New D-BIOL Executive Committee
On 1 October 2020, a new Executive Committee took up its work in the Department of Biology. The department is now headed by three female professors: the new head of the department is Annette Oxenius (IMB), her deputy is Sabine Werner (IMHS), and the director of studies is Julia Vorholt (IMB).
Due to the start of the semester, Julia Vorholt took up her post as Director of Studies on 1 September and was introduced here.
Annette Oxenius (Head of D-BIOL)
Curriculum vitae
Since 2012, Annette Oxenius has been a Full Professor of Immunology at ETH Zurich (2007 Associate Professor, Assistant Professor since April 2002). She went to school in Zurich and studied biochemistry, molecular biology and immunology at the University of Zürich from 1988-1993. Thereafter she performed her dissertation at the Institute for Experimental Immunology in the laboratory of Hans Hengartner and Rolf Zinkernagel. In 1997 she obtained her Ph.D. at the ETH Zurich. After a short postdoctoral period at the same institute, she moved to Oxford, UK, where she was a postdoc in the lab of Rodney Phillips from 1999-2002.
Research area
Infectious diseases, caused by various microorganisms, have major medical, social and economic consequences and are a major cause of death worldwide. The Oxenius lab is interested in understanding complex host-pathogen interactions by analyzing the ways of how the immune system recognizes and reacts towards pathogenic infections resulting in eradication or control.
Link to the website of the Oxenius lab.
Sabine Werner (Deputy head of D-BIOL)
Curriculum vitae
Sabine Werner has been Professor of Cell Biology at the ETH Zurich since 1999. She studied Biochemistry in Tubingen and Munich and earned her Ph.D. at the University of Munich, after having completed her dissertation at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried in the department of Prof. Peter Hans Hofschneider. She subsequently moved to the University of California San Francisco, where worked on the molecular mechanisms of growth factor action as a postdoctoral scientist in the laboratory of Prof. Lewis T. Williams. From 1993-1999 she was a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. From 1996-1999 she was a Hermann-and-Lilly Schilling professor of Medical Research and also Associate Professor at the University of Munich.
Research area
The Werner laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of tissue repair, with particular emphasis on the roles of growth factors and their downstream signaling pathways in this process. In particular, they are interested in the parallels between wound healing and cancer at the cellular and molecular level.
Link to the website of the Werner lab.