News and Events

On 24 November, 6:15 pm, the Bio Engineering Lab led by Andreas Hierlemann and the Cleanroom Facility Basel are inviting the public to a 1-hour guided tour to gain an insight into the fascinating world of micro- and nanotechnology manufacture and applications in biomedical research (tour in German; please register).

For the past two years, Sylke Poehling has been enrolled at the department as our first Professor of Practice. Sylke is an experienced leader in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, with over 25 years of experience. She currently serves in senior leadership roles at Roche, including heading therapeutic modalities and gene therapy. In this interview, she talks about her role as a bridge builder between academia and industry.

Since its beginnings as an ETH Zurich spin-off, InSphero has worked to bring human-relevant 3D in vitro biology into pharmaceutical research. Recent developments mark a new chapter in that journey, expanding the company’s capabilities across spheroids, organoids, imaging, and phenotypic analysis at a time when New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) are gaining momentum across drug development.

Annalisa Bucci, postdoctoral researcher in the Bio Engineering Lab led by Andreas Hierlemann, has received the Swiss OphthAWARD 2026 in the category "Best Experimental Work" at the annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Ophthalmology (SSO) in Lausanne.

On 24 September, the next public seminar organised by the ETH Zürich - Roche partnership Next-gen Bioengineers will take place at the ETH Basel premises. Sascha Fauser, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cologne, Germany, and Global Head of Ophthalmology at Roche Pharma Research & Early Development in Basel, will talk about new treatments in ophthalmology. 

The 2026 Young 3Rs Investigators Awards have been awarded to Blandine Clément and Amanzhol Kurmashev, two postdoc-researchers from the Bio Engineering Lab led by Andreas Hierlemann. Their work advances innovative human cell-based models that improve the relevance of biomedical research whilst reducing the need for animal testing. The awards recognise outstanding contributions to the principles of the 3Rs: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal use in research.

D-BSSE again participates in the National Future Day with five dedicated
scientific programmes which are embedded in the ETH programme. This
year, National Future Day is taking place on 12 November, when 5th and
7th grade pupils will have the opportunity at D-BSSE to delve into the
diverse professional world of science and technology.

Researchers from the Computational Biology group led by Dagmar Iber aim to understand how the lungs develop in the foetus so they are fully functional by the time the baby is born. The group’s computer-based method could, in the future, help improve the diagnosis of certain respiratory diseases and reduce animal experiments.

Researchers around Prisca Liberali, Professor at D-BSSE and the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI), and their collaborators have shown how regenerating intestinal tissue turns small initial differences between cells into stable patterns. The findings reveal a general principle for how tissues rebuild order after injury, with possible implications for regenerative medicine.