Team

Giovanni D’Angelo graduated in 2003 with a MSc in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Naples, Italy and obtained his PhD in Cell Biology in 2008 from the Consorzio ‘Mario Negri’ SUD, Santa Maria Imbaro, Italy. For his postdoctoral training, he moved to the Telethon Institute for Genetics and Medicine in Naples, Italy to study sphingolipid metabolism and intracellular lipid trafficking. In 2012, Giovanni moved to the Institute of Protein Biochemistry, at the National Research Council of Italy in Naples as a principal investigator. In 2018 Giovanni moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he is now Assistant Professor and Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair on Metabolism.

My main interest is understanding the meaning of compositional variability in cell membranes by studying the mechanisms by which the lipid composition is determined.

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+41 21 693 42 76
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_{Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale, Lausanne}

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Antonino Asaro studied Biotechnology at the University of Palermo and Bologna. He trained as a neurobiologist at EMBL-Monterotondo with Paul Heppenstall and pursued his PhD in neuroscience at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Berlin under Thomas Willnow. His interest in lipid biology led him to a postdoc at the University of Geneva with Howard Riezman. Since December 2022, he has been at EPFL in Giovanni D’Angelo’s lab.

Currently, I combine mass-spectrometry methods, stem cells, and chemical biology to uncover how lipids impact brain homeostasis at molecular level.

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_{Master in Biotechnology  2015
PhD in Life Science, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology of Rosario, Argentina, 2020. “Characterisation of key enzymes involved in triacylglycerol biosynthesis in mycobacteria”
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In 2016, Pavel Barahtjan graduated with a BSc in Biology from the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany. He earned his MSc in Immunobiology from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany, in 2018. Subsequently, in 2023, he obtained his PhD (Title “Plasma Membrane Lipid Asymmetry is Linked to Cellular Energetics“) at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. In 2023, Pavel transitioned to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), where he currently works as a postdoctoral researcher.

My main interest is understanding how plasma membrane lipid composition and organization govern biological functions.

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Ilias Gkikas obtained his B.Sc and M.Sc in Molecular Genetics (2011) from the University of Thessaly in Greece. He also holds an M.Sc in Biotechnology (2013) from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands and an M.Sc in Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Crete (2016). He pursued his Ph.D in Neurogenetics and Aging (2021) at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (IMBB-FORTH), focusing on the role of mitochondrial phospholipid metabolism in aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. In 2024, he joined Prof. D’Angelo’s Lab at EPFL as a postdoctoral researcher, where his main objectives are to combine Caenorhabditis elegans genetics and mouse studies to unravel the conserved mechanisms of lipid synthesis, positioning, and degradation in both somatic and germline cells, with an emphasis on health, aging, and disease.

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Anita Nasrallah graduated in 2013 with a MSc in Molecular Biology from the Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon, and obtained her PhD in Life Sciences – Cardiovascular and Metabolism in 2019 from the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland. For her first postdoctoral training, she moved to the University of Zurich (UZH) and University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Switzerland to study the role of bile acids in cardiovascular metabolism of patients and mice undergoing gastric bypass. In 2020, Anita moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) for her second postdoctoral training, where she investigates the role of GOLPH3 (a well-known proto-oncogene) in lipid metabolism of mice.

Apart from her lab work, Anita was the vice-president of the EPFL Postdoc Association (EPDA) in 2021, and a committee member of the Association du Corps Intermediare de l’EPFL (ACIDE) in 2022. She is the coordinator of the Peer-2-peer Counselling team (P2PCT) since 2021, and most importantly she has become a mother to a baby girl in 2023!

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Bachelor of Applied Science (BAppSc) in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Otago, New Zealand, 2019

Master of Science in Biotechnology from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, 2024

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I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Life Sciences Engineering at EPFL, specializing in Neurosciences and Neuroengineering. My passion for research, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases, was cultivated throughout my studies in the Lashuel Lab, where I contributed to Parkinson’s Disease research projects involving biochemical and cellular biology approaches. I conducted my master’s thesis in the Khurana Lab (Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School), where I explored the impact of the microbiome on neuro-immune processes in Parkinson’s Disease using advanced models, and was fortunate to continue this work after graduating by further investigating neuroinflammatory mechanisms in Multiple System Atrophy and validating biomarkers for synucleinopathies. Now, as a PhD candidate in the D’Angelo and Lashuel labs, I am dedicated to uncovering the intricate role of lipids in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis.

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Nika Gorsek graduated in 2020 with a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. For the Master Studies, she moved to Heidelberg, Germany. In 2022, she obtained MSc in Molecular Biosciences from Heidelberg University, with a major in Developmental and Stem cell Biology. The topic of the Master thesis was: Impact of planar cell polarity pathway on neighbouring muscle stem cell populations. In 2023, she moved to Lausanne, Switzerland to pursue her PhD.

My project focuses on the one hand on investigating the lipid heterogeneity of stem cells on single cell level and on the other on deciphering how the lipid metabolism is shaping the differentiation and development of an organism.

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Jean Maillat is a Swiss student, who graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of science (BSc) in Life Sciences Engineering from EPFL. In 2022, he received a Master of Science (MSc) also in Life Sciences Engineering from EPFL. Title of Master Thesis: Optimisation of CAR T-cell production in an innovative culture chamber design. In March 2023, he started his PhD in Giovanni D’angelo’s lab at EPFL.

I am interested in understanding how sphingolipid biosynthesis is regulated during neuronal differentiation.

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Hannah Schede is a joint PhD student in the Computational and Quantitative Biology program (EDCB) between the La Manno and D’Angelo Labs. She has a strong interest in the applications of statistical models and data analysis to the health sciences. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in McGill University, Canada in Biology and Mathematics and her M. Eng in Bioengineering at EPFL, during which she completed an internship in the La Manno Lab, she returned to the lab full time as a PhD student.

I have worked towards the development of Tomographer, a technique dedicated to the spatial molecular profiling of tissues, as well as the construction of a python package to process mass spectrometry imaging data, uMAIA . I have other interests including tennis, hiking, baking, and slappin’ da bass!

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Dr. Francesco Talotta, a Ph.D. holder in Advanced Biology, earned his Master’s Degree in Biological Science from the University of Naples “Federico II” in 2004. Following a fellowship in Montpellier, France, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Naples in 2009. His research journey includes a postdoctoral position in Naples and a role as a Senior Scientist in Rome from 2018 to 2021. Currently, he serves as a Researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, CNR, Naples, Italy, showcasing his dedication to advancing biological science.

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