Revolutionize at-home diagnostics | |
Join our interdisciplinary student project to transform at-home diagnostics! Work on cutting-edge technology, boost sensitivity, engineer tests for seamless home use, and develop targeted disease detection. Help us to shape the future of healthcare. | |
Laser Ablation Spectroscopy | |
Focused laser destroy materials. Laser ablation permits to inspect the composition in a depth-resolved way. The ablation process produces X-rays that have a fingerprint of the target material. | |
Plasma Ion Trap Mass Spectroscopy | |
Ion Traps are used in chemistry as high resolution analyzers. Their hyphenation to a plasma source offer much more flexibility of ionization. This new platform needs to be investigated. | |
Living Composite Material | |
Microorganisms that can be found everywhere in our environment are able to produce a variety of molecules from very simple precursors. Some of the products synthetized by bacteria are materials with fascinating properties such as cellulose with excellent mechanical properties. Materials produced by living cells are attractive because they are produced with minimal energy input and are based on green chemicals. Moreover, if well-designed, these materials still contain the living cells and are thus able to react onto external stimuli. Therefore, they have the potential to repair themselves upon damage or form materials with locally defined microstructures and architectures. | |
Develop microfluidics for at-home blood testing | |
Collaborating with a dynamic startup, you will work on designing, manufacturing, and testing microfluidic devices to quantify biomolecules associated with chronic inflammation, heart attacks, and tropical diseases. | |
Human Organoid-on-Chip to Study Rare Bone Disease | |
To date, there is still very limited progress in developing organoid models for human musculoskeletal tissues such as bone. A major challenge is reconstructing the native bone microenvironment which is structurally and functionally complex. In this project, we leverage interdisciplinary advances in tissue engineering and microtechnologies to generate a microengineered bone-organoid-on-chip platform for both fundamental and translational research in medicine. | |
Microfluidic Brain(neuron) on chip | |
Do you want to play with microfluidics,microfabrication, iPSCs, neurons and microscopy, and help to understand brain development using tailored Organ-on-Chip? Do you also want to integrate the biosensor and bioelectrodes into the chips? Then this might be the right student project or internship for you! (Technical interest is necessary, but also non-engineering students can apply.) | |
Soft materials with active transitions in mechanical properties | |
Active and adaptive materials show exciting, new dynamic functionalities that far exceed those of classically passive materials. To enable these new functionalities, we follow a bio-inspired approach based on biochemical processes at the single-cell level. Thanks to these biochemical processes, individual cells can fulfill surprisingly complex tasks such as computing time or finding nutrients. Our goal is to transfer such processes to responsive hydrogels, so that we can locally trigger a chemical wave that self-propagates through the entire material and induces changes in mechanical properties. | |
Responsive ultrasound contrast agents for molecular imaging | |
Ultrasound imaging with contrast agents such as microbubbles and nanodroplets is a promising tool to diagnose and monitor diseases at the molecular level. In our lab, we are interested in detecting soluble molecular targets such as proteases in vivo. To achieve this, we aim to modify the acoustic properties of microbubbles in response to protease activity by altering their shell properties using tight peptide-crosslinked networks. | |
Magnetic Functionalization of Genetically Engineered Bacteria for Targeted Biomedical Applications | |
Synthetic biology has paved the way for the development of bacteria with modified surfaces, enabling their functionalization with magnetic materials and diverse cargos. This study explores a novel approach to genetically engineer Escherichia coli to express surface proteins capable of binding magnetic nanoparticles. The engineered bacteria were then further functionalized to carry various cargos, including therapeutic agents and biosensors. The resultant magnetic bacteria exhibited enhanced mobility under external magnetic fields, allowing for targeted delivery and retrieval of cargos. This method holds significant promise for biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery and diagnostic imaging, showcasing the potential of genetically engineered bacteria as versatile tools in biotechnology. | |
Assessing the innovation potential of electrochemical direct air capture | |
