Cell Biology Seminar

Mondays - 11:15

Room C161, IZB, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern

ICB Seminars Autumn Semester 2026
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Talk Title
September 14, 2026	Prof. Dr. Michael Raissig (Invited by Dawid Warmus)	Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern	“Transcription factor control of stomatal morphodiversity in plants”
September 21, 2026	Prof. Dr. Claudia Keller Valsecchi (Invited by Prof. Dr. Peter Meister)	Biozentrum, University of Basel	"Mechanistic Diversity in Chromatin Regulation Across Evolution: Insights from Mosquitoes and Other Systems"
September 28, 2026	Prof. Dr. Gabriel Neurohr (Invited by Prof. Dr. Benjamin Towbin)	Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zürich	"How Physical Cues Shape Cell Function in Homeostasis, Stress and Senescence"
October 5, 2026	Dr. Timothy Fuqua (Invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)	Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern	"How mutations create new evolutionary innovations: a systems approach"
October 12, 2026	Dr. Veikko Geyer (Invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)	Center for Molecular Bioengineering, Dresden University of Technology	"How molecular motors bend and twist the cilia of the green alga Chlamydomonas"
October 19, 2026	Prof. Dr. Alexis Jourdain (Invited by Prof. Dr. Torsten Ochsenreiter)	Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne	TBA
October 26, 2026	Prof. Dr. Jan Riemer (Invited by Prof. Dr. Torsten Ochsenreiter)	Institute of Biochemistry, University of Cologne	TBA
October 30, 2026	Prof. Dr. Florenci Serras (Invited by Prof. Dr. Benjamin Towbin)	Development Biology and Genomics, University of Barcelona	TBA
November 2, 2026	Dr. Clare Harding (Invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)	School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow	TBA
November 9, 2026	Dr. Natalie Wiedemar (Invited by Prof. Dr. Eva Glünz)	Insitute of Parasitology, University of Bern	"Characterization of Drug Resistance and Exploration of Novel Treatment Options for the Common Liver Fluke, Fasciola hepatica"
November 16, 2026	Prof. Dr. Ashley Vaughan (Invited by Prof. Dr. Volker Heussler)	Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute	"Using Plasmodium falciparum genetic crosses to understand malaria parasite fitness across the life cycle"
November 23, 2026	Prof. Dr. Simona Huwiler (Invited by Prof. Dr. Carmen Faso)	Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern	TBA
November 30, 2026	Dr. Alena Zikova (Invited by Prof. Dr. Torsten Ochsenreiter)	Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre CAS	TBA
December 7, 2026	Prof. Dr. Sangwoo Kim (Invited by Dr. Maciej Dobrzynski)	EPFL	TBA
December 14, 2026	Prof. Dr. Alexander Eggel	Department for BioMedical Research, Inselspital, University of Bern	TBA

Monday, October 19th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Photo of professor doctor Alexis Jourdain

Prof. Dr. Alexis Jourdain | Department of Immunobiology | University of Lausanne

Alexis Jourdain was awarded his PhD in 2013 at the University of Geneva for his research into mitochondrial gene expression and mitochondrial RNA granules, carried out under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Claude Martinou, as a fellow of the Roche Research Foundation. In 2015, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Vamsi Mootha, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA). During his postdoctoral training, as a fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Alexis Jourdain developed genomic approaches to identify genes involved in mitochondrial function and metabolism. In spring 2021, he joined the Department of Immunobiology at the University of Lausanne, formerly the Department of Biochemistry. Since 2026, he has been an associate professor and a member of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. His current research focuses on mitochondrial genome expression and mitochondrial diseases, as well as the biochemistry of metabolism.

