{"id":8858,"date":"2022-04-12T11:24:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T09:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/"},"modified":"2022-04-12T11:24:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T09:24:43","slug":"inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\"><p><strong>The Gene Expression &#038; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex Diseases<\/strong><\/p><p>Every human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.<\/p><p><\/p><p><strong>About the Speaker<\/strong><\/p><p>Associate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &#038; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).<\/p><p><strong>The event starts at 11:00\u00a0<\/strong>followed by a light lunch<\/p><p><strong>Registration: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.co.uk\/e\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-williams-tickets-322670384807\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Register via Eventbrite<\/a> until June 13.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p><strong>Pictures<\/strong>: some pictures will be taken during the event. If you do not want, please inform the\u00a0organisers\u00a0when you arrive.<\/p><\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8859,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":[],"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"event_start_date":"2022-06-20 11:00:00","event_end_date":"2022-06-20 12:00:00","event_speaker_name":"Associate Prof. Evan Williams","event_speaker_link":"","event_is_online":false,"event_location":"Maison du Savoir (MSA) Auditorium 3.330 (3rd floor)","event_street":"2, avenue de l'Universit\u00e9 ","event_location_link":"","event_zip_code":"L-4365","event_city":"Esch-sur-Alzette","event_country":"LU"},"events-topic":[],"events-type":[],"organisation":[202,226],"authorship":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams - Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UNI FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uni.lu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/03120045\/UNIV_SM-Profile_1600x1600px-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/\",\"name\":\"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams - Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/inaugural_lecture_associate_prof_evan_williams.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-12T09:24:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-12T09:24:43+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. 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Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams","og_description":"The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/","og_site_name":"UNI FR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uni.lu","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/03120045\/UNIV_SM-Profile_1600x1600px-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/","name":"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams - Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/inaugural_lecture_associate_prof_evan_williams.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-12T09:24:43+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-12T09:24:43+00:00","description":"The Gene Expression &amp; Metabolism Group: Uncovering the Causal Molecular Etiology Underlying Complex DiseasesEvery human genome contains an ordered series of roughly 3 billion chemical letters, or \u201cnucleotides\u201d, which make up our DNA. Across all of humankind, there are a few tens of millions of variants in the DNA which are drive all inherited differences between individuals. A few of our characteristics (or \u201cphenotypes\u201d) are determined purely by those inherited genetic differences, such as eye color. However, nearly all phenotypes occur as a result of inborn genetic predisposition and environmental factors: hair color (affected by sun exposure, age, and hair dye), body weight (affected by diet and exercise), height (affected by childhood nutrition), and so forth. My research question is focused on this \u201cgene-environment interaction\u201d; essentially, how can we identify which genetic differences cause people to have diverging outcomes to the same treatment? To identify these factors, our laboratory looks beyond DNA (simply a genetic \u201cblueprint\u201d) to the classes of chemicals of which are directly active: mRNA, protein, and metabolites. Unlike DNA, these molecules radically change in abundance depending on the function and immediate needs of every cell and organ in our body. Measuring these variable molecular intermediaries allows us to nearly-instantaneously judge the effect of a treatment (e.g. a drug, or a lifestyle change), without the need to wait months or years to observe a change in body weight, or the size of a tumor. My scientific contributions have been to develop technologies which more accurately measure these chemical intermediaries, along with the software and approaches to link them to predicted outcomes. These developments, along with others in the field of systems biomedicine, are beginning to revolutionize and accelerate not only our pace of medical discovery, but also our capacity to tailor medical interventions to the precise needs of the individual.About the SpeakerAssociate Prof. Williams joined the University of Luxembourg as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) in the summer of 2020 as an associate professor, establishing his research group \u201cGene Expression &amp; Metabolism\u201d. Before coming to Luxembourg, he was a staff scientist at the ETH Z\u00fcrich as part of the mass spectrometry proteomics team of Prof. Ruedi Aebersold, and he obtained his doctoral degree at the EPFL in the laboratory of Prof. Johan Auwerx, studying how genetic and environmental factors influence the mitochondria in metabolic diseases. The laboratory\u2019s main research goals are developing both wetlab and computational methods for measuring and merging diverse \u201cmultiomics\u201d datasets (e.g. RNA, protein, metabolites) to better understand the molecular chains that lead from a specific independent variable (e.g. a DNA variant or a dietary change) to a subsequent disease (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease).","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/inaugural_lecture_associate_prof_evan_williams.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/inaugural_lecture_associate_prof_evan_williams.jpg","width":2000,"height":2000},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/inaugural-lecture-associate-prof-evan-williams\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Events","item":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/events\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Inaugural Lecture Associate Prof. Evan Williams"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/","name":"Uni.lu","description":"Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#organization","name":"Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg","alternateName":"Uni.lu","url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/03120045\/UNIV_SM-Profile_1600x1600px-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/03120045\/UNIV_SM-Profile_1600x1600px-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":2560,"caption":"Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg"},"image":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/24120552\/20200609-Belval-Campus_Henri-Goergen-23.jpg","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uni.lu","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-luxembourg\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uni.lu","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@uni_lu","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Luxembourg"],"email":"communication@uni.lu","telephone":"+352 46 66 44 1","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"2, place de l\u2019Universit\u00e9","addressLocality":"Esch-sur-Alzette","postalCode":"4365","addressCountry":"LU"},"description":"Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events\/8858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/events"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events\/8858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"events-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events-topic?post=8858"},{"taxonomy":"events-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events-type?post=8858"},{"taxonomy":"organisation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/organisation?post=8858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}