Cell Biology Seminar

Mondays - 11:15

Room C161, IZB, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern

ICB Seminars Spring Semester 2026

Date

Speaker

Affiliation

Talk Title

23. Februrary, 2026

Dr. Hermes Gadelha
(invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)

University of Bristol

"Animating Matter: Reaction–Diffusion Motion Patterns from Molecular Motors to Cilia and Robots"

09. March, 2026

Dr. Romain Levayer
(invited by Prof. Dr. Olivier Pertz)

Institut Pasteur

"Toward a predictive understanding of epithelial cell death: from collective effects to single cell decision"

16. March, 2026

Prof. Dr. Charlotte Aumeier
(invited by Prof. Dr. Olivier Pertz)

University of Geneva

"Motors shaping the microtubule network"

23. March, 2026

Prof. Dr. Pedro Beltrao
(invited by Ana Maria Stavridi)

ETH Zurich

"Stress-testing AlphaFold3: modelling host-pathogen interactions, RNA binding, and protein ubiquitination"

13. April, 2026

Prof. Dr. Tatjana Kleele
(invited by Prof. Dr. Torsten Ochsenreiter)

ETH Zurich

“How mitochondrial remodeling drives cellular metabolism and function”

20. April, 2026

Dr. Gaudenz Danuser
(Invited by Prof. Dr. Olivier Pertz)

Institute of Human Biology, Roche

TBA

27. April, 2026

Dr. Manu De Rycker
(invited by Dr. Gaelle Lentini)

University of Dundee

TBA

04. May, 2026

Dr. Hans-Georg Sprenger
(Invited by Prof. Dr. Torsten Ochsenreiter)

Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

"Exercise-Sensitive Metabolites and Their Role in Metabolic Reprogramming"

11. May, 2026

Dr. Gautier Courbon
(Invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)

University of Toronto

"Cryo-EM in tuberculosis drug discovery: from bedaquiline to next-generation inhibitors"

18. May, 2026

Prof. Dr. Dirk Fasshauer
(invited by Mathi Funk)

University of Lausanne

TBA

Monday, April 13th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Photo of professor doctor Tatjana Kleele

Prof. Dr. Tatjana Kleele | ETH Zürich | “How mitochondrial remodeling drives cellular metabolism and function”

Mitochondrial fission and fusion are central processes in adapting mitochondrial function and regulating cellular energy homeostasis. The inability of mitochondria to adapt their morphology leads to bioenergetic defects and an accumulation of damaged mitochondria. However, the precise mechanism how altered mitochondrial structure and imbalances in mitochondrial dynamics lead to bioenergetic dysfunctions is poorly understood. Using a powerful combination of quantitative super-resolution imaging of mitochondrial biosensors and proteomic approaches, the Kleele Group examine the link between mitochondrial ultrastructure and metabolic function. Their preliminary data suggest, that mitochondria are highly dynamic in proliferating cells, which mainly rely on glycoslysis. Upon a metabolic switch from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorilation, for example during cell differentation, mitochondria lose plasticity and become more static. Understanding the link between mitochondrial dynamics, morphology and metabolic function will also enhance our understanding of how morphological aberrations of mitochondria lead to bioenergetic defects in pathology and might point towards novel strategies to re-balance mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic function in disease states. As a model system, they use bone-marrow derived murin macrophages polarized into pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory macrophages.

Monday, April 20th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Photo of doctor Gaudenz Danuser

Dr. Gaudenz Danuser | Institute of Human Biology, Roche

Gaudenz Danuser is Co-Director and Head of Computational Biology.  As a freshly launched scientific core of IHB, it is being built up from scratch to create tailored computational biology capabilities that help to drive breakthrough discoveries in human biology and translate them into industry applications. In addition, he leads the newly founded research group, Organoid Systems Biology, at IHB. This group is establishing a computational and experimental framework to study causal interactions between transcriptional, molecular, metabolic, and morphological regulation of single cell function during organoid development and therapy response.  Gaudenz is a distinguished academic leader renowned for his seminal contributions to biomedical informatics, AI, and computer vision, particularly in the field of cancer cell biology. In his previous position, he held the Patrick E. Haggerty Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Science and was the inaugural Chair of the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he also served as the Director of the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Systems Biology. In these roles Gaudenz led large-scale interdisciplinary research programs that integrated clinical, experimental and computational approaches at one of America’s premier academic medical centers. Prior to his appointment in Texas, Gaudenz held faculty positions at ETH Zurich, The Scripps Research Institute and Harvard Medical School. Gaudenz’s work often results in substantial institutional and scientific advancements, significantly contributing to  the understanding of cellular dynamics and mechanics. His extensive work is published in renowned journals like Nature, Cell and Science, and contributions to the development of innovative imaging systems and data analysis methods.  His scientific work has been recognized by prestigious honors as a Fellow of the American Society of Cell Biology and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. 

Monday, April 27th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Photo of doctor manu de rycker

Dr. Manu De Rycker | University of Dundee, Drug Discovery Unit

Manu De Rycker is Head of Biology and Portfolio Leader for the kinetoplastid and antifungal drug discovery programmes at the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) at the University of Dundee. Manu holds a Master of Science in bioscience engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium and a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Following postdoctoral work with Professor Peter Parker at the Cancer Research UK Lincoln’s Inn Field laboratories (London), he moved to the DDU at the University of Dundee in 2009 to develop high-content imaging assays for the newly started visceral leishmaniasis drug discovery programme. Manu now heads the group that develop and run cell-based assays for the parasitology and antifungal programmes in the DDU. The team has successfully built extensive screening cascades for Leishmania donovani and Trypanosoma cruzi that comprise high-throughput primary screening assays as well as advanced secondary assays with high physiological relevance, including assays for persister parasites. These cascades have proven pivotal to rapidly identify new compounds with the best chance of demonstrating in vivo efficacy. For this work the team were co-recipients of the 2024 DNDi Project of the Year award. The group also investigate fundamental biology relevant to drug discovery, enable new modalities for anti-infective drug discovery and work on developing a screening cascade for Cryptococcus drug discovery. As Portfolio Leader for Kinetoplastid Drug Discovery Manu leads a substantial drug discovery programme focused on delivering new pre-clinical candidates for Chagas disease. In collaboration with GSK this programme has developed two new pre-clinical candidates for visceral leishmaniasis. Manu works closely with biologists, chemists and pharmacologists to deliver further candidates for these neglected tropical diseases. In 2024 the team were awarded the Biochemical Society Award for Industry and Academic Collaboration. Recently Manu has also started building an antifungal drug discovery programme, to tackle deadly invasive fungal diseases that disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries.