Lablife ‒ UPSCHOONJANS ‐ EPFL

**18/11/2022** Congratulations to Dr. Yu Sun who brilliantly defended her thesis today!

**29/08/2022** The Schoonjans’lab out for dinner to celebrate our latest scientific accomplishments!

**26/08/2022** Congratulations to Dr. Nadia Bresciani who brilliantly defended her thesis today!

Past News

03/04/2019 Congratulations to Hadrien Demagny, who received a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF).

28/01/2019 Congratulations to Laura Alejandra Velázquez Villegas, who received a postdoctoral fellowship from insurance giant AXA.

01/01/2019 A very warm welcome to our new secretary, Rita Heiniger.

01/09/2018 A very warm welcome to a new Ph.D. student, Yu Sun, that will be working on the liver metabolic zonation.

25/04/2018 Our research on the link between the sympathetic nervous system and liver cancer is featured in the 2017 Annual Report of the “Recherche Suisse contre le Cancer” institution.

24/04/2018 Vera Lemos brilliantly passed her PhD thesis defense in Porto. Congratulations Dr. Lemos!

15/03/2018 A very warm welcome to a new Ph.D. student, Yildiz Ece, that will be working on liver organoids.

01/03/2018 Today, we welcome a new trainee in our lab, Sun Yu, that will join the LRH-1 team.

17/01/2018 An article by Laura Velazquez and Alessia Perino, published today in Nature Communication, demonstrates that TGR5 signaling promotes mitochondrial fission and beige remodeling of white adipose tissue. This work identifies TGR5 as a druggable target to promote beiging with potential applications in the management of metabolic disorders. This paper received wide coverage in the popular press, including in the following websites “kopalniawiedzy.pl” (in Polish), Eurekalert, ebiotrade (in Chinese), technologynetworks.com, myscience.org, Medicalnewser.com and datoanuncios.org (in Spanish). The paper was also featured on the first page of the EPFL website. For a radio interview of Alessia Perino click here.

12/01/2018 Bresciani Nadia will continue her stay in our lab as a Ph.D. student. We welcome her to this new journey!

01/11/2017 A very warm welcome to Bresciani Nadia that will join our lab as a rotation student.

03/10/2017 A slightly late but warm welcome to Melanie Korbelius that will join our lab as a rotation student.

02/05/2017 Today, we welcome a new post-doc in our lab, Marika Zietak that will join the LRH-1 team with a focus on hepatic metabolism.

02/02/2017 Congratulations to Hadrien Demagny who received the 2016 Marie Skłodowska-Curie EPFL Fellowship.

18/01/2017 A new study from Sokrates Stein, Vera Lemos et al. describing the role of the LRH-1 nuclear receptor in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease was published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This story was featured on the EPFL SV department front page, as well as on Eurekalert website.

10/11/2016 Today Hadrien Demagny welcomed in our lab 8 children from 10 to 12 years old for the EPFL “Journée Osez Les Métiers (JOM)”. Dr. Demagny showed them how to extract DNA from a banana using table salt, soap and rubbing alcohol. All children performed very well. Congratulations to our future little scientists!

13/08/2016 A very warm welcome to a new Ph.D. student in our team, Charlotte Kern from France who will be working on bile acid projects in the worm C. Elegans.

15/06/2016 An article by Pan Xu and colleagues, published today in Genes and Development, demonstrates that the nuclear receptor liver receptor homolog 1 (LRH-1) is a key regulator in the process of hepatic tumorigenesis through the coordination of a noncanonical glutamine pathway. This work leads the way to identify new chemotherapeutic agents to treat liver cancer by developing specific compounds that inhibit LRH-1. This paper received a wide coverage in the popular press, including Science Daily, Scifeeds, Medical Xpress, the International Business Times, Heraldo (in Spanish), 20minutos (in Spanish), Ideal.es (in Spanish) as well as the front page of EPFL website.

13/06/2016 A late but very warm welcome to a new member in our team, Laura Velazquez Villegas from Mexico who will start working on TGR5-related projects.

20/05/2016 A slightly late but warm welcome to Andréane Fouassier, a technician trainee from the ESTBB.

