News & Events

Scientists from the Quantitative Developmental Biology lab of Barbara Treutlein and their colleagues from the Universities of Basel and Copenhagen have created the most detailed picture yet of how early human brain tissue responds to the chemical signals that guide brain development, offering a powerful new resource for studying the origins of the human nervous system – and what happens when development goes off course.

The ETH AI Center and Bosch Health Campus deepen their partnership to translate AI research into clinical impacts and inform about their joint fellowship programmes.

In 2025 we celebrated the graduation of 70 Master’s students and 35 doctoral graduates, as well as many awards, prizes and scientific milestones; we welcomed Na Cai as a new faculty member and celebrated Andreas Moor’s promotion following his tenure; we saw significant progress in the Botnar Institute of Immune Engineering; and we hosted renowned speakers at our seminars and partner events. Watch the video to find out in detail what was going on at D-BSSE in 2025!

As of 1 February 2026, a new leadership runs D-BSSE: Head of Department is Tanja Stadler, her Deputy is Prisca Liberali. The outgoing Head of Department, Sven Panke, becomes Director of Studies. Big thanks to Sven Panke for his dedication and commitment as Department Head for the past two years, and to the outgoing Study Director Petra Dittrich for serving in this role for the past five years.

As part of the Art of Transformation campaign of ETH Sustainability, two dresses made from laboratory materials (i.e., gloves, pipettes) are currently on display in the BSS atrium. The installation by the artist Saki invites us to pause for a moment and reflect on how everyday research practices, material use and creativity are connected to the broader transformation towards sustainability. 

Millions are diagnosed with cancer each year. In advanced tumours, cells spread via blood or lymph, facing mechanical challenges. A multidisciplinary team, including Daniel Müller’s Biophysics group, studied how the mechanics of circulating tumour cells affect metastasis. Their findings, published in Nature Materials, offer key insights into how metastases form.

Our new image film offers a look inside the D-BSSE – our research, education, facilities, and culture – and introduces some of the scientists who make it such a special place.

A new study using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) has revealed that the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago caused only a modest decline in shark and ray species. These findings challenge previous understandings of how severely this mass extinction affected life in the oceans. The study which is published in Current Biology, is co-led by Daniele Silvestro from Tanja Stadler’s Computational Evolution Group, in collaboration with the Swansea University, UK. 

On 22 January, the next 'Bench meets Bedside' seminar organised by the Engineering Translational Medicine (ETM) initiative will take place on Campus Schällemätteli. The event will feature inspiring PI talks by Anne-Katrin Pröbstel (Department of Biomedicine, UniBas), Philippe Cattin (Department of Biomedical Engineering, UniBas) and Joerg Stelling (D-BSSE, ETH Zurich). ETM aims at building a platform for researchers and clinicians to connect and collaborate.