Sciences, Life, Society

Life sciences : a priority field

 As a booming branch of high technology, genomics is already part of western Switzerland s academic and industrial fabric. But academic players need substantial resources and a long-term strategy if they are to study on a large scale the components of our chromosomes, the functions of genes and gene groups and the complex interactions between the products of these genes. The challenge is to face up to the keen international competition in this field.

Three institutions in the Lake of Geneva area are combining their strengths and competencies so as not to miss out on one of the key economic and scientific challenges of the 21st century, to step up knowledge and technology transfer to existing companies in the region and to gain a reputation for the region as an international life sciences center. Their aim is to set up a Functional Genomics Pole (PGF) run by a tripartite steering committee. It will encompass the development of the different research activities of the three institutions and the establishment of an Integrative Genomics Center (CIG).

The Functional Genomics Pole: networking of interdisciplinary teams

Research has to develop transversally if it is to follow the genome from the cell nucleus "laid bare" in laboratories to its interactions with the environment and the issues it raises in society. This networking of research teams - the PGF's raison d'être - will therefore cover a very extensive field of knowledge, touching on medicine, biology, environment, chemistry, mathematics, physics, information technology, materials, communication systems and human & social sciences. In order to ensure the coherence of this vast program, the three university institutions will also rely on other competencies, notably those of the Vaud cantonal hospitals and the Geneva university hospitals.

As a perfect illustration of the global approach chosen by the Lake of Geneva institutions, the subject areas will encompass five levels:

1. the molecular structure of genetic material and its regulatory mechanisms;  
2. the role of genes in regulating cell behavior and its dysfunctions in the case of pathological  phenomena such as cancers, metabolic diseases and degenerative diseases; 
3. relations between cells and their architectural organization in the course of development;  
4. genetic markers connected with species biodiversity and medical genetics;  
5. the study of ethical and sociological problems raised by biology and modern medicine.

 An integrative Genomics Center as a meeting-place for the academic, business and industrial world

As part of the "Pole", the Integrative Genomics Center (CIG) will focus on a central, priority theme geared to results. The work will be done by life science research teams from academic, business and industrial circles, as well as by human & social sciences researchers. As a genuine "laboratory" for a new approach by the university system, the CIG s purpose is to bring together under the same roof teams from different backgrounds, cultures and intellectual traditions. The Center fully embodies a policy that underlies the whole approach which the Lake of Geneva area has adopted, viz. the necessity of breaking down the historic barrier between "pure" science and human & social sciences at a time when these sciences have never needed each other so much to ensure a harmonious development of a human society that is not evolving as quickly as the striking technological progress it generates.

 IRIS: integrating human & social sciencess in a changing world

On the strength of this humanist policy, the project's initiators are planning to set up a second research and education pole on the theme of social integration, regulation and innovation (IRIS). This pole will take the form of a network combining the three institutions' competencies and will develop in four main areas, its aim being to:

1. analyze and help to manage the problems connected with sociocultural integration and resulting from far-reaching societal changes and their induced effects on individuals;  
2. propose, in direct liaison with the Genomics Pole, an interchange between social and life sciences capable of enriching an ethical debate;  
3. draw up legal regulations to take into account the new integration methods and new technologies, with the creation of a Forum on international, European and comparative law;  
4. set up, through an excellence program, new management and innovation strategies in the economic, social and political fields, taking into account an economic environment that is now marked by the decisive impact of information technology.

Basic sciences: reinforcing and applying fundamental research

The general conditions of education and research in chemistry, mathematics and physics in Lausanne will be optimized by grouping together these three subjects at the Lausanne Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and by strengthening life sciences at the University of Lausanne (UNIL). This concentration of strengths will open up some major new lines of research: molecular chemistry and engineering, biotechnology and process engineering, advanced medical imagery and development of mathematical models to be distributed with digital processing on high-powered computers and physics of biological systems.

 Pharmacy integrated into the life sciences

Being located on a single site - in Geneva - French-speaking Switzerland's Pharmacy School will give priority to development in key areas of pharmaceutical research (drug discovery, drug targeting, pharmacogenomics). In this respect the Functional Genomics Pole will offer some particularly promising areas of exploration.

 Financing

This project will be financed by the Swiss Confederation, in the context of the new university assistance federal law, on the one hand; and by the three partners' supervisory authorities (the federal institutes of technology sector, and the cantons of Vaud and Geneva), on the other.