School of Life Sciences

Fosters education, research and innovation at the interface of engineering and biology to advance the understanding of the living world and solve biomedical problems.

Reconstructed dendrite from a neuron previously imaged in the visual cortex in vivo. | Method: Electron microscopy | © EPFL G. Knott & S. El-Boustani

BRB-seq: the quick and cheaper future of RNA sequencing

Published:19.04.19 — EPFL bioengineers have developed a new method for Bulk RNA Sequencing that combines the multiplexing-driven cost-effectiveness of a single-cell RNA-seq workflow with the performance of a bulk RNA-seq procedure.

Taming the genome's “jumping” sequences

Published:19.04.19 — EPFL scientists have discovered how a family of proteins that regulates the activity of transposable elements in the genome allows them to make inheritable changes to the growing fetus.

Turning an old enemy into a helpful friend

Published:18.04.19 — A protein complex that had originally evolved to repress the invasion of foreign DNA sequences in our genome took up a completely new function in directing the formation of fat cells, EPFL scientists have found.

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Our Mission

EPFL students working on portable biosensor

Education

We train engineers in Life Sciences with a solid polytechnic foundation. Our students acquire a multi-disciplinary education and study biology jointly with engineering, basic and computer sciences. We offer a Bachelor and Master program in Life Sciences Engineering, as well as four Doctoral programs in biotechnology and bioengineering, computational and quantitative biology, molecular life sciences and neurosciences.

Learn more about our education

Research

Our research groups operate at the interface of biology, basic sciences, computer sciences and engineering. This interdisciplinary environment stimulates innovative research to address essential questions in biological sciences. Cutting-edge core facilities and infrastructure support our scientists to push the boundaries of knowledge in development, neurosciences, immunology, cancer, infectious diseases and bioengineering.

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Innovation

We cultivate a climate of exploration and translation of knowledge and technologies to a sustainable benefit of humankind. The life sciences flagship innovation encouragement program, Catalyze4Life, facilitates the advancement of scientific know-how towards applications. We maintain a constructive and open dialogue between science, industry and society.

Discover our innovation initiative