Prof. Marc Vidal Harvard Medical School, USA

During his PhD training performed at Northwestern University as a visiting graduate student, Dr. Vidal discovered two new yeast genes, SIN3 and RPD3, and demonstrated their function in global transcriptional regulation. Together with the subsequent biochemical identification of histone deacetylase as the product of RPD3, his work helped confirm the... read moreAllfrey hypothesis concerning the role of histone modifications in transcriptional regulation, which is widely considered one of the major events that sparked the field of modern epigenetics.

Since the mid 90s, Dr. Vidal has focused his attention on understanding complex macromolecular networks and systems operating inside cells. Originally trained as a bioengineer and a geneticist, he pioneered the concept of “interactome network modeling”, which is based on interdisciplinary strategies developed with collaborators from the fields of physics, computer science, mathematics, genomics and human genetics. Working closely with an extended network of colleagues and collaborators, he has discovered fundamental systems properties in the human interactome network and is now starting to unravel fundamental relationships between cellular systems and human disease.