OUR TEAM

Empowering scientific progress through collaborative support.

Executive team

Dr. Theo Ribierre, PhD

Facility Coordinator

Theo holds a PhD in Neurosciences (2020) and a Diploma of Advance Studies in Translational Research and Therapeutic Innovation (2018) from Sorbonne Université, Paris, France. He is the coordinator of the human cellular neuroscience platform, which he initiated and now oversees its activities. He is as much involved in grant writing with academic research teams, as he participates in experiments and assists users on all the equipment available on the platform. Theo is also an Academic Fellow of the University of Geneva, in the group of Prof. Denis Jabaudon at the department of basic neurosciences of the faculty of medicine.

Dr. Laura Frangeul, PhD

Biobank Manager

Laura holds a PhD in Neurosciences (2014) and a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) in Management of Clinical Trials (2017) from the University of Geneva. As the Biobank Manager of the Synapsy Mental Health Biobank Infrastructure on the platform, her role is to ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards and guarantee the quality of the operational processes for biobanks hosted by the infrastructure. She is also a scientific collaborator in Denis Jabaudon’s laboratory in the Department of Fundamental Neurosciences at the University of Geneva.

Mrs. Léa Aubert

Laboratory Technician

Léa obtained a technological diploma and a bachelor in molecular and cellular biology in 2020 from the Université de Lorraine and Université de Clermont, France. She worked first in a private company then in an academic research group before joining the human cellular neuroscience platform in 2023 as a laboratory technician. She actively participates in cell culture and spatial transcriptomics projects.

Mrs. Elisabeth Urban

Laboratory Technician

Elisabeth graduated with a Master’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology from the Technical University of Munich in 2022 with hands-on experience in immunological research and methods. She worked at Roche Diagnostics for 6 months before joining the human cellular neuroscience platform in April 2023 where she is involved in all aspects of experiments, from cell culture to spatial transcriptomics.

Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Pierre Magistretti, MD-PhD

Scientific Advisor

Pierre J. Magistretti is Professor Emeritus at the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and at the Departments of Psychiatry at University of Lausanne and University of Geneva. He is also Distinguished Professor at the Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering at KAUST where he has been Dean from 2012 to 2020.
Pierre J. Magistretti’s team has discovered some of the cellular mechanisms that underlie the coupling between neuronal activity and energy consumption by revealing the key contribution of glial cells.
Among the many pivotal roles he has played during his career at the forefront of international neuroscientific research, he most recently initiated the impulse of the human cellular neuroscience platform, for which he acts as the scientific advisor.

Prof. Fides Zenk, PhD

Faculty Advisor - Assistant Professor EPFL

Fides Zenk is an Assistant Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EPFL). She joined the Brain Mind Institute in 2023. Her lab is interested in epigenetic mechanisms controlling development and cell fate transitions in the developing brain. She has developed a single-cell multimodal atlas that charts histone modifications and RNA expression during the early stages of central nervous system development, employing brain organoids as a model.

She was awarded an SNSF starting grant to unravel the function of epigenetic modifiers in early brain development. She received the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society and the Gateff-Award of the German Genetics Society for her work uncovering the fundamental epigenetic mechanisms through which H3K27me3 and HP1 control early embryonic development.

Prof. Denis Jabaudon, MD-PhD

Faculty Advisor - Full Professor UniGE

Denis Jabaudon is professor at the University of Geneva since 2009, where he has his independent research group, and is the Director of the Department of Basic Neurosciences since 2018. He also practices as a clinical neurologist at Geneva University Hospital. His work on the genetics of neuronal circuit assembly during cortical development has earned him several prestigious prizes, including the Freedman Prize for Exceptional Basic Research from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD), the Pfizer Research Prize, the Bing Prize from the Swiss Academy of Medical Science, and the Max Cloëtta Prize. His work is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Research Council (Advanced grants).