About Us
The Biomaterials Engineering (BME) group belongs to the Institute for Biomechanics (IfB) of the Department Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST) at ETH Zurich. BME is a member of the ALIVE | Advanced Engineering with Living Materials initiative as well as the Bringing Materials to Life consortium (BML) of ETH Zurich.
Bone is perhaps one of the most fascinating biomaterials designed by nature. It is lightweight, yet mechanically robust. Bone is a living organ, as it is constantly remodeled by billions of cells throughout human life. According to Wolff’s law, the transformation of bone follows a ‘‘Use it or lose it’’ principle: i.e. it adapts its internal architecture in response to mechanical loads. However, the human skeleton degenerates due to aging or genetic defects. Thus, developing novel tools and 3D organoid models that recapitulate human bone development and pathology in vitro offers the means to understand skeletal biology at the next level, to discover new biomarkers affecting bone remodeling and to screen potential therapeutic approaches to treat human diseases such as age-related bone loss (osteoporosis) and brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta).
Our goal is to interface biomaterials and advanced tissue manufacturing techniques for in vitro disease modeling in the spirit of 3Rs principle. We leverage interdisciplinary advances in materials engineering and mechanobiology to build dynamic 3D bone organoid models of native-like functionality. We merge advanced biomaterials with high-resolution biomanufacturing such as two-photon patterning and organ-on-chip techniques to recreate the microarchitecture and function of human bone tissues. We then apply these microengineered bone organoids to study how bone cells sense and respond to mechanical signals at the molecular level.
Our expertise covers the development of molecularly engineered biomaterials, biomimetic computational models, high-resolution 3D bioprinting, tools for on-chip mechanical loading and miniaturized 3D organoid culture systems. Team members have multidisciplinary backgrounds ranging from chemistry and bioengineering to cell biology. Our team is active in collaborating with experts with both industrial and clinical partners.