Congratulations to Abigail Strefeler (Alexandre) on receiving the Faculty Prize from the FBM UNIL, Faculté de biologie et de médecine de l’Université de Lausanne! 🎉

This prize is awarded for the best publication from a PhD thesis at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, recognizing Abigail’s excellent work on nucleotide metabolism, recently published in Nature Metabolism.

Congratulations Abigail, very well deserved! 👏

Huge congratulations to Miriam Lisci, our lab’s very first postdoc, for receiving the Young Researcher in Basic Science Award from the FBM UNIL - Faculté de biologie et de médecine de l'Université de Lausanne! This is the highest distinction awarded to a postdoctoral researcher in our faculty, and a wonderful recognition of Miriam’s outstanding work. Bravo Miriam!

Lisci M, Vericel F, Liu Y, Gallant-Ayala H, Ivanisevic J, Skinner OS, Jourdain AA. Functional nutrient-genetic profiling reveals biotin and FBXW7 are essential to bypass glutamine addiction. Molecular Cell 2026 https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(26)00097-3

Alexis was selected as part of the 2025–2029 batch of EMBO Young Investigators. The EMBO Young Investigator Programme supports outstanding early-career group leaders in Europe by providing funding, networking opportunities, and access to advanced training and infrastructure.

His project focuses on the spatial organization of mitochondrial gene expression and is hosted at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. This year’s cohort includes 28 newly selected group leaders from across Europe.

New article from the lab! https://www.jourdainlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Strefeler_NM_2025.pdf By Abigail Strefeler et al.

Three new lab members joined this summer! Eleanor McKay (postdoc) will investigate nucleotide metabolism in vivo. Miriam Valera Alberni (postdoc) and Ebru Adigüzel (lab manager) will focus on mitochondrial RNA granules. Welcome to the lab!

Our updated inventory of genes required for OXPHOS & findings on mito defects in Menieres is now out at Cell Reports! 🧫 New galactose #CRISPR screen 🎯 481 genes required for #OXPHOS ⚙️ #FAM136A in IMS proteostasis 👂 Mito defects in #Menieres Congratulations to first author Marcell Harhai and to the team! Link: https://www.jourdainlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Harhai_CellReports_2025.pdf

This image by Emeline Recazens illustrates our recent publication led by Mads Foged on the cytosolic role of N6AMT1 in mitochondrial gene expression and innate immunity

Our work on uridine metabolism is featured in the Cancer Metabolism 2.0 collection at Springer Nature on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Warburg effect! https://www.nature.com/collections/djjgbfahdf

New preprint from the lab! biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2024.07.02.601698v1 By Mads Foged et al.  

PhD students Abigail Strefeler and Joan Blanco-Fernandez teamed up to discuss how nucleosides - and nucleic acids! - can be used as energy sources, notably in cancers and in immunity. PDF

It was a pleasure to share my story in an interview with the Faculty of Biology & Medicine at UNIL (in French): https://news.unil.ch/display/1708338051461

In a "Career Pathways" article in Nature Metabolism Alexis discusses how he became a biologist and his career so far. PDF.

In a "Voices" article in Molecular Cell Alexis shares his experience finishing his postdoc, moving to another continent and opening his lab during the COVID-19 pandemic. PDF

Welcome Lilit Petrosyan and Anaïs Senn! Lilit and Anaïs are master students from the University of Lausanne and they will stay with us until the end of the year.

Our story on uridine catabolism for energy production is out in Nature Metabolism! Spearheaded by co-first authors Owen Skinner (MGH/Harvard) and Joan Blanco-Fernandez (from the lab), with Vamsi Mootha and many collaborators. PDF

In a new manuscript by Joan Blanco-Fernandez we introduce Dead-Seq, a powerful experimental method for converting negative- into positive-selection screens, compatible with CRISPR screening, ORFeome screening and more. PDF

Our group, together with Dr. Christel Tran at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), was awarded a two-year interdisciplinary grant from the Research Commission at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne. With this new fund, we will develop tools to provide molecular diagnoses to patients with suspected mitochondrial disorders.

Marcell Harhai is a medical doctor from Sweden and Hungary with a strong interest in research. Marcell will develop new molecular diagnosis tools for mitochondrial disorders and investigate recently discovered mitochondrial disease genes.

Mads Møller Foged hails from Copenhagen, Denmark. During his PhD, Mads developed novel strategies for organelle isolation coupled to lipidomics.