David Legouis, attending physician in the HUG Intensive Care Unit and privat-docent in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Pharmacology, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, and Laurent Sheybani, senior clinical associate at the HUG Neurology Unit and at the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Clinical Neurosciences, are the winners of two of the Ambizione grants awarded this year by the SNSF. This programme supports young researchers who wish to carry out, manage and direct independently a planned project at a Swiss university.  David Legouis specialises in acute kidney injury, while Laurent Sheybani specialises in epilepsy and sleep.

David Legouis: how to repair kidneys better

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in intensive care and a major risk factor for chronic kidney disease. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying kidney recovery is therefore essential to improving patient care.  Dr Legouis has identified has identified the RXRα receptor as a key regulator of oxidative metabolism in tubular epithelial cells, essential for reabsorption and secretion. Pharmacological activation of this pathway, notably with bexarotene, promotes recovery and limits fibrosis. These results, obtained in a preclinical model, open up promising clinical perspectives for kidney protection and repair.

David Legouis is a MD, board certified in anaesthesiology and intensive care. He also holds a master's degree and a PhD in physiology from Sorbonne University. Since moving to Geneva in 2014, he has been serving as attending physician in intensive care at the HUG and as privat-docent at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine.  His research focuses on the transition between acute and chronic disease, with a particular emphasis on mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathophysiology of renal recovery.

Laurent Sheybani: using sleep to better control epilepsy

Sleep is a restorative environment that normalises brain activity, in particular neural activity. The aim of this project is to test the possibility of diverting - for virtuous purposes - the sleep activities involved in this restorative function to better control epilepsy. At the same time, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms will be studied in animal models of epilepsy, with a view to developing new neurostimulation therapies.

Laurent Sheybani is an MD, specialist in neurology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from the Lemanic Neuroscience Doctoral School. He is trained in EEG and epileptology, and in sleep medicine. From 2022 to 2025, he achieved a post-doctoral fellowship at University College London, funded by the SNSF. He is also associate editor of the journal Brain Communications.