Introduction
The research activities of the Department of Molecular Biology address several important areas of molecular and cellular biology, such as molecular mechanisms of the mammalian circadian clock, telomere function and gene silencing in yeast, chromosome/chromatin organization and dynamics, mechanisms of tumor suppression and of responses to DNA damage and DNA replication stress, the signalling pathways that orchestrate eukaryote cell growth, organization and function of cell-cell junctions, the molecular structure of RNA processing enzymes, assembly of the photosynthetic apparatus in Chlamydomonas, and photoreceptor-mediated light signaling in higher plants. One of the strengths of the department is to harbor such a wide range of research interests, which often leads to fertile interactions between members of the different research units. That this strategy has been sucessful is shown by the various awards given to different department members (Louis Jeantet prizes for medicine 1996 and 2000, Otto Naegeli prize for medicine 1996, Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal from the US National Academy of Sciences 1991, Marcel Benoist prize 1988).
Six professors in the department are members of an NCCR (National Center for Competence in Research) network (see below). NCCR program grants have been awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on a highly competitive basis to a small group of Swiss life scientists. These programs provide generous support for state-of-the-art technologies and foster scientific exchange between leading Swiss research teams. The NCCR network "Frontiers in Genetics" (headquartered in Geneva) has successfully established platforms in functional genomics and imaging (see below).
The department is very proud of its doctoral school. Ph.D. students receive an excellent theoretical and practical education in biomedical research, and have a regular opportunity to present their research work in a weekly departmental seminar series (see Ph.D. program).
Our department is one of the oldest molecular biology department of the world (see History) and is part of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Geneva. Our University scores consistently high on various rankings of European Universities. For example, on the preferred ranking from Leiden University, the University of Geneva is on 6th place.
Organization of the department
Director: Thanos Halazonetis
Faculty
Thanos Halazonetis
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics)
Tel. (022) 379 6112 | email
Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics, recipient of an Advanced Investigator ERC Grant)
Tel. (022) 379 6461 | email
Jean-David Rochaix
(member of NCCR program Plant Survival in Natural and Agricultural Ecosystems)
Tel. (022) 379 6187 | email
Ueli Schibler
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics)
Tel. (022) 379 6175 | email
David Shore
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics)
Tel. (022) 379 6183 | email
Robbie Loewith
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics, recipient of a Junior Investigator ERC Grant)
Tel. (022) 379 6116 | email
Stéphane Thore
Tel. (022) 379 6116 | email
Sandra Citi
Tel. (022) 379 6182 | email
Ulrich K. Laemmli
(member of NCCR program Frontiers in Genetics)
Tel. (022) 379 6122 | email
Michel Goldschmidt-Clermont
Tel. (022) 379 6188 | email
Secretariat
Cornelia Cendre
Tel. (022) 379 6194 | email
Agnès Lakhoua
Tel. (022) 379 6197 | email
Fabrice Mermoud Viglino
Tel. (022) 379 6129 | email
Monique Visini
Tel. (022) 379 6193 | email
Department facilities
The Department is very proud of its communal facilities. These include:
- an outstanding mechanical/electrical workshop, run by André Liani, Yves-Alain Poget, Marc Schneider and Georges Severi. This workshop not only maintains all departmental equipment, but is also extremely skillful in custom design and assembly of novel research devices
- an equipment park for state of the art technologies (tissue culture facility, FACS analyzer, advanced molecular detection systems (e.g. phospho and fluoresence imager), Real-Time PCR)
- a workshop for scientific illustrations, expertly run by Nicolas Roggli,
- and a service for media preparation and dishwashing.
NCCR "Frontiers in Genetics" technology platforms
The NCCR program "Frontiers in Genetics" headed by Prof. Denis Duboule, Department of Zoology and Animal Biology, has established two technology platforms (Genomics and Imaging) that are accessible by all members of the department.
The Genomics Platform of the NCCR Frontiers in Genetics, headed by Patrick Descombes, provides advice and access to state-of-the-art methods in genomic technologies, including Next Generation Sequencing, Affymetrix and Illumina Microarray platforms for transcriptome, genomic and SNP profiling, the nCounter from nanoString Technologies for precise highly mutliplexed measures of RNA and a platform for robotic high throughput real-time PCR.
The Imaging Platform, headed by Christoph Bauer, is equipped for state-of-the-art visual microscopy and electron microscopy. The platform also performs real-time microscopy of molecules in living cells, including technologies such as FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching), FLIP (fluorescence loss in photobleaching) and FRET (Fluorescence resonance energy transfer).