MaP Award 2026

Yannick Brägger grew up near St. Gallen, Switzerland, and obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemistry at ETH Zürich. After an internship at Syngenta and a Master’s thesis in the Ritter Group at the MPI Kofo in Germany, he returned to ETH to pursue his doctoral studies in the Morandi Group, where his research focused on molecular editing. He is currently an SNSF Postdoctoral fellow in the MacMillan Group at Princeton University.

Your doctorate project in two sentences

New molecular editing methods have been developed that surgically remodel or reposition functional groups in complex molecules. These transformations enable rapid, selective diversification of drug candidates without the need for de novo synthesis.

Why did you choose this doctorate project?

Pharmaceuticals constitute Switzerland’s largest industry and contribute immensely to national exports. I chose to tackle important challenges in the discovery stage of the pharmaceutical sector because accelerating how chemists are able to modify complex molecules can shorten development timelines and reduce costs, thus benefiting society at large.

Future plans

My interests span academia and industry alike – it is my aim to get as far as possible academically and see where the journey takes me.

Thomas Buchner completed his Bachelor's and Master's in Physics at Heidelberg University and TU Munich before joining the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich for his doctorate. The roboticist and physics researcher first-authored publications in Nature and Nature Communications through collaborations with MIT/Inkbit and MPI-IS. He  is an expert in soft-rigid hybrid systems, multi-material fabrication, and electrohydraulic actuation. Currently, he is continuing his research as a postdoc at ETH Zurich, bridging advanced manufacturing and intelligent robotic systems.

Your doctorate project in two sentences

My doctoral research advanced the fabrication and actuation of soft-rigid hybrid robotic systems, culminating in the application of a vision-controlled inkjet printing process capable of seamlessly integrating materials spanning several orders of magnitude in stiffness within a single manufacturing step. Building on this multi-material platform, I developed electrohydraulic musculoskeletal actuatorsthat exploit the mechanical properties of soft materials and actuators to achieve energy-efficient, adaptive locomotion without reliance on complex control algorithms.

Why did you choose this doctorate project?

I am fascinated by the design space that soft-rigid hybrid systems unlock, and by the performance advantages that emerge when material composition is matched a specific task. The challenge of realizing such systems in a meaningful, repeatable, and scalable manner bridging the gap between conceptual design and physical implementation is what drew me to pursue this doctorate.

Future plans

My goal is to make an impact by bringing such robotic systems closer to human everyday life, whether through fundamental research in academia or through the applied, product-driven environment of industry or a startup.

Florian Huwyler grew up in Bern, Switzerland, and holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich, with research experience at Imperial College London and ETH Zurich. He completed his doctorate in the Macromolecular Engineering Lab under Prof. Mark Tibbitt, developing therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to improve liver graft utilization. He recently received an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship to continue his training at MIT and Harvard.

Your doctorate project in two sentences

To increase utilization of donated liver grafts and enable more life-saving transplants, we advanced ex situ machine perfusion platforms to extend preservation beyond multiple days, creating a therapeutic window for graft repair and rigorous viability assessment. We pioneered treatments to reverse steatosis in fatty livers commonly deemed untransplantable, and developed a gene-silencing strategy to reduce human leukocyte antigens in graft tissue—promising future transplantation with minimal immunosuppression.

Why did you choose this doctorate project?

I am passionate about research with direct translational impact. Liver transplantation is the only option for patients with end-stage liver disease, yet thousands die each year waiting for a suitable organ. Realizing that improving graft utilization could save many of these lives, I was drawn to approach this challenge from an engineering perspective.

What set this project apart was the opportunity to be embedded in clinical practice at the University Hospital Zurich, where I could directly observe transplantation and identify its limitations firsthand. Realizing that there is no consensus on objective graft viability assessment, I was motivated to develop a new sensor to assess mitochondrial health in donor grafts prior to transplantation. Interacting with patients before and after their transplants, and witnessing how profoundly a functioning organ can transform a life, gave my lab work a sense of urgency and purpose. It motivated me to push beyond graft assessment and develop therapies to repair and recondition previously discarded grafts.

Future plans

Supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), I joined the Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies at MIT and Harvard under supervision of Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia. There, I am investigating the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into hepatocytes and other cell types that are native to the liver to assemble organoids for 3D bioprinting of vascularized liver tissue. This work follows a bottom-up strategy that directly complements my doctoral research, where I sought to maximize utility of scarce donated organs at the whole-organ level, by instead engineering functional liver tissue from patient-derived cells, independent of organ donation.

Julie Laurent is a French researcher, who obtained her Bachelor's and Master's in Bioengineering at EPFL. After her Master's thesis at MIT on biopolymer-based delivery systems for plants in Prof. Benedetto Marelli’s group, she completed her doctorate in the Complex Materials group at ETH Zurich, under the supervision of Prof. André Studart. During her doctorate, she developed a microfluidic platform to evolve material-producing microorganisms for sustainable biofabrication. Currently, Dr. Laurent is a postdoc at the Technical University of Denmark in the Microbial Biotechnology and Biorefining group.

Your doctorate project in two sentences

Microbially produced materials offer a sustainable alternative to conventional fossil-based manufacturing, yet their limited yield and tunability remain key challenges. Leveraging high-throughput microfluidics to mimic evolution in the lab, we engineered bacterial strains able to overproduce cellulose with improved mechanical properties, and established links between genetic modifications, increased biosynthesis, and improved material performance.

Why did you choose this doctorate project?

With a background in bioengineering, I have long been interested in how biological systems can be harnessed to address environmental challenges. After my Master's thesis on bacteria-containing hydrogels for agricultural applications, I became particularly fascinated by the possibility of using microorganisms not only as embedded producers of beneficial compounds, but as active producers of the material itself. I was therefore drawn to a project at the interface of microbiology and materials science, where living systems could be engineered to fabricate materials under mild, sustainable conditions. Joining the Complex Materials group at ETH Zurich provided the interdisciplinary environment I was seeking, integrating biomaterials, microfluidics, and microbiology with a strong emphasis on impactful innovation. This setting enabled me to develop new experimental approaches while addressing both fundamental and applied questions in sustainable materials research.

Future plans

In my current postdoctoral work at DTU, I investigate filamentous fungi for sustainable food production, focusing on the potential of mycelium as a nutritious and scalable biomaterial. Building on my doctoral research on bacterial cellulose, this work extends the use of living systems from material-producing bacteria to fungal biomass, advancing sustainable approaches across both materials and food. In the long term, I aim to develop innovative biofabrication strategies that leverage microorganisms and AI to replace resource-intensive processes, bridging fundamental research with real-world applications in a circular bioeconomy.