Focusing on people

Humans are social beings. As such, they interact with their peers in a variety of ways. We at Empa have taken this insight to heart – last year we engaged and interacted extensively with our stakeholders and the public, be it at the opening of new NEST units or at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne.

However, humans are also central to Empa on a completely different level: In our research activities in the area "Materials meet Life", our researchers are developing pioneering solutions for the medicine of tomorrow – precisely where “conventional” materials meet living ones, i.e. cells and tissue.

They bring some miraculous – or rather: healing – properties to these meetings. For example, there are polymers that light up when there is an infection with certain, oftentimes resistant germs. Or magnetic nanoparticles that can “fish” bacteria out of urine – all ways to be prepared for the “silent pandemic”, the worrying increase in pathogens that are increasingly resistant to (almost) all common antibiotics.

Empa researchers are also using tiny gold particles to fight cancer, developing nanozymes that help mothers with complications during pregnancy without harming the foetus, and using hydrogels from nature to better understand skin diseases.

As you can see: Materials are true all-rounders, also and especially in medical technology.

Michael Hagmann
Head of Empa communication