ETH Biology Lectures

The Weissman lab investigates how proteins fold into their correct shape and how misfolding impacts disease and normal physiology. They also build innovative tools for broadly exploring organizational principles of biological systems. These include ribosome profiling, which globally monitors protein translation, CRIPSRi/a for controlling the expression of human genes and rewiring the epigenome, and lineage tracing tools, to record the history of cells.

Website of the Weissman lab: external pagehttps://biology.mit.edu/profile/jonathan-weissman/call_made

The Massagué lab is interested in metastasis, the cause of 90% of cancer deaths. The lab investigates metastatic stem cells and their stromal niches. The role of immune regulatory and regenerative signals, particularly TGF-β, is of interest. General as well as organ-specific mediators of metastasis are under investigation. The Massagué lab is defining the phenotypic plasticity and evolution of metastatic cell populations from dormancy to outbreak, identifying drug targets, and enabling clinical trials to treat metastasis.

Website of the Massagué lab: external pagehttps://www.mskcc.org/research/ski/labs/joan-massaguecall_made

The Benfey lab studies the development of plant roots and root system architecture as a model system for understanding the regulation of developmental patterns of cell types more generally. Using genetic and genomic approaches, Benfey’s team deciphers how stem cell populations generate various cell types and how they integrate on a molecular level to create a functioning organ. Long term, Benfey aims to identify the genes that control root system architecture, which could lead to enhanced root traits – for example, increased drought tolerance or nutrient acquisition.

Website of the Benfey lab: external pagehttps://sites.duke.edu/benfeycall_made

The Walter laboratory seeks a molecular understanding of how cells control the quality of their proteins and organelles during homeostasis and stress. They are identifying the machinery and mechanisms that ensure proper protein synthesis, folding, and targeting, as well as the pathways that allow organelles to communicate and regulate their abundance. Additionally, the Walter lab aims to understand how the rewiring of these processes leads to, or prevents the progression of disease. It uses a diverse array of techniques, ranging from biochemical reconstitution to genetics, to fuel its search for fundamental discoveries in cell biology.

external pageWebsitecall_made of the Walter lab.

Aviv Regev and her colleagues develop experimental and computational approaches to systematically decipher the mechanisms that underlie the transcriptional regulatory circuits in organisms ranging from yeast to humans.

Regev lab members study how these transcriptional circuits change on a variety of timescales: for example, when cells respond to changing growth conditions (within hours); when cells differentiate (within hours to days); and when species evolve (across millions of years). These studies yield detailed reconstructions and highlight key principles that govern the emergence of novel functions in gene regulation.

external pageWebsitecall_made of Aviv Regev.

Dr. Reed has been an exceptional creative and innovative force in both basic discovery and translational research for more than two decades. He has founded an entire field through the discovery of the molecular and genetic underpinnings of programmed cell death control in cancer and championed academic drug discovery to translate the best of fundamental research into therapeutic application. He has also been leading the path in identifying core molecular principles underlying inflammatory signaling and autoimmune diseases. The fields of programmed cell death and inflammation have become major realms of biomedical research, central to both fundamental biology and the understanding of a broad range of human diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.

After serving first as the Director of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and since 2002 as its President and Chief Executive Chair, Dr. Reed assumed in 2013 the post of the Head of Pharma Research and Early Development at Roche.

Dr. Flavell’s laboratory studies the molecular and cellular basis of the immune response. His work regarding T cell differentiation led to the discovery of the transcription factor GATA3 as a critical regulator of the Th2 response and the first example of such a molecule
in T helper cell differentiation. Moreover his laboratory has elucidated mechanisms of immunoregulation which prevent autoimmunity and overaggressive responses to pathogens, specifically the role of TGF-β.

Dr. Flavell’s laboratory has discovered the role of several receptor families (such as Toll-like receptors and intracellular Nod-like receptor families) in the innate immune response and in the context of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Most recently he has established a connection between inflammasomes, microbial homeostasis and chronic diseases. He showed that inflammasome dysfunction causes dysbiosis of the microbiota which, in conjunction with a susceptible diet, leads to IBD and Metabolic Syndrome, including Obesity, Fatty Liver disease and Type 2 diabetes.

external pageWebsitecall_made of Richard Flavell

The work in the Gouaux Lab is concentrated on developing molecular mechanisms for the function of receptors and transporters at chemical synapses. At chemical synapses, neurotransmitters released from one neuron diffuse throughout a small space - the synaptic cleft - to receptors on adjacent neurons. At many synapses, the neurotransmitter binds to a receptor that is a ligand-gated ion channel. This binding event leads to the opening of a transmembrane pore, which in turn results in depolarization of the nerve cell and generation of an electrical signal. Neurotransmitter transporters surrounding the synapse clear the transmitters from the cleft by coupling
the thermodynamically unfavorable uptake to the favorable co-transport of one or more sodium ions.

Glutamate, glycine and the biogenic amines are neurotransmitters of particular significance. The Gouaux lab is currently focusing its efforts on eukaryotic glutamate receptors and on bacterial homologs of the transporters for glutamate, glycine and the biogenic amines. The primary tool is x-ray crystallography, but electrophysiology as well as other biophysical and biochemical methods are used.

external pageWebsitecall_made of Eric Gouaux

The laboratory of Paul Nurse is investigating problems of the cell cycle and cell shape using the genetically amenable model organism fission yeast. The group‘s main interests are 1) understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell size and the rate of progress through the cell cycle, 2) regulation of the CDK1 complex during the cell cycle, 3) the molecular mechanisms that determine the overall shape of the fission yeast cell and cell organelles such as the nucleus and 4) how cell growth is regulated during the meiotic and mitotic cell cycles.

To facilitate these studies the lab has identified near genome wide sets of genes required for the cell cycle or cell shape. Many of the investigated genes are conserved in humans and these studies in fission yeast may lead to new insights into the human cell cycle, cell shape and organelle shape processes and lead to new areas of research that may be directly relevant to cancer.

external pageWebsitecall_made of Paul Nurse

The research interest of the Olson lab is on muscle cells as a model for understanding how embryonic cells adopt specific fates and how programs of cell differentiation and morphogenesis are controlled during development. The focus is on discovering novel transcription factors that control development of the three muscle cell types (cardiac, skeletal and smooth) and remodeling in response to cardiovascular and neuromuscular diseases. The longterm goal of the Olson group is to delineate the complete genetic pathways for the formation and function of each muscle cell type and to use this information to devise pharmacologic and genetic therapies for inherited and acquired muscle diseases in humans.

external pageWebsitecall_made of Eric Olson