Johannes Gräff appointed Vallee Scholar

The Vallee Foundation was founded in 1996 by Bert and Kuggie Vallee “to foster originality, creativity, and leadership within biomedical scientific research and medical education.”

Each year, the Vallee Foundation gives out a number of Scholarships, “recognizing that outstanding, young, independent investigators are the source for future advances in the biomedical sciences and of their need for flexible, unrestricted funding to conduct their research.” The Vallee Scholars program offers grants of $300,000 which are spent over a period of four years.

The grants are offered to junior investigators in biomedical research at institutions that have been selected by the Vallee Foundation Board of Directors.

This year, which marks the first time EPFL was eligible to participate, the Foundation has chosen EPFL Professor Johannes Gräff among its Scholars. Professor Gräff directs the Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics at EPFL’s Brain Mind Institute, where his research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms to better explain the molecular processes that govern learning, memory and memory loss. In particular, Gräff’s lab works on Alzheimer’s disease and long-lasting traumatic memories.

“I feel extremely privileged to have been selected to receive this prestigious award,” says Gräff. “With it, we will be able to tackle an important question in molecular memory research.”