Rapid emission reductions are needed so that the Paris Agreement's target to limit global warming to well below 2°C remains attainable. Pathways in line with this target presume a swift transition to low-carbon energy sources and – on top – the deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies to remove historic emissions and compensate for emissions that cannot be completely eliminated. Direct air capture (DAC) with carbon dioxode (CO2) storage offers a scalable, permanent, and relatively easily measurable, reportable, and verifiable CDR method. However, DAC technologies are still in their infancy and high costs have hindered large-scale deployment of DAC. While there are advantages to DAC in its potential to address emissions from distributed sources, the development and deployment of DAC systems has been limited by their high cost and energy requirements.[1] Most research and development has focused on solid sorbent and liquid solvent DAC, both of which use thermal and electrical energy. To overcome the high energy requirements of DAC systems using thermal energy, electrochemical DAC systems have been recognized as a promising alternative due to their potentially lower energy consumption at lower temperatures and pressures. [2] However, the technological maturity of electrochemical DAC systems is low, with most systems still at laboratory scale. It remains to be assessed how they compare with DAC systems using thermal energy. References: [1] doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2024.02.005 [2] doi.org/10.1039/D0EE03382K | |
Influence of polymer length on end-group reactivity | |
Polymer networks are made by cross-linking polymer chains at their ends by means of a chemical reaction. While the properties of used reactions are usually very well characterized for small molecules, little is known about how the presence of a polymer chain and its length affect this reaction. In this project, we aim to study this, mostly experimentally, but also including a theoretical approach. We propose to start with boronic ester chemistry, which has been already characterized in literature and in our lab. the reactants will be functionalized on linear PEG chains. We plan on studying both the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters. | |
Investigating Mechanotransduction of Wound Healing within a Tissue-Mimetic Macroporous Biomaterial | |
We aimed to design a biomaterial suitable for 3D, in situ stiffening to mimic changes to the dermis during fibrosis and wound healing. By adapting Methacrylated Hyaluoronic Acid (MeHA), a material previously used for 2D in situ studies, to create a 3D macroporous gel comprised of fibrous microgels, we hypothesize we will be able to dynamically increase matrix stiffness without increasing cell confinement, allowing us to identify new mechanotransduction pathways involved in fibrosis and wound healing, specifically myofibroblast activation and macrophage polarization. | |
Single-cell Encapsulation for RNA Sequencing | |
This project focuses on understanding the metabolism of bacteria exposed to an enzymatic inhibitor. By employing microfluidic systems, we aim to perform a single-based encapsulation in hydrogel beads to be exposed to inhibitors. Using FACS-based sorting and bulk sequencing, bacteria in hydrogel beads will be sorted and the RNA from pool or individual beads will be extracted for sequencing. We aim to create an RNA sequencing protocol for sorted hydrogel beads containing bacteria to analyze the total gene expression profiles of our candidates. | |
Conductive polymer pattern deposition for smart textile applications | |
The goal of the project is to develop a simple and versatile method for production of robust conductive patterns on textile via deposition of conductive polymers. This technology will allow further development of wearable electronics for biomedical applications. | |
Biomineralization of Hydrogels-Based Structures | |
Currently, the mineralization capacity of S. pasteurii is being exploited in developing construction materials in the form of bio-bricks and bio-cement. These materials are mostly compact structures with different degrees of porosity to increase the diffusion of nutrients through the material. Nevertheless, one recurrent challenge in biomineralized structures is the limited precipitation across the structure. | |
Control of Microrobot For Cardiovascular disease | |
We developed a high-throughput microfluidic droplet-based process for the mass production of microrobots at a laboratory scale. We have successfully demonstrated the navigation of microrobots to the target lesion, and their enhanced thrombolytic performance has been validated within an emboli-on-a-chip micro¬fluidic system. Currently, we are planning ex vivo and in vivo experiments in a pig model to further evaluate the clinical potential of our approach. | |
PhD position in meta-biomaterials synthesis and 3D-printing | |
The Biomaterials Engineering (BME) group of Professor Xiao-Hua Qin is hiring a PhD student in advanced manufacturing of metamaterials. | |
Ingestible Therapeutics and Diagnostic Systems (Harvard I BWH I MIT - Anytime starting 2024 and 2025) | |
