Viola Vogel Photo

Prof. Viola Vogel

Dr. Viola Vogel is a Professor in the Department of Materials heading the Laboratory for Biologically Oriented Materials at the ETH Zürich. After completing her graduate research at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, she received her Ph. D. in Physics at Frankfurt University, followed by two years as postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley, Department of Physics. As faculty member, she joined the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington/Seattle in 1990 with an adjunct appointment in Physics. She was the Founding Director of the Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington (‘97-‘03) prior to her move to Switzerland in 2004.

Her work was internationally recognized by awards (including Otto-Hahn Medal; NIH FIRST Award; Philip Morris Foundation Research Award; Julius Springer Prize 2006 for Applied Physics), major lectureships (including Lacey Lectureship at CalTech) and services for International Organizations (Human Frontier Science Program, British Marshall Fund, Humboldt Foundation), the US Government (White House, National Research Council; NASA, NIH, NSF, DOE, Gordon Research Council), the German Government (BMBF), scientific advisory boards (MPI-CI, IBN-Singapore, Nano-Initiative-Munich, Excellence Cluster, CeNIDE Duisburg-Essen), and memberships on editorial boards and in societies.

Biologically Oriented Materials

Viola Vogel’s interdisciplinary research program centers in bionanotechnology where she deciphers engineering principles of biological nanosystems for the development of new materials and technologies. Her interests range from physical sciences to medicine and include bottom-up molecular self-assembly, single molecule mechanics, how cells sense and respond to force, bacterial adhesion, biominerals, biomaterials and tissue engineering. Computational simulations how molecules and bonds rupture when exposed to mechanical forces complement and often inspire new experiments. Major accomplishments include predicting the unfolding pathways of various proteins and how unfolding might alter their structure-function relationship (we are particularly interested in bacterial and cell adhesion proteins), providing experimental proof that cells stretch and unfold extracellular matrix proteins when applying cell traction forces and quantifying the biomedical consequences thereof, the first report of catch-bond forming receptor-ligand complexes which allow some bacteria to hold on to surfaces under flow (bacterial adhesin FimH-mannose), and the development of nanoscale assembly lines where cargo is driven by biological motors along engineered tracks (Molecular Shuttles).

Current Research Projects

• Nano Shuttles: Motor Proteins in Engineered Environments

• Bacterial Adhesion to Surfaces

• Tissue Engineering

• Mechanotransduction

• Angiogenesis and Nerve Regeneration