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Nanoparticle Systems Engineering Laboratory

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*** Lab partially re-located to the Balgrist Campus (next to OR-X) and UZH-Irchel (Chem Building) in addition to our labs at ML F16-20 ***

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Exciting BSc, Semester, MSc and Internship projects available at the interface of Engineering X Medicine!

Welcome to the Nanoparticle Systems Engineering Laboratory (NSEL) at the Institue of Energy and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich. We design and develop conceptionally novel nanotechnology-enabled solutions for precision medicine based on an interdisciplinary design-thinking approach. The lab leverages materials engineering, cutting-edge analytics and simulations to obtain a holistic understanding of the interplay of engineered materials with the living across scales, enabling data-driven materials and device designs, which offer a direct route to unparalleled diagnostic and therapeutic performance.

We work in highly interdisciplinary teams, including theoreticians and frontline clinicians, to bring our design approaches to clinical application. Diversity is our strongest asset. We created a enviroment of respect and creativity where we want you to be successful and reach your goals! Our students and postdocs have won prestigious awards (incl. ETH Medal, MaP Awards, SCS DPCI Best Thesis Award, Hilti Award, AIChE Gradudate Student Award, Forbes 30 under 30, etc.) and secured high-level positions in industry and academia, or have started their own company (anavo and veltist).

We have exciting student projects available (smart surgical adhesives, women's health, radiotherapy augmentation, wound healing), please check projects on external page sirop or contact . For Zurich-based students, please feel free to pass by our labs for a lab tour and some coffee/tea.

Core Expertise

  • Medical material and device innovation (from concept to clinics)
  • Precision synthesis, surface architecting and inorganic-organic interface engineering 
  • Multiscale multimodal analytics (microscopy, spectroscopy, data integration)
  • Interdisciplinarity and design thinking - in our lab, theoretical physicists, engineers and chemists work with frontline clinicians
  • TOPICS: Surgical Technology, Women's Health, Imaging & Theranostics

We are passionate scientists who love to collaborate with experts from different disciplines and backgrounds! Get in touch! and join our team.

Main Contributions to Science & Society

  • Inorganic nanohybrid-based surgical glue (Nanoglue, patent filed) with tailored bioactivity, which actively supports the wound healing process (external page anavo.ch), offers a new approach to antimicrobial therapy and even promotes the integration of dental implants (Nanoheal, patent filed)
  • Next generation smart surgical sealants with integrated wound monitoring sensors for gastrointestinal surgery (external page veltist.com, AnastoSEAL, patent filed)
  • Magnetic blood purification technology based on magnetic nanoparticle capturing agents enabling the rapid and efficacious removal of pathogenic bacteria and circulating tumor cells (see also external page hemotune.ch)
  • Multi-scale multimodal analytical characterization of endogenous minerals in human soft tissue by repurposing cutting-edge materials characterization techniques seeking to rationalize anticalficiation strategies and prosthetic designs (external page mineralomics, with the Bertazzo Lab at UCL, the Universit Hospital Bern (Obrist) and Prof. Carrel (USZ))
  • Correlative cathodoluminescence electron microscopy (external page CCLEM)-enabled visual proteomics. Deep subwave length optical imaging along with ultrastructural analysis using electrons. 
  • Nanoparticle radioenhancers for precision radiotherapy and treatment of radioresistant cancers (external page PreXison)

Recent Publications

Contact

Prof. Dr. Inge Herrmann
Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering
  • ML H 16
  • +41 44 632 02 89

Professur Nanopartikuläre Systeme
Sonneggstrasse 3
8092 Zürich
Switzerland

Prof. Dr.  Inge Herrmann
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