News & Events

On 16 November, ETH Zurich celebrated its 169th ETH Day. Upon the proposal of D-BSSE, Sven Panke, Head of the Department, presented this year’s ETH Honorary doctorate to Jason Chin, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Cambridge. By encoding non-canonical amino acids and rewriting entire chromosomes into proteins he reimagined the biochemistry of living systems.

The Golden Owl honours lecturers distinguished by exceptional teaching and motivates them to continue with their excellent teaching. The Owl is awarded by ETH Zurich’s student association. This year, the Owl was awarded to Roman Vetter at D-BSSE, Lecturer and Senior Research Associate in the Computational Biology lab. Roman was honoured with this prestigious prize already in 2022. Big congrats, Roman!

Researchers around Randall Platt, Professor of Biological Engineering, have combined two gene editing methods. This enables them to quickly investigate the significance of many genetic mutations involved in the development and treatment of cancer.

On 25 November, the next public seminar organised by the ETH Zürich - Roche Partnership Next-gen Bioengineers will take place at ETH Basel premises. Dr Felix Schumacher, Programme Leader Targeted Therapeutic at Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) will talk about drug delivery to the brain. The seminar will start at 11:30am and will be live-streamed.

The French Biologist will focus in her research on the development of mathematical models that help shed light on the underlying transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. Noémie loves all kinds of sport activities. Inspired by the Basel triathlon held in September, she might give it a go in 2025.

On 21 November, the next 'Bench meets Bedside' seminar organised by the Engineering Translational Medicine (ETM) initiative will take place on Campus Schällemätteli. Speakers include Andrea Banfi (USB/UniBas) and Barbara Treutlein (ETH/D-BSSE), followed by short science talks from Illia Smolenskii (UniBas) and Constance Le Gac (ETH). This seminar series builds a platform for researchers and clinicians to connect and collaborate. Please register.

Research conducted within the last 10 to 15 years at the Bio Engineering Lab is still impacting today’s research in the field of microfluidics, a key criterion of Microsystems & Nanoengineering / Springer Nature presenting this year’s Test-of-Time Award to Andreas Hierlemann at the 2024 µTAS Conference held in Montreal, Canada. The award recognises Andreas’ great contributions on tracking neurons and axons by means of high-density microelectrode arrays. Congratulations, Andreas!

The Taiwanese molecular and stem cell biologist recently started his postdoc position in the Systems Physiology group of Andreas Moor. When moving to Switzerland Sam was mentally prepared to be challenged by bureaucracy; instead, he experienced great support in settling in and a warm welcome by his Rhine-swimming lab colleagues.

Guided by D-BSSE researchers Niko Beerenwinkel and Tanja Stadler and other steering group members from the University of Basel, the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) opens a dedicated centre for computational pathogen research and surveillance. The new Centre for Pathogen Bioinformatics offers expertise and services to the Swiss federal authorities and global research community, contributing to global pandemic preparedness and response in realtime.