The Traverso lab is focused on translational medicine. Our main goal is to help people through the use of medicine and engineering. Research projects involve medical devices that can range from diagnostic, drug delivery, surgical, and implantable devices. Dr. Giovanni Traverso is a Physician-Scientist who is an Assistant Professor at MIT Mechanical Engineering, and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). This position will require direct on-boarding and will be stationed at a satellite facility of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Cambridge, but will involve work with a multidisciplinary team from across the different MIT/Harvard/BWH institutions. | |
Wearable device for non-invasive assessment of fatigue | |
The goal of the project is to develop a wearable device capable of non-invasive measurement of human biomarkers related to performance and fatigue during exercise. | |
Mechanophores for advanced wearable strain and pressure sensors | |
The goal of the project is to synthesize and characterize a number of small molecules capable of acting as mechanophore addition to various polymers. These polymers would then be used as wearable strain or pressure sensors. | |
Solvothermal synthesis of high-performance metal ferrite nanoparticle for biomedical application | |
Metal ferrite nanoparticle are gathering increasing attention for usage in biomedical applications such as for drug delivery or diagnostics. Their large versatility is thereby enabled by adjusting various of their properties, such as magnetic response or surface design. Precise tuning of the nanoparticles magnetic properties and their reliable reproducibility, however, still remains a challenge by this day. In this project we aim to systematically investigate varying synthesis parameters in the solvothermal synthesis of different metal ferrite nanoparticles. We aim to establish a reliable protocol for large scale production of particles displaying exceptionally strong magnetic response while also enabling precise control over their displayed magnetic hysteresis. | |
Optimize Hydrogel Performance for Cartilage Replacement | |
The Laboratory of Orthopedic Technology at ETH Zurich is currently optimizing the manufacturing process for a novel joint implant. We are looking for a master's student who is passionate about medical devices and polymer science to join our team for a semester project or master's thesis. Project Focus: The selected candidate will work on optimizing the performance of a hydrogel material that is a key component of the cartilage replacement implant. The project will involve: • Investigating polymer synthesis and formulation techniques to enhance hydrogel performance. • Developing testing protocols to evaluate the hydrogel’s effectiveness in mimicking natural cartilage behavior. | |
Engineering the microstructure of bacterial cellulose for sustainable applications | |
In this project, you will advance the state-of-the art of sustainable materials. You will work with bacterial cellulose and use techniques to control and characterize its structure across scales! | |
A high throughput approach to identify substrate peptides for protease responsive diagnostic devices | |
Proteases are key regulators and a hallmark of disease. They are involved in important physiological functions. The malfunctioning of these important regulators can lead to severe health effects. At the medical microsystems laboratory, we create tools for detecting proteases in vivo and ex vivo at the point of care, aiding clinicians in monitoring treatments effectively. To design a protease specific diagnostic tool, we need a peptide that is selectively cleaved by the target protease while remaining resistant or cleaved more slowly by other physiological proteases. This task can be challenging because some proteases have broad peptide specificities. An effective strategy is to create and screen peptide libraries. The peptide phage display approach allows for the generation of millions of peptides simultaneously. To create a phage library displaying these peptides, a bacterial library is infected with a helper phage. After immobilizing and cleaving the peptides with the target proteases, we can generate a heat map showing the activity and selectivity of the peptides against various proteases, thereby identifying the most suitable peptide candidates for our diagnostic devices. | |
Atomically small catalysts for chemical gas sensors | |
Catalysts with their size ranging from nanoparticles to single-atom catalysts will be produced, and their chemical gas sensing performances will be evaluated. | |
“Pulling” nanoparticles out of dopant-supersaturated oxide nanoparticles | |
Nanoparticles will be drawn out from dopant-supersaturated metal oxides, with tunability in their distribution and size. The catalytic performances of the nanoparticle catalysts will be closely examined | |
Smart colloidal bananas: Let's curve it up! | |
In this project you will learn how to synthesize shape-responsive colloidal bananas and explore their unique liquid crystalline phase behaviour. We will work with hydrogels, elastomers and liquid crystal elastomers, and mainly used confocal microscopy and image analysis techniques to characterize the range of beautiful phases these particles form. | |
Master Thesis: Building a 25 MHz NMR spectrometer | |
