Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Roland Longchamp, and to Prof. Dominique Bonvin for having recruted me to their group. The friendship that they grant to their assistants is really invaluable. I spent with them several very fruitful years and for this I thank them. I also want to thank Prof. Hannes Bleuler and Prof. Jean-Michel Muller for their consideration and helpful comments in completing this work, and for acting as my co-examiners, respectively. Prof. Ulf Holmberg is similarly acknowledged for acting as a co-examiner and for his continuing interest and encouragement throughout this work. I also appreciate his large range of interests and all I learnt by working with him. I would also like to thank Dr. Arnaud Tisserand for advice, interaction, and his attention to details during preparation of this thesis. Our collaboration has been extremely profitable for me. Last but not least, I thank Dr. Joseph Moerschel for sharing his competence in industria