Professor Aebischer was trained as an MD (1980) and a neuroscientist (1983) at the Universities of Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland. From 1984 to 1992, he worked at Brown University in Providence (Rhode Island, U.S.) as assistant and then associate professor of Medical Sciences. In 1991, he became the chairman of the Section of Artificial Organs, Biomaterials and Cellular Technology of the Division of Biology and Medicine of Brown University. In the fall of 1992, he returned to Switzerland as a professor and director of the Surgical Research Division and Gene Therapy Center at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne. In 1999, Patrick Aebischer was appointed president of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) by the Swiss Federal Council. He took office on 17 March, 2000. His current research focuses on the development of cell and gene transfer approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.