The Lake Geneva BioCluster area has emerged as a European leader in biotech and biomed technologies. This success story has been constructed upon a solid academic foundation, earned over several centuries by two widely respected universities, named after the two major cities in the area: Geneva and Lausanne. Since then, they have been joined by the universities of Fribourg, Neuchâtel, the CSEM (Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology) and the institutions of HEVs (Hautes Etudes Valaisannes) and the EIG (Ecole d’ingénieurs de Genève). They have now become major centres for research in many scientific fields, such as basic molecular and cellular biology, and biomedical research. Another scientific mainstay in the area is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), specializing in various fields of engineering, including biotechnology and biomedical engineering, and well accustomed to combining research and entrepreneurship. The Geneva and Lausanne university hospitals, considered world leaders in areas such as organ transplants and the treatment of cancer, have also helped give a practical slant to the academic excellence. A research institute in Lausanne complete this exceptional cluster: the Ludwig Institute (mainly immunology). This list of not-for-profit research centres would not be complete without the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics, based in Geneva, with branches in Lausanne, and best known for its on-line protein catalogue, SWISSPROT, that is consulted daily by thousands of scientists the world over. |