Yolanda Schaerli is an Associate Professor of Synthetic Biology at the University of Lausanne. She is an experimental synthetic biologist with a well-established track record of using computational approaches to inform experimental design.

Professor Schaerli is an aspiring researcher with a track record of research publications as senior author in leading journals of the field, several invitations to international conferences, invited reviews, invitations to give seminars around the world and securing external funding. From 2019-21 she served as vice-president to the Swiss Systems Biology society and is currently serving as president.

Schaerli’s research involves building, characterising, and modelling synthetic gene regulatory networks in bacteria, with a strong focus on circuits involved in spatial and temporal pattern formation. In particular, against the prevalent view, her group was able to demonstrate that CRISPR interference can be used to build dynamic and multistable synthetic gene circuits.