02/02/2016 Congratulations to Hadrien Demagny who received the 2015 Marie Skłodowska-Curie EPFL Fellowship.

02/11/2015 We welcome two new members to our group: Hadrien Demagny will join the LRH-1 team, and Qingyao Huang will do her Ph.D. study on TGR5-related projects.

04/03/2015 We welcome a new member in our team, Vered Aberg, a technician trainee from the BNF.

06/01/2015 Congratulations to Sokrates Stein, who received a postdoctoral research grant from the Novartis Consumer Health Foundation.

05/01/2015 In a collaborative study with Ron Evans from the Salk Institute published in Nature Medicine, we showed that treating mice with the intestinal-restricted FXR agonist fexaramine reduced diet-induced weight gain, systemic inflammation, and hepatic glucose production, while it promoted browning of white adipose tissue and thermogenesis. These data suggest restricted FXR activation as a new approach in the treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome. News coverage on Le Temps.

28/08/2014 We published a new study explaining how non-SUMOylatable Lrh-1 K289R mice are protected against the development of atherosclerotic plaques. Our study highlights how a single posttranslational modification affects metabolic disease pathogenesis. Online at Cell Metabolism and EPFL-SV news.

23/06/2014 Congratulations to Alessia Perino and Sokrates Stein, who had been selected to participate at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Physiology and Medicine 2014, in Lindau, Germany.

02/04/2014 We welcome a new postdoctoral fellow to our team: Ning Shen from China, who will work in the TGR5 team.

13/01/2014 We welcome a new member to our team: Antoine Verslype, coming for an Internship from Belgium (Stage Leonardo/Transeurope).

15/11/2013 We belatedly welcome a new member to our team: Silas Kieser, who will be doing his bachelor thesis work in our laboratory.

14/10/2013 We welcome a new member to our team: Vera Lemos, an exchange Ph.D. student from Portugal, who will work on the LRH-1 project.

31/08/2013 The Schoonjans website is now online. A few key past news items are highlighted here.

13/02/2013 We welcome two new collaborators to the lab: Alessia Perino and Carolina Hagberg, both of whom will work on TGR5.

21/01/2013 Many congratulations to Mitsunori Nomura, who has passed his Ph.D. defense! We welcome him into our laboratory now as a post-doc while he finishes up work on TGR5.

19/09/2012 Three recent collaborative efforts with our laboratory have been published, one study on the regulation of energy control via bile acids, one study on the relationship between cancer and oxidative phosphorylation, and the other on the genetics of sleep.

02/08/2012 Beginning a busy August, we welcome five new members to our lab: two doctoral students, Virginija Jovaisaite and Pan Xu, two postdocs, Young-Suk Jo and Géraldine Canny, and one short-term scientific collaborator, Dennis Dahlmans.

09/07/2012 The Journal of Clinical Investigation has published a paper by Maaike Oosterveer et al. on the role of Liver receptor homolog 1 (LRH-1) in hepatic intermediary metabolism.

06/06/2012 Scientific Reports has published two papers by our group: one by Pablo Fernandez on Sirt3 showing the absence of an effect of Sirt3 on liver and muscle. The other paper, by Taoufiq Harach, shows that commonly-used bile acid binding resins affect metabolism through TGR5.

07/12/2011 Cell Metabolism has published a paper by Thijs Pols and Mitsunori Nomura from our laboratory on the positive effect of TGR5 activation on macrophage inflammation and atherosclerosis. There has been quite some popular press on this article, including on Le Temps, Le Matin, and 20 Minutes.

11/06/2011 Science-Business eXchange publishes an interview with prof. Auwerx and others about the current LRH-1 research of Dr. David Moore.

01/05/2011 We welcome Sokrates Stein to the team. Sokrates will work on the LRH-1 projects.

01/01/2011 We welcome Giuseppe Lo Sasso to the team. Giuseppe will work as a postdoc on both sirtuins and TGR5, especially in relation to the intestine.

07/10/2010 Johan Auwerx and Kristina Schoonjans are awarded the Windaus Prize from the Dr. Falk Foundation for their discovery of signaling/endocrine function of bile acids.