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MaP Distinguished Lecture Series on Engineering with Living Materials
Last Updated: 2026-06-03 00:14:06
Abstract
This course is an interdisciplinary colloquium on the engineering of living materials and biosystems. Internationally renowned speakers from academia and industry give lectures about their cutting-edge research, which highlights the state-of-the-art and frontiers in the field of engineering with living materials.
Objective
Participants become acquainted with the state-of-the-art and frontiers in materials science and bioengineering, which is a topic of global and future relevance from the field of materials and process engineering. The self-study of relevant literature and active participation in discussions following presentations by internationally renowned speakers stimulate critical thinking and allow participants to deliberately discuss challenges and opportunities with leading academics and industrial experts and to exchange ideas within an interdisciplinary community.
Content
This course is a colloquium involving a selected mix of internationally renowned speakers from academia and industry who present their cutting-edge research in the field of engineered systems using living materials. In particular, the course will cover fundamentals of bioengineering at a multicellular level (biofabrication), as well as examples of manufacturing and application of living cells to engineered systems for medical applications and beyond. Speakers will show how to combine living cells with non-living, synthetic materials to realize bio-hybrid systems to be applied to many fields of human life, ranging from biomedicine to robotics, biosensing, ecology, and architecture. It will be shown how bio-hybrid technologies and cutting-edge engineering techniques can support cell proliferation and even enhance their cell functions. The course will cover materials and approaches for the biofabrication of living tissue, seen as a biomedical model for pathophysiological discovery research, or as transplantable grafts for tissue regeneration. Speakers will illustrate how living species can contribute to ecological approaches in town planning (such as CO2 sequestration), sensing and processor technologies enabled by connective and signaling abilities of cells, and motile systems actuated by contractile cells (bio-hybrid robots). The main learning objective is to learn about: materials and techniques to build intelligent biological systems for future, sustainable societies; mechanisms of cell and tissue programmability; and applications in bio-robotics, communication, sensing technologies, and medical engineering. The self-study of relevant pre-read literature provided in advance of each lecture serves as a basis for active participation in the critical discussions following each presentation.
Resources
Lecture Notes
Selected scientific pre-read literature (around two articles per lecture) relevant for and discussed during the lectures is posted in advance on the course web page.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DR , MSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- ungraded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| seminar | MaP Distinguished Lecture Series on Engineering with Living Materials |
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
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Multidisciplinary Courses (The students are free to choose individually Master’s courses from the Course Catalogue of ETH Zurich, ETH Lausanne and the Universities of Zurich ( ) and St. Gallen.)
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Biomedical Engineering Master (Only courses offered under "GESS Science in Perspective" count in this category. See "Offered in" tab in course view. For more information, please refer to )
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Recommended Elective Courses (These courses are particularly recommended for the Bioelectronics track. Please consult your track adviser if you wish to select other subjects.)
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Recommended Elective Courses (These courses are particularly recommended for the Biomechanics track. Please consult your track adviser if you wish to select other subjects.)
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Recommended Elective Courses (These courses are particularly recommended for the Molecular Bioengineering track. Please consult your track adviser if you wish to select other subjects.)
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Elective Courses (The students are free to choose individually from the entire course offer of ETH Zürich on the Master level. Please consult the study administration in case of questions.)
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Doctorate Health Sciences and Technology (More Information at: )
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Doctorate Architecture (More Information at: )
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Doctorate Computer Science (More Information at: )
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Doctorate Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (A minimum of 12 ECTS credit points must be obtained during doctoral studies (also see sub-categories for details) More Information at )
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Subject Specialisation (The courses on offer below are but a small selection out of a much larger available number of courses. Please discuss your course selection with your PhD supervisor.)
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Doctorate Mechanical and Process Engineering (More Information at: )
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Doctorate Materials Science (Further information at: )
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