Welcome to a seminar in the series Material Matters, this time with Xiao-Hua Qin, Assistant Professor of Biomaterials Engineering at ETH Zurich, who will give the lecture Engineering Living Bone Structures for Health. How can materials science contribute to new ways of studying and treating human disease?
Xiao-Hua Qin develops engineered living materials that combine advanced polymers with living cells to create 3D bone structures. His research brings together materials science, biofabrication and regenerative medicine, with applications ranging from human bone organoids and disease-on-chip models to clinically relevant biomaterials.
Material Matters: Xiao-Hua Qin from ETH Zurich explores how engineered living materials can bridge materials science and medical innovation.
Overview
Speaker
Assistant Professor of Biomaterials Engineering
ETH Zurich, Department of Health Sciences and Technology
Abstract
Engineered living materials are biosystems that integrate synthetic polymers with live cells to create biological function, offering powerful new tools for mitigating societal challenges such as population ageing. This talk presents how microstructured hydrogels, combined with advanced polymer chemistries, enable precise control of 3D living bone structures at small scales. I highlight innovations in photopolymerization-induced phase separation, high-speed two-photon nano-biofabrication, and volumetric 3D bone bioprinting. These technologies underpin human bone organoids, disease-on-chip platforms, and clinically relevant biomaterials. Together, they demonstrate how engineered living materials can bridge materials science with medical innovation to advance human health.
Biography
Xiao-Hua Qin is ERC Assistant Professor of Biomaterials Engineering at the Institute for Biomechanics at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Biomaterials Engineering group and co-leads the Laboratory for Bone Biomechanics.
His research focuses on developing novel biomaterials for tissue biomanufacturing and regenerative medicine. His team creates tissue-mimicking 3D microenvironments to study bone physiology and pathology, with the long-term goal of developing miniature bone organoid models for disease modelling and drug discovery.
His research has been recognised with several awards, including a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant and the Young Investigator Award of the Horten Health Foundation.
Chiara Micheletti
- Assistant Professor, Microstructure Physics, Physics and Astronomy
Chiara Micheletti
- Assistant Professor, Microstructure Physics, Physics and Astronomy
Joakim Halldin Stenlid
- Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Joakim Halldin Stenlid
- Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Johanna Xu
- Assistant Professor, Computational Mechanics and Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Johanna Xu
- Assistant Professor, Computational Mechanics and Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering