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Claire Chevalier and Ozren Stojanovic awarded the prestigious 2016 Alex F. Müller prize

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The PHYM Department proudly congratulates Claire Chevalier and Dr. Ozren Stojanovic, both members of the group of Prof. Trajkovski and co-laureats of this year's Alex F. Müller Prize for Physiopathology. The Alex -F. Müller Prize is awarded annually to the most outstanding clinical and translational research published in a renowned journal by the Faculty of Medicine and the Geneva University Hospital  (Hopitaux Universitaire Genève, HUG) to members of their research staff.

 In December 2015, the team of Prof. Trajkovski, led by Ozren and Claire, reported in the journal Cell that mice exposed to cold temperature, a highly energy-demanding condition, experience a sharp shift in their microbiota composition, rendering them leaner and more sensitive to insulin. This microbiota increases their brown fat levels and thus improves their sensitivity to insulin and tolerance to cold. However, prolonged cold exposure can also attenuate the body's weight loss as the body takes up more calories from consumed food. More efficient caloric uptake from ingested food was due to overall increase in intestinal absorptive surface, a process also controlled by specific gut microbiota. This discovery may lead researchers to develop new solutions to fight obesity, targeting both caloric expenditure and caloric uptake.

 

Claire and Ozren received the Alex F. Müller award on the "Prix de la Faculté " ceremony held on 6 June at CMU, after they presented a short summary of their work entitled: Gut microbiota orchestrates energy homeostasis during cold.

 

Well done Claire and Ozren!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: S. Ljubicic and P. Nunes-Hasler

25 Aug 2016

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