Bioengineering

Specialiced in chemical and biochemical engineering, (bio)chemical measure and sensor technologies as well as speciality chemistry.

Biotechnology research at the University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil (ZHAW) is concerned with processes using microorganisms and plant/animal cell cultures for the manufacturing (i.e. synthesis and transformation), decomposition and analysis of substances including molecular and cell biology. The resulting products and processes are applied in pharmaceutical, food and natural resources fields.

The Laboratory for Biomaterials at Empa is active in research and development of biomaterials and biomolecules for medically and industrially interesting applications. In addition, we offer services in the field of fermentation, biodegradation, microbiological tests, and analytics of biopolymers. We develop new biocatalysts for green chemistry, perform enzyme engineering including directed evolution and use microbial and biochemical and chemical processes for the biosynthesis, characterization or functionalization of bio-based and/or biodegradable polymers.

The Institute's research and development topics are focused on biomolecule production by biotechnological processes, bioprocess development and optimisation (development of strains and processes), and product isolation (downstream processing).
Other areas of excellence are the development and validation of molecular biology methods for the qualitative and quantitative detection of micro-organsims.

Experts in biochemical and molecular bioanalytics, diagnostics, medicional chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology.