Curator of Delight in Greener Daylight – A Class Perspective on Façade Renovation exhibition, showcased at the Wolk Gallery, MIT Museum (27 April to 30 July 2010), Cambridge, USA, sponsored by swissnex Boston and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning

Students in Marilyne Andersen’s Daylighting class worked in interdisciplinary teams to develop integrated solutions for façades on every side of the Consulate of Switzerland/swissnex Boston building in Cambridge. Based on their understanding of daylight as one of the main drivers of a building’s technical performance and its resulting human comfort and health, they focused on issues of glare, illumination, overheating, the ensuing energy requirements and the visual interest of the spaces. This exhibition of their work featured models, data analyses, simulations, video and audio that offer a broad range of creative solutions to a multi-faceted problem, and illustrate how challenging and inspiring it can be to answer a seemingly simple question: ‘What is good daylighting?’

Main artist of Circa Diem installation (Ø 400 cm x (h) 575 cm) exhibited at Lighten Up! On Biology and Time, EPFL Pavilions, Switzerland (23 March to 30 July 2023) exhibited digitally at Positions: Transcalar Prospects in Climate Crisis, Archizoom, EPFL (30 May to 28 July 2023)

Contributing artist/scientist to Droit au Jour experience (“the right to the day”) combining an interactive installation and an experimentation space at the Solar Biennale, mudac (museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts), Lausanne, Switzerland (21 March to 21 September 2025)

Contributor (scientific texts) to Lebensraum and to Habitat installations by Siegrun Appelt with Constanze Müller produced for Vienna Biennale for Change 2021 (28 May to 3 October) Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria texts adapted for Lighten Up! On Biology and Time (23 March to 30 July 2023), EPFL Pavilions, Switzerland

For decades, cancer biology research has primarily focused on intrinsic tumor mechanisms driven by genetic lesions. It is now clear that tumor cell behavior is shaped by additional layers of regulation, including epigenetic modifications and metabolic reprogramming, which confer high plasticity and render cancer cells highly responsive to cues from their surrounding microenvironment. Continuous cross-talk between tumor cells and the diverse components of the tumor microenvironment dictates tumorigenesis and is often skewed toward pro-tumoral signals, thereby fueling cancer progression. In B-cell lymphomas, a heterogeneous group of malignancies arising from mature B cells, immune-tumor interactions are particularly important, especially in early disease and indolent subtypes. The increasingly precise understanding of these interactions has recently driven the development of immune-based therapies, which have achieved transformative results in both lymphomas and solid tumors. Nevertheless, tumors continuously adapt and evade immune control, and relapsed or refractory cancers remain largely incurable despite recent advances. Overcoming these limitations requires novel therapeutic strategies and preclinical models that reproduce the complexity of human disease.

In this thesis, I describe a strategy to enhance anti-cancer immunity by targeting long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) elongation. By combining high-throughput drug screening with proteomics, lipidomics, and genetic engineering, we identified Phago Booster 1 (PB1), a small-molecule inhibitor of HSD17B12, a key enzyme in LCFA elongation. Targeting HSD17B12 selectively altered membrane organization in cancer cells, leading to the redistribution of surface receptors, including immune checkpoints and lipid transporters. In contrast, HSD17B12 inhibition enhanced the cytotoxic capacity of immune cells by increasing their glycolytic activity, thereby promoting activation. This divergent effect proved therapeutically relevant in vivo, leading to slower tumor growth and improved survival without notable toxicity. In parallel, I contributed to the development of a patient-derived lymphoma tissue explant platform designed to preserve native tumor architecture, stromal components, and immune cell diversity. We demonstrated that this system, termed lymphomoids, can support personalized medicine approaches by enabling the ex vivo assessment of patient-specific therapeutic responses. In a pilot cohort of 8 patients, drug sensitivity in lymphomoids successfully matched clinical outcomes in 89% of cases, highlighting its potential as a predictive tool for guiding treatment selection.

Together, these approaches illustrate how combining innovative therapeutic discovery with physiologically relevant disease models can uncover actionable strategies to overcome immune resistance and advance personalized cancer treatment.

