Jacques Fellay (born 12 August 1974) is a Swiss medical doctor and researcher active in the fields of human

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

and

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

. He is an associate professor at the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, where he leads the laboratory of Human Genomics of Infection and Immunity.

Career

Fellay studied medicine in

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () o ...

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and obtained his medical degree from the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

in 2000. He then received an MD from the University of Lausanne and a PhD from

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

. He was clinically trained in infectious diseases in Switzerland, before spending 4 years as a research scientist at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. He joined the School of Life Sciences, EPFL in 2011. Fellay is associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences, EPFL and at the University of Lausanne, founding director of the

Precision Medicine Precision, precise or precisely may refer to: Science, and technology, and mathematics Mathematics and computing (general) * Accuracy and precision, measurement deviation from true value and its scatter * Significant figures, the number of digit ...

Unit of the

Lausanne University Hospital The Lausanne University Hospital (french: Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, CHUV), in Lausanne, is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland. The Lausanne University Hospital is linked to the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of ...

, group leader at the

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland. The institute was established on 30 March 1998 and its mission is to provide core bioinfor ...

, as well as co-director of the Health2030 Genome Center in Geneva. He is a member of the Swiss Federal Commission for Genetic Studies in Humans and of the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force.

Research

Fellay leads the laboratory of Human Genomics of Infection and Immunity at EPFL, which uses large-scale

genomic Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

approaches and

bioinformatic Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combine ...

tools to explore the impact of human genetic variation on

, immune parameters and host-pathogen interactions. At the crossroad between basic biomedical science and the clinical world, his research aims at identifying the genomic factors modulating the human response to infectious and immune diseases, with the ultimate goal of offering novel diagnostic, preventative or therapeutic solutions customized to the unique genetic background of every patient. His publications have led to the identification of genetic factors influencing host control and therapy response to viral infections such as

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

or respiratory diseases.

Distinctions

Fellay was awarded with the 2012 National Latsis Prize and the 2015 Leenaards Prize for translational medical research for his contributions to the better understanding of genetic susceptibility to

and

infections. He also received the Basic Research in Infectious Diseases Award in 2008 and 2017 from the Swiss Society for Infectious Diseases.

References

Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1974 births Living people Swiss medical researchers Academic staff of the University of Lausanne {{DEFAULTSORT:Fellay, Jacques