ALIVE | Advanced Engineering with Living Materials
Humanity has developed technologies that have increased our productivity, well-being and lifespan. At the same time, our new way of living has brought forth consequences for our environment. To counter this trend, we need materials and technologies that are sustainable, intelligent and resilient.
The ALIVE | Advanced Engineering with Living Materials Initiative of ETH Zurich aims at elucidating and applying the design principles of living systems as a basis for sustainable, intelligent and resilient materials and technologies of the future. Our approach encompasses the study of natural systems and the development of bio-hybrid or bio-mimetic synthetic systems bridging across scales, from the nano to the macro and structural scale. Our primary foci are to develop a) hierarchical systems- where living aspects are integrated across length scales, and b) circular technologies- where the lifetimes of devices and their materials are synchronised.
Shifting from a currently passive inanimate to a self-aware living environment requires a radical paradigm change. To impact society beyond the scientific forefronts, a collaborative team effort provides the breeding ground. The initiative brings together over 20 professorships from material science, engineering, biosystems science and possible impact areas such as architecture and health.
Chair: Mark Tibbitt
Coordination: Klara Berg (MaP)
PIs involved (alphabetically sorted acc. to first names) according to stream:
Zurich Joint: An Actuated Human Joint Organoid on Chip (ZJ)
Dennis Kochmann (Mechanics and Materials),
Marcy Zenobi-Wong (Tissue Engineering and Biofabrication),
Ori Bar-Nur (Regenerative and Movement Biology),
Ralph Müller (Bone Biomechanics)*
Xiao-Hua Qin (Bone Biomechanics)
Multiscale Biohybrid Tissues for Robotics Driven by Applications in Health (BHR)
Edoardo Mazza (Experimental Continuum Mechanics),
Janos Vörös (Biosensors and Bioelectronics)°,
Jess Snedeker (Orthopaedic Biomechanics),
Lucio Isa (Laboratory for Soft Materials and Interfaces),
Mustafa Khammash (Control Theory and Systems Biology)°,
Robert Katzschmann (Soft Robotics)*,
Simone Schürle (Responsive Biomedical Systems)
Living Systems for Carbon Capturing in Self-Aware Infrastructure (CLiMa)
André Studart (Complex Materials),
Benjamin Dillenburger (Digital Building Technologies),
Eleni Chatzi (Structural Mechanics and Monitoring),
Ingo Burgert (Wood Materials Science)*,
Laura De Lorenzis (Computational Mechanics),
Mark Tibbitt (Macromolecular Engineering)*,
Markus Bambach (Advanced Manufacturing)°,
Markus Künzler (Molecular defense mechanisms of fungi against bacterial competitors and animal predators)°,
Patrick Rühs (Food Structure Engineering)°,
Peter Fischer (Food Process Engineering),
Ralph Spolenak (Nanometallurgy),
& Ueli Angst (Durability of Engineering Materials)*
* member of ALIVE Executive Board
° associate member of ALIVE initiative
ALIVE is ETH Zurich's effort in capacity buildup and technology platforms in the frame of the ETH Domain Strategic Focus Area Advanced Manufacturing (external page SFA-AM).
Publications
- Dranseike, D., Cui, Y., Ling, A.S. et al. Dual carbon sequestration with photosynthetic living materials. Nat Commun 16, 3832 (2025). external page https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58761-y
- Yifan Cui, Mark W Tibbitt, Timothy K Lu, Tzu-Chieh Tang, Design principles for adaptive and evolving engineered living materials, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Volume 97, 103397 (2026).
external page https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103397. - Xiang Wang, Claire Schirmer, Elena Totter, and Simone Schuerle. Microalgae empower skeletal muscle via increased force production and viability, Science Advances, Volume 11, 29 (2025).
external page https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adw5786 - Xiulin Chen, Zhidong Zhang, Ueli Angst, Accelerating CO2 sequestration in cementitious materials using carbonic anhydrase: Experimental insights into performance and mechanisms, Carbon Capture Science & Technology, Volume 17, 100511 (2025).
external page https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccst.2025.100511. - Xiulin Chen, Zhidong Zhang, Ueli Angst, The potential of enzymatic-mediated CO2 sequestration in cementitious materials, SBE Conference Series (2025).
external page https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-c-000785789. - Sophia Ganzeboom, Bao Zhao, Vasilis Dertimanis, Eleni Chatzi, "Fungal circuitry: mycelium as a living sensor for smart structures," Proc. SPIE 12949, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2024, 129490J (9 May 2024).
external page https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3010795. - Zhao, B.*, Ganzeboom, S.*, & Haywood-Alexander, M. (2025). Spatial and temporal characterization of living mycelium through dispersion analysis. Smart Materials and Structures.
external page https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-665x/ae236a.