne, Switzerland. During her medical studies, she participatedin malaria research at the Instituto de Inmunología del Valle, acquiringdeeper knowledge in immunology, biochemistry and molecular biologyand expertise in laboratory techniques and the use of animal models(primates). After getting her medical degree, Iveth joined the CentroInternacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM), Colombia, where sheworked for four years conducting clinical trials for the evaluation of the efficacy of antimalarialtreatments, and doing research in basic sciences for the identification of parasite molecularmarkers of antimalarial resistance. At CIDEIM she also worked in the clinical unit for diagnosisand treatment of other infectious diseases and as the coordinator of the institutional ethicalreview board. As doctoral student at the Department of Biochemistry of the Université deLausanne, Iveth worked in the characterization of Leishmania proteins as potential drugtargets and in the identification of protein interactions by two-hybrid system.Dr. Gonzálezjoined FIND in July 2008 as Scientific Officer and Project Leader. She is currently managingseveral projects and contributing to the development of new diagnostics for malaria, humanAfrican trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease. She is also giving support forthe establishment of a quality control system for HIV rapid diagnostic tests in DominicanRepublic.—www.unil.ch/biotech7

Margot THOME, UNIL-FBM Life/Workbalance/15:00 – 16:15Dr. Margot Thome studied Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen(Tübingen, Germany) and the University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona,USA), before carrying out her PhD work in the laboratory of Oreste Acutoat the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France). As a postdoctoral fellow in thelaboratory of Jürg Tschopp at the University of Lausanne (Lausanne,Switzerland), she identified human and viral FLIP proteins as keyapoptosis regulators. She was appointed Assistant Professor of theSwiss National Science Foundation at the University of Lausanne in 2004, and becameAssociate Professor in 2009. Her present work focuses on the study of signaling pathwaysthat control lymphocyte activation and survival and the development of lymphomas.—www.unil.ch/ibStefanie BRANDER, UNIL-bureau égalité Life/Workbalance/15:00 – 16:15After moving from Bern on the shores of the Léman, Stefanie Brander isnamed déléguée à l’égalité at Lausanne University in 2009. She has a longpersonal and professional experience in the field of promotion of culture,equal opportunities and advancement of women in research. Afterstudying Philosophy, French language and literature, researching andpublishing in the field of Womens and Gender Studies at Bern University,she became head of the first equal opportunites service created withina Swiss Uni in 1991. From 2000 to 2009 she was head of the Equal Opportunities Office ofthe City of Bern.—www.unil.ch/egalite8

Jonas WIESEL, Venturelab Entrepreneurship /15:00 – 16:15Jonas Wiesel graduated from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in 2010.Currently Program manager at Venturelab for the Romandie part ofSwitzerland, his main role is to coordinate entrepreneurship trainingswithin universities and hautes écoles. He was also the winner of theHES-SO Vaud start-up prize in 2012.—www.venturelab.chGilles PFEND, KATZAROV Entrepreneurship /15:00 – 16:15Dr. Gilles Pfend holds a Master’s degree in biochemistry and a postgraduate diploma in molecular biology from the University of Strasbourg.After finishing his Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Strasbourgand the University Hospital of Lausanne, he worked for one year as apatent agent in a private practice in Lausanne. With KATZAROV since2001, Gilles Pfend graduated from CEIPI in 2003 and as a EuropeanPatent Attorney, he specializes in biotech and chemistry inventions. OfFrench mother tongue, he is fluent in English and German. Gilles Pfend is a member of thejury for the International Exhibition of Inventions (Geneva) and of AIPPI and VESPA/ACBSE.He was invited several times as a lecturer on Intellectual Property, in particular on LifeScience topics, by Universities as well as R&D Centers, in Switzerland and abroad.—www.katzarov.com9

Stefan KOHLER, PACTT UNIL-CHUV Entrepreneurship /15:00 – 16:15—www.pactt.chSince 2009 Dr. Stefan Kohler is the director of the PACTT, the jointtechnology transfer office of the University and the University Hospitalof Lausanne. During the nine years before taking on this role he heldvarious management positions in medical affairs, marketing and salesin the pharmaceutical industry on national and international level. He isan alumnus of the University of Lausanne where he obtained a PhD inbiology and an MBA.Agathe CHEVALIER, Triangle Azur-TSR Journalism/15:00 – 16:15After obtaining an M.Sc. in communication and marketing at EDHEC(France), Agathe Chevalier went to Montreal where she worked as aconsultant for the pharmaceutical industry while obtaining a B.Sc. inpsychology (Concordia) and an M.Sc. in neuroscience (McGill). Returningto France, she was responsible for the communication and fundraising ofa start-up in genetic sequencing. With a passion for explaining medicalscience to the lay public, Agathe then moved to Geneva where she spentseveral years conducting and publishing epidemiological research on patient information.She defined the institutional guidelines for Geneva University Hospitals in that domain andpublished a scale for establishing patient information documents that is now used in severalinstitutions worldwide. She then headed the communication of the Geneva breast cancerscreening foundation for three years, and developed the Swiss national website for breastcancer screening.Since October 2009, she is responsible for the relations between the universities ofSuisse romande and the Radio Télévision Suisse. Specifically, her role is to facilitate andencourage the presence of university experts on tv, the radio and the web, so that hard andsoft sciences may be more readily available to the lay public. She initiated and recentlylaunched a website that presents thousands of interventions of local researchers on tv andradio: www.avisdexperts.ch—www.avisdexperts.ch10

Anne BURKHARDT, SimplyScience Journalism /15:00 – 16:15—www.simplyscience.chDr. Anne Burkhardt worked as a researcher in plant ecology andevolution at a few Swiss research institutions for several years. She hasalways been curious about her colleagues’ research and thinking it wasa pity the general public did not know about it. Thus, she started to writearticles for a science magazine and to work for museums. Now she usesher science and language knowledge for communicating with childrenand teenagers on the website www.simplyscience.ch.Manuela PALMA de FIGUEIREDO, UNIL Journalism /15:00 – 16:15Manuela Palma de Figueiredo received her Diploma of Biology at the Universityof Lausanne (UNIL). She then earned a European Master in Society, Scienceand Technology (ESST) at EPFL. Following the completion of her grades, shedecided to go out-of-the-lab and explore the relationships between ethics,economy, politics, society and science. Wishing to work at the interfacebetween science and society, she had been working several years for thedaily paper L’Agefi as scientific journalist. She was then hired by the RolexAwards for Enterprise and then by the Communications Department and Press office of Rolexprincipally for her skills to popularize technology and science. Today, she serves as the Head of theCommunication Service at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, UNIL.—www.unil.ch/fbm11

Elisabeth LAMONT-HOFFMANN,UNIL-SOCTips & Tricks/ 15:00 – 16:15Elisabeth is a psychologist, and a family therapist. She trained originallyat the Unil, in carrer counseling psychology, and much later in London, atthe Institute of Psychiatry in Systemic Family Therapist that she practicedduring 10 years : consultations for families. She had travelled quiteintensely as a humanitarian delegate with the International Committeeof the Red Cross, specialising in "detention" activities. After a course in(spoken) Arabic, she was assigned to the Middle-East zone, working infascinating countries, such as Jordan, Yemen, Palestine or Bosnia. In 2006, she returnedto Switzerland, to her old Alma mater, and have been working since as head of the SOC(Service d'orientation et conseil) where one of their tasks is to promote employability for allof Unil graduates! All in all she has been giving advice to job seekers for over 32 years. Sheis a proud mother of a red-headed teenager... love Art, old stones and History.—www.unil.ch/soc12