Gisou van der Goot

Gisou van der Goot is a Full Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), heading the Cell and Membrane Biology Laboratory and co-founding the Institute of Infectious Diseases. Since 2021, she has served as Vice President for Responsible Transformation, driving EPFL’s shift toward inclusivity and sustainability. From 2014–2020, she was Dean of the School of Life Sciences. Her research focuses on bacterial toxin mechanisms, membrane organization, and organelle biology, with notable contributions to understanding protein palmitoylation and toxin-induced cellular responses.

Prof. van der Goot holds a degree in engineering from École Centrale de Paris and a PhD in Molecular Biophysics from the CEA Saclay (Paris VI). Her postdoctoral work at EMBL Heidelberg further shaped her expertise. She has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the EMBO Young Investigator Award (2001), HHMI support (2005), and the Marcel Benoist Prize (2009).

Her articles emphasize membrane dynamics, toxin mechanisms, and S-acylation’s role in cellular processes. Key themes include anthrax toxin function, hepatitis E virus pathogenesis, and mitochondrial S-depalmitoylation. She advises over a dozen doctoral students and contributes to scientific advisory boards for the Swiss National Science Foundation and ERC.

Labs and teams under her leadership explore host-pathogen interactions and membrane biology, while her administrative roles reflect her commitment to institutional transformation and academic governance.