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.
Co-Chairs: Eleni Chatzi & 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)°,
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).