Epi­ge­ne­tics – Bey­ond Men­de­li­an Ge­ne­tics?

His team investigates the molecular and cellular basis of memory formation, storage and modification, with a focus on epigenetic mechanisms. Over the course of his career, Prof. Gräff has made several important discoveries that showed that epigenetic changes contribute not only to healthy but also to abnormal memory processing. And furthermore, that epigenetic mechanisms – due to their reversibility – represent a possible treatment for neurological disorders characterized by cognitive changes. This is e.g. This is the case, for example, with the memory loss that accompanies Alzheimer's disease, or with unwanted strong memories that occur in post-traumatic stress disorder. Prof. Gräff’s highly innovative research is located at the interface of basic and translational neuroscience as well as at the interface between neurobiology and psychology. His internationally acclaimed work forms the basis for ongoing translational and clinical studies aimed at exploiting the reversibility of epigenetic marks to treat memory disorders. Johannes Gräff studied biology at the University of Lausanne and received his doctorate in neuroscience from ETH Zurich. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Picower Institute of Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA. Since joining EPFL as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2013, Prof. Gräff has received an ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant and has been awarded several prestigious science awards. Today he is an associate professor at EPFL, where he heads the neuroepigenetics laboratory. Public lecture by the Natural Research Society of the Canton of Solothurn