Millions of people around the world suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. While specific treatments may be able to relieve some of the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, in most cases, these complex neurological disorders do not have a cure as we do not completely understand the cause of the disease. The current theory for the mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases is that the causative protein misfolds into a beta-sheet conformation triggering the formation of amyloid fibrils that aggregate into distinctive cellular inclusions. One such protein is alpha-synuclein (aSyn) which accumulates into fibrils in Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA). When aSyn amyloid fibrils clump together in diseases such as PD and DLB, they form Lewy bodies. As amyloid fibrils are thought to be the causative agent of the disease, many therapeutic strategies are being developed to inhibit the formation of the fibrils. To facilitate structure-based drug design, several methods have emerged in recent years to generate disease fibrils in vitro and obtain the atomic resolution 3D structure using cryo-electron microscopy. Of the many structures which are emerging from these studies, one major question is if these in vitro-generated structures are the same as what is seen in human disease. In this research, I will use multiple electron microscopy approaches to understand the physiological structure of aSyn fibrils in DLB, which is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. My first aim is to determine the in vitro structure of aSyn fibrils extracted from DLB patients. Cryo-EM is a tool that allows us to get the high-resolution structure of the fibrils in native conditions by plunge freezing in liquid ethane. Several software packages have been developed for electron microscopy structure determination, including RELION (REgularised LIkelihood Optimization); My second aim is to use room-temperature correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) method on resin-embedded brain sections to obtain the global morphology of aSyn inclusions in DLB brain donors. The inclusions will be first localized in the brain slices by fluorescence microscopy, and the structure will be analyzed by electron microscopy and electron tomography. I will investigate the inclusions in different brain regions and multiple patients. This analysis will inform us about different inclusion types present in DLB brains and define the targets for high-resolution cryo-CLEM; My final aim is to obtain the high-resolution structure directly within post-mortem human brain samples by cryo-CLEM. This will provide a direct representation of the pathological fibril structure, which can be used for drug discovery and mouse models. Cryo-CLEM and CLEM will be used to study the fibrillar structures in different parts of the post-mortem human brain with DLB. By correlating the information from post-mortem human brains with in vitro fibril structures, I can identify the specific fibril strain which makes up the pathology seen in DLB and PD. The results of this study may lead to the discovery of new therapeutic approaches for synucleinopathies and, in particular, for the prevention or slowing of neurodegeneration associated with Lewy Body diseases.

The kinetic inertness and low solubility of Au3(pyrazolate)3 complexes have made it difficult to integrate them into supramolecular assemblies. In this thesis, an investigation into the dynamic combinatorial chemistry of these complexes is presented, followed by strategies for their incorporation into molecular cages and a study of the host - guest chemistry of the resulting assemblies. The first research chapter, Chapter 2, describes the constitutional dynamic chemistry of Au3(pyrazolate)3 complexes. Ligand exchange reactions between"free" pyrazole ligands and Au3(pyrazolate)3 complexes were performed, and a pronounced autocatalytic behavior was observed. This led to the understanding that pyrazole ligands can act as catalysts for ligand scrambling between two Au3(pyrazolate)3 complexes. In addition, four crystal structures of heteroleptic Au3(pyrazolate)2(pyrazolate') are presented. Building on this foundation, Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of a dodecanuclear Au(I) cage. The cage consists of four Au3(pyrazolate)3 units, connected through an organic linker. The cage was first synthesized by a ligand exchange reaction, using an Au3(triazolate)3 complex as a gold source. Surprisingly, the same cage was also obtained in a direct synthesis from a reaction with AuCl(SMe2). The results highlight the importance of ligand design for the successful formation of Au3(pyrazolate)3-based cages. In Chapters 4 and 5, we demonstrate how the kinetic inertness of Au cyclic trinuclear complexes (CTCs) can be utilized in order to use them as pre-formed building blocks for cage synthesis. In Chapter 4, a stepwise approach, in which the use of metalloligands enabled the construction of a Fe24Au24Pd8 cage, is presented. With a molecular weight of 21 kDa and a diameter of approximately 4.1 nm, it is among the largest [Pd6L8]12+ cages reported. In addition, we demonstrate the use of a heteroleptic Au3(pyrazolate)2(pyrazolate') complex for the construction of a smaller Fe8Au12Pd2 cage. In Chapter 5, the preparation of three Au3(pyrazolate)3-based cages by combining coordination chemistry and dynamic covalent chemistry is described. First, two Au3(pyrazolate)3 complexes bearing peripheral aldehyde groups were synthesized. These complexes were used as building blocks for an imine condensation reaction, yielding one tetrahedral cage, containing four CTC units, and two prismatic cages, containing two CTC units each. The crystal structures of all three assemblies are reported. In addition, the host-guest chemistry with pi-acidic guests was studied: the tetrahedral cage was found to bind fullerenes with high affinity, while the prismatic cages encapsulate halogenated aromatic compounds. In Chapter 6, the combination of coordination chemistry and dynamic covalent chemistry for the synthesis of a new family of zirconium-based cages is presented. Pre-formed zirconium clusters were employed as rigid, preorganized building blocks, leading to the synthesis of four new cages: a compact [1+1] species, a [2+3] architecture, and two large tetrahedral [4+4] cages.