A Master project starting in Autumn/Winter 2024/2025 is available in the group of Prof. Roland Riek, Laboratory for Physical Chemistry (D-CHAB). The student will build a 25 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer. The spectrometer console will run on a compact board (SDR Lab, Red Pitaya) [1]. A permanent magnet will (10 x 10 x 10 cm3) generate a field of 0.6 T, corresponding to a 1H NMR frequency of 25 MHz. | |
PhD Position in Engineering the Microstructure of Bacterial Cellulose for Sustainable Applications | |
We are seeking a PhD student for an interdisciplinary project that uses soft matter physics and material science concepts to develop the next generation of bacterial cellulose materials for fundamental and sustainable applications. | |
Conductive thread modification for wearable strain sensors | |
The goal of the project is to modify commercially available conductive yarns to improve their operational properties for potential employment in novel garment-embedded sensors for human motion detection. | |
Masters project at PSI (SCD/LMS): Systematic correction of electronic self-interaction with Koopmans functionals | |
Investigate how best to unite Koopmans and Perdew-Zunger self-interaction corrections for electronic structure calculations. | |
Masters project at PSI (SCD/LMS): Combining Koopmans and Hubbard corrections for accurate band structures of materials | |
Investigate how best to unite Koopmans and Hubbard corrections for electronic structure calculations. | |
Metal-support interactions for chemical sensing via catalytic oxidation | |
Heterogeneous catalysis and chemical sensing are surface-controlled processes extensively studied over supported metal oxide nanoparticles. Their properties arise from the complex interplay between the added metal and support, which occurs on two, intimately related, levels: electronic and geometric. Unravelling these interactions is key to the identification of the most favourable active site speciation, governing catalyst reactivity. | |
Machine Learning-Assisted Design of Biopolymer-Based Hybrid Materials | |
Discovering optimal composition of bio-based compounds and process conditions to achieve specific properties is a complex, multifaceted problem that requires extensive domain knowledge and intuitive insights. It can be effectively addressed by combining experimental design, optimization techniques and machine learning. The project will be carried out in the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at Empa Dübendorf and is aimed at exploring the material design space more effectively by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms. | |
Machine Learning-Assisted Design of Biopolymer-Based Hybrid Materials | |
Discovering optimal composition of bio-based compounds and process conditions to achieve specific properties is a complex, multifaceted problem that requires extensive domain knowledge and intuitive insights. It can be effectively addressed by combining experimental design, optimization techniques and machine learning. The project will be carried out in the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory under supervision of Dr. Gustav Nyström and Dr. Mark Schubert at Empa Dübendorf and is aimed at exploring the material design space more effectively by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms. | |
Gene/Nucleic Acid Delivery, Brigham and Women's Hospital | |
Gene therapies have the potential to enable the treatment of multiple currently uncurable diseases, but delivery of these therapeutic molecules to the target tissue continues to present a major obstacle to their success and clinical translation. Our lab has invented multiple novel drug delivery strategies, multiple of which have begun to be evaluated in human clinical trials. We are currently working to develop next generation gene delivery platforms to accelerate the translation of these potentially transformative therapies to the clinic. We currently have openings for applicants who are interested in doing research in gene delivery. The outstanding candidate(s) will assist investigators in the Traverso Laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) to develop novel nonviral gene delivery platforms (i.e., lipid and polymer-based nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery). The research is completely wet lab work, where the work will consist of molecular biology, in vitro experiments, in vivo experiments, and/or polymer chemistry. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, so apply early for the greatest consideration. | |
Factory-on-a-chip: intelligent microrobots made from microfluidic technology | |
This Master's thesis/semester project focuses on the microfluidic fabrication of micromachines with multi-environmental responsiveness. The aim is to develop micromachines capable of adapting to various environmental cues. We envision that these micromachines will be used for complex tasks in biomedical and environmental applications. | |
Chemical composition of atmospheric aerosol particles from Greenland, the Arctic and the Alps | |
