Two EPFL researchers win the 2015 Leenaards award
© 2015 EPFL
The 2015 Leenaards award has been awarded to two translational medicine projects conducted by Jacques Fellay and Anisoara Ioenscu at EPFL.
The Leenaards Foundation, founded in 1980, awarded a total amount of CHF 1,200,000 to two translational biomedical research projects this year. This field combines clinical research and basic science, and aims to rapidly translate basic discoveries into therapeutic applications.
The first project awarded is directed by Dr. Christopher Newman (UNIL-CHUV), in collaboration with Dr. Stéphane Armand (UNIGE-HUG) and Dr. Anisoara Ionescu (EPFL-STI). The work aims to improve the physical performance of children with cerebral palsy by bridging the gap between gait analysis in the clinical setting and the realities of everyday life. The ultimate goal is to develop measuring tools and reliable analysis of children’s motor activity and performance in their daily environments. “To do this, we will use data from miniaturized inertial sensors, including a GPS function, and analysis algorithms specifically developed for this purpose,” says Dr. Ionescu.
The second project is directed by Professor Jacques Fellay (EPFL-CHUV-SIB) and Professor Evgeny Zdobnov (UNIGE-SIB). The study explores how genetic variations in humans can impact chronic viral infections. The researchers will use cutting-edge genomics and bioinformatics to study how variations in the genomes of 500 infected humans interact with three major viruses (HIV, Epstein-Barr, and CMV) and the symptoms they cause. "The novelty of our approach is the ability to investigate the genome of the patient and the infecting virus in a single study," says Professor Fellay.
The awards were presented during a ceremony at EPFL’s SwissTech Convention Center on March 26, 2015.