Monday, October 26th 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Prof. Dr. Jan Riemer | Institute of Biochemistry | University of Cologne

Jan was born in Erfurt (Thuringia, former GDR), where he also went to High school. After graduation, he moved to Tübingen in the south of Germany for his studies of Biochemistry (from 1997). During his studies, he went for one year to the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where he fell in love with cysteines and disulphide bond formation in E.coli in the laboratory of James Bardwell. Jan performed his Diploma thesis in the laboratory of Ralf Dringen at the University of Tübingen, studying the release of glutathione disulphide from astrocytes during oxidative stress. After his Diploma thesis, Jan spent four months at Monash University in the lab of Stephen Robinson and developed an iron quantification assay, before he performed an internship with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From November 2003, Jan performed his PhD thesis in the laboratory of Lars Ellgaard, first at the ETH Zurich and later at the University of Copenhagen. In Lars’ lab, Jan worked on the redox regulation of oxidative protein folding and ER-associated degradation. In 2008, Jan moved to Kaiserslautern where he became a group leader and assistant professor in the Department Cell Biology (mentor: Johannes Herrmann). During this time, he began working on mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative protein folding in mitochondria and redox signalling. In 2015, Jan moved to Cologne where he started as associate professor and in 2022 became full professor.

Friday, October 30th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Photo of professor doctor Florenci Serras

Prof. Dr. Florenci Serras | Department of Biology and Genomcis | University of Barcelona | "Timing Is Everything: Early Oxidative Stress Shapes Tissue Regeneration"

Florenci Serras is an Associate Professor of Genetics at the Universitat de Barcelona since 1993. From 1991-1993 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands and from 1990-1991 he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Irvine, USA. He obtained his PhD Degree in Biology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. His research is focused on studying the coordination between proliferation, differentiation and organization of cells into functional tissues using Drosophila melanogaster as animal model.

Monday, November 2nd, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Dr. Clare Harding | School of Infection and Immunity |University of Glasgow | "Heavy Metal Parasite: Use and abuse of metals by Toxoplasma gondii"

Clara Harding's work has focussed on the cell biology of the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. During her postdoc, she investigated the molecular mechanisms of how the parasite builds and maintains its remarkable, teardrop-like shape, with a focus on the transmembrane proteins of the periphery of T. gondii. In her new group, her research will focus on how Toxoplasma acquires and uses iron from its host cells. Iron is an essential nutrient for almost all cell types, from bacteria to the cells that make up our bodies, however it can be difficult to acquire and is toxic in the wrong place. Toxoplasma is the ultimate generalist, it requires a host cell to replicate within, it can grow within any cell type from any warm blooded animal. This means during its lifecycle, the parasite must contend with both high and low iron concentrations and be able to rapidly adapt to its environment.

Monday, November 9th, 2026 - 11:15 - Baltzerstrasse 4, Room C161

Dr. Natalie Wiedemar | Institute of Parsitology | University of Bern | "Characterization of Drug Resistance and Exploration of Novel Treatment Options for the Common Liver Fluke, Fasciola hepatica"

The trematode parasite F. hepatica, also called the common liver fluke, infects the liver of humans and animals. It is distributed worldwide and is also common in ruminants in Switzerland (Frey et al., 2018), where it leads to losses in agricultural production. While human infections occur only sporadically in Europe, the parasite significantly affects certain population groups, mainly in the Global South, and is considered a neglected tropical disease. The common liver fluke undergoes a complex life cycle that involves lymnaeid snails as intermediate hosts and mammals as definitive hosts. Mammals become infected by ingesting the environmentally stable cyst form of the parasite (called metacercariae), usually through the consumption of contaminated plants; a typical example is wild watercress. Once ingested, the juvenile flukes (approximately 0.2 mm long) hatch in the small intestine and migrate to and through the liver. During the course of infection, the parasites grow (up to 3 cm) and settle in the bile ducts. There, they can survive for multiple years and reproduce sexually. The migration of the parasites through the liver leads to bleeding, liver tissue damage, and inflammation. During the advanced stage of the disease, the parasites can cause obstruction of the bile ducts.

Institute of Cell Biology