Global warming induces emissions changes in global ecosystems, for example changes to marine algal blooms, emerging terrestrial vegetation, increasing glacial dust or fires. At the same time human activities in the cryosphere cause emissions from traffic, domestic activities and animal herding. All these emissions change the composition of the atmosphere. As part of this project, you will have the option to analyse aerosol filter samples in the lab, collected during different (ongoing) campaigns, like the GreenFjord project's atmospheric cluster (https://greenfjord-project.ch/). The main task will be to analyse the freshly created data to understand the complex puzzle of atmospheric aerosol sources. You will use state-of-the art mass spectrometers to shed light into the chemical composition of aerosol particles. This work will be carried out at and with the team of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry at PSI, Switzerland. | |
Shaping Microrobots from Ferrofluid Droplets | |
We invite applications for a Master's thesis / semester project that focuses on the fabrication of microrobots with custom shapes. Using our developed droplet printing technique, this project will explore how different microrobot shapes, created by different magnetic fields and materials, influence their control behaviors in blood vessels. This research aims to advance biomedical technologies, particularly in targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive procedures. | |
Fully funded PhD studentship in synthetic biology and gene editing (University of Cambridge) | |
Applications are invited for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD studentship in the field of synthetic biology and gene editing, based in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University under the supervision of Dr Julian Willis. | |
Project or thesis student, 60-100%, m/f/d | |
qCella, a deep tech startup from ETH Zurich, specializes in innovative materials for resistive heating applications. Their paper-thin, flexible heating mats aim to replace traditional heating wire technology in various products like car seats, clothing, and shoes. They are looking for master's students in Materials Science or Chemistry to contribute to product and material development, tackle research challenges with practical applications, design and conduct experiments, and analyze results. | |
Trainee (Research on Large Language Models) (index no. 8123-T2) | |
The electron and proton beam instrumentation groups design, build, and operate instruments to measure the properties of the beams in the accelerators at PSI. We want to explore the applicability of large language models (LLMs) for the extraction of information from documents describing the instrumentation for our particle accelerators. As a trainee, you will prepare the data, test different LLMs, and deploy an application for our intranet. In this role, you will have the unique opportunity to explore the potential of LLMs in extracting information from documents related to the instrumentation of our particle accelerators. The project involves the following tasks: • Data Preparation: Collect, clean, and organize data from documents related to particle accelerator instrumentation for use in LLMs • Model Testing: Experiment with different large language models to evaluate their effectiveness in extracting relevant information • Application Deployment: Develop and deploy an application on our intranet to automate the extraction and utilization of information using LLMs • Collaboration: Work closely with our research and engineering teams to ensure the application meets the needs of our internal stakeholders | |
Trainee in electrocatalysts preparation and characterization (index no. 5422-T3) | |
Your work will focus on the preparation of electrocatalysts and conducting electrochemical characterization measurements. During your internship, you will perform CO2 reduction experiments using an electrochemical setup coupled with a gas-chromatography analyzer. You will perform a detailed analysis of the role of ionomer in the preparation of electrocatalysts and investigate its influence on the CO2 reduction activity and selectivity. Throughout your internship, you will interact extensively with colleagues both within the group and the whole electrochemistry laboratory. | |
Conquering Complex Substances like Water and CO2: Improving Molecular Modelling based on Symbolic Regression | |
Water and CO2 are known as troublemakers in the field of molecular modeling. At the same time, their description is crucial for developing tomorrow’s chemical and energy conversion processes, like heat pumps, carbon capture, or chemical production processes closing the carbon cycle. This thesis puts you at the forefront of improving a molecular model to describe molecular and mixture properties of Water, CO2, and other complex substances. In the thesis, you will apply symbolic regression, a machine technique, to enhance a recently proposed molecular model. | |
Assay development for cancer diagnostics | |
You will develop a diagnostic test for testicular cancer. The focus of the project will be on creating the biochemical protocols for the test. The project is in collaboration with a prelaunch startup and a hospital (USZ). Therefore, it is ideal for motivated students who want to have a direct impact |
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