Dwarf galaxies are the most common type of galaxy in the Universe and have emerged as powerful testbeds for our standard cosmological model LambdaCDM on small scales, where several tensions persist. This thesis focuses specifically on the phase-space distribution of dwarf satellites around massive hosts. Several nearby hosts, including the Milky Way, appear to have flattened, kinematically correlated satellite configurations that are uncommon among LambdaCDM analogs---the planes-of-satellites challenge. Robust tests require large, contamination-controlled satellite samples across diverse environments, which are challenging to obtain beyond the Local Group because dwarfs are intrinsically faint and generally have low surface brightness. This thesis contributes to the extension of phase-space studies beyond the Local Group by (i) evaluating and refining methods to quantify phase-space distributions, in particular lopsided satellite distributions and planes-of-satellites, and conducting statistical tests on such distributions in existing survey data (e.g., MATLAS, ELVES); (ii) expanding line-of-sight velocity coverage via VLT/MUSE spectroscopy of MATLAS candidates and establishing host membership; and (iii) developing an automated pipeline, combining classical methods with deep learning, to build a survey-scale catalog of dwarf galaxy candidates in the wide-field UNIONS survey. Across 68 host systems in MATLAS/ELVES, ~21% show significant lopsidedness with the signal strongest at larger projected radii, consistent with recent accretions and in line with LambdaCDM expectations. Follow-up on reported candidate planes generally revealed no significant tension with LambdaCDM when revisited with new data. An exception to this trend is the NGC 4490 group, where such a highly correlated structure was identified as uncommon in simulated analogs. In the MUSE program, we confirmed 75% of the MATLAS dwarfs in the sample as satellites; non-members tend to be late-types, supporting morphology as a membership prior. Our pipeline yielded dwarf probability scores for 1.5 million selected objects, producing the Galaxies OBserved as Low-luminosity Identified Nebulae (GOBLIN) catalog. GOBLIN contains ~43,000 high probability (>=0.8) dwarf candidates, which represents a significant increase in the number of high-confidence candidates in the local Universe. Taken together, the majority of our investigations into phase-space distributions of dwarfs revealed consistency with LambdaCDM given current data. There are, however, noteworthy exceptions, and several systems are still far from complete in terms of distance and velocity estimates. Such measurements are necessary to draw definitive conclusions. Our publicly available GOBLIN catalog contains a large sample of high-probability dwarf candidates, laying the foundation for targeted follow-up campaigns and future phase-space studies.

Electrochemical CO2 conversion into valuable chemicals and fuels offers a promising route to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and close the carbon cycle. Copper nanocube (NC) catalysts with well-defined (100) facets are particularly attractive for their selective ethylene production. However, scaling up CO2 electroreduction (CO2ER) is hindered by rapid catalyst deactivation due to structural degradation and loss of active sites. Understanding catalyst restructuring under operational conditions is crucial for designing stable, efficient CO2ER systems. This thesis presents a fundamental study of the restructuring pathways of Cu NCs catalysts during CO2ER, using electrochemical liquid-phase electron microscopy (ec-LPEM). First, a statistically relevant population of Cu NCs was monitored via energy-filtered liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LPTEM) during CO2ER. The results revealed that restructuring occurs through concurrent pathways of dissolution, redeposition, reattachment as well as fragmentation. This effectively leads to a decrease in the fraction of the selective (100) facets, which presumably results in catalyst deactivation. Furthermore, a series of surface oxidized Cu and Cu2O NCs were studied using LPTEM and the results were compared to their catalytic performance. The analysis revealed that oxide-rich NCs are more susceptible to restructuring and deactivation, with Cu carbonate formation identified as a key contributor to these processes. These studies were made possible through imaging under energy-filtered conditions and signal detection by direct electron devices, providing improved image contrast in liquid and enhanced temporal resolution. Meanwhile, stable LPTEM monitoring of the catalysts under cathodic potential was achieved by optimizing conventionally used glassy carbon (GC) electrodes as supports for the Cu NCs. Finally, to facilitate future high-resolution imaging of catalysts, essential for the in-depth understanding of catalyst (de)activation, graphene (Gr) was integrated as the membrane and electrode material into the electrochemical microchip. The results revealed that, in addition to improved spatial resolution, Gr possesses a wider inert potential range than conventional GC electrodes, enabling more realistic cathodic potentials. Real-time LPSEM imaging of Cu NCs with Gr microcells showed similar restructuring via dissolution/redeposition, as was previously reported with LPTEM. This confirms that integration of Gr electrodes in the microchips can advance the field.