Institute of Bioengineering, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Professor Matthias Lutolf is the director of the Institute of Bioengineering and head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Bioengineering at EFP Lausanne. He was trained as a Materials Engineer at ETH Zurich where he also carried out his Ph.D. studies on the development of a novel class of biomaterials for tissue engineering (awarded with the ETH medal). Lutolf carried out postdoctoral studies at the Baxter Laboratory in Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University on microenvironmental (‘niche’) regulation of somatic stem cells. He started up his independent research group at EPFL with a European Young Investigator (EURYI) award. By interfacing advanced biomaterials engineering, microtechnology and stem cell biology, a major goal in his lab is to uncover mechanisms of stem cell fate regulation; knowledge that will contribute to better ways to grow stem cells in culture and use them for various applications.