Understanding Adhesion in Living Materials
Event details
| Date | 10.12.2025 |
| Hour | 10:00 › 11:00 |
| Speaker | Maja Vuckovac, Ph.D., Aalto University, Espoo (SF) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
2-DAY BIOE MINI-SYMPOSIUM on Measurement Technologies
(DAY ONE: talk two / previous talk / next talk)
Abstract:
My research tackles a central problem in bioengineering: we cannot predict how soft, wet, living materials adhere. This is because the physics at the mesoscale, where mechanics, fluid flow, and electrostatics couple, remains invisible to existing tools. I address this with a physics-first strategy: I build simplified model systems to isolate fundamental interactions and design the instruments to quantify them. By progressively introducing biological complexity, we decode the physical principles of living adhesion. I will present this journey from the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope for surface heterogeneity, to the Soft Matter Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for hydrated gels, and toward the ERC-funded Electro-Adhesion Microscope to map forces and charge simultaneously. This approach provides the foundational principles for engineering tissue fusion, organoid assembly, and biointegrated devices.
Bio:
Dr. Maja Vuckovac is an Academy Research Fellow and Group Leader at Aalto University, where she directs the Soft Adhesion and Interfaces Lab. She holds a D.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Aalto University. Her research program focuses on developing novel measurement technologies to decode the physical principles of soft and biological matter. She is internationally recognised for inventing new classes of measurement instruments. Her foundational work includes the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope (SDAM), an award-winning tool that introduced force-based wetting maps and reshaped methodologies in surface science. She subsequently created a platform of high-precision cantilever-based force sensors, for which she received the Aalto University Innovation Award (2025) and is now advancing toward commercialisation. She is currently developing the multimodal Soft Matter Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for probing adhesion in hydrated soft systems. Most recently, she was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for her project STICKY, which aims to construct the world’s first Electro-Adhesion Microscope to elucidate how charge and mechanical forces couple at soft and living interfaces. Her research integrates physics, engineering, and biology to translate invisible interfacial phenomena into quantifiable signals.
Zoom link for attending remotely, if needed: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/66947851573
(DAY ONE: talk two / previous talk / next talk)
Abstract:
My research tackles a central problem in bioengineering: we cannot predict how soft, wet, living materials adhere. This is because the physics at the mesoscale, where mechanics, fluid flow, and electrostatics couple, remains invisible to existing tools. I address this with a physics-first strategy: I build simplified model systems to isolate fundamental interactions and design the instruments to quantify them. By progressively introducing biological complexity, we decode the physical principles of living adhesion. I will present this journey from the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope for surface heterogeneity, to the Soft Matter Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for hydrated gels, and toward the ERC-funded Electro-Adhesion Microscope to map forces and charge simultaneously. This approach provides the foundational principles for engineering tissue fusion, organoid assembly, and biointegrated devices.
Bio:
Dr. Maja Vuckovac is an Academy Research Fellow and Group Leader at Aalto University, where she directs the Soft Adhesion and Interfaces Lab. She holds a D.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Aalto University. Her research program focuses on developing novel measurement technologies to decode the physical principles of soft and biological matter. She is internationally recognised for inventing new classes of measurement instruments. Her foundational work includes the Scanning Droplet Adhesion Microscope (SDAM), an award-winning tool that introduced force-based wetting maps and reshaped methodologies in surface science. She subsequently created a platform of high-precision cantilever-based force sensors, for which she received the Aalto University Innovation Award (2025) and is now advancing toward commercialisation. She is currently developing the multimodal Soft Matter Adhesion Microscope (SMAM) for probing adhesion in hydrated soft systems. Most recently, she was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for her project STICKY, which aims to construct the world’s first Electro-Adhesion Microscope to elucidate how charge and mechanical forces couple at soft and living interfaces. Her research integrates physics, engineering, and biology to translate invisible interfacial phenomena into quantifiable signals.
Zoom link for attending remotely, if needed: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/66947851573
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Georg Fantner, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD