Prof. Dr. Robert Grass
Prof. Dr. Robert Grass
Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences
ETH Zürich
Robert Grass (1979, Austrian/Swiss) is Titulary Professor at the Functional Materials Laboratory at ETH Zurich. He studied Chemical Engineering at ETH with a stay at CASE Western Reserve University Cleveland in 2003 after which he pursued a PhD at ETH Zurich. 2021 he spent 6 months at the company Lonza AG to external pageassist the manufacturing of vaccinescall_made.
Robert Grass is involved in several areas of teaching chemistry, involving courses for small children, high-school chemistry education, process control education of chemical engineers at ETH Zurich. His research encompasses nanomaterial science, surface chemistry and nucleic acid research and has resulted in over 145 research papers, 17 patents and 4 book chapters. Robert Grass is recipient of the external page2021 European Inventor awardcall_made.
Research Focus
His research started in the field of surface functionalized nanomaterials, which he commercialised via the ETH Spin-Off company external pageTurboBeads GmbHcall_made in 2007. These products have been sold to more than 1000 different customers, are available via external pageSigma Aldrichcall_made, and have enabled novel commercial bioanalytical tools. The corresponding technology is also at the core of the ETH Spin-Off company external pagehemotune AGcall_made, which focuses on the treatment of sepsis.
A second, and more recent part of Grass' work involves the encapsulation of DNA in nanoscopic glass particles, and the use of these particles in the tagging of materials, enabling the integration of a digital signatures into a wide range of products ranging from valuables, external pageconsumer goods and foodstuffcall_made. This technology is currently being commercialised via the ETH Spin-Off Company external pageHaelixa GmbHcall_made by two of his former PhD students. The company allows raw material tracking throughout the supply chain.
Currently, Robert Grass' Team is working on using DNA as a digital information technology and using this technology for the long-term archiving of digital data as well as the usage of DNA as a technology to integrate digital production information into physical items. A new and growing area of interest of the group is in occupational hygiene and the development of technologies to measure and understand the spread of bacteria and viruses.
Project descriptions.
Public Science Outreach
- Short film by EPO on encapsulation technology for DNA data storage: external pageLinkcall_made
- Storing a Netflix Episode in DNA: external pageLinkcall_made
- Massive attack and DNA archiving: external pageLinkcall_made
- Wallpaper Design Award 2019: external pageLinkcall_made
- Storing Data in DNA, BBC Click 2019: external pageLinkcall_made
- Feature by BBC Future on long-term DNA Data Storage: external pageLinkcall_made
- Full presentation on long-term Data Storage given at Microsoft Research: external pageLinkcall_made
- Interview about Chemical Education and Nanotechnology and Entrepreneurship by ACS: external pageLinkcall_made
Selected publications
Full publication list on external pageGoogle Scholarcall_made:
- A. M. Lüscher, J. Koch, W. J. Stark, R. N. Grass
Silica-encapsulated DNA tracers for measruing aerosol distribution dynamics in real-world settings
Indoor Air 32(1), e12945 (2022). external pageLinkcall_made - C. Ullrich, A. M. Lüscher, J. Koch, R. N. Grass, H. Sax
Silica nanoparticles with encapsulated DNA (SPED) to trace the spread of pathogens in healthcare
Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control 11 (1), 1-13 (2022). external pageLinkcall_made - L. C. Meiser, J. Koch, P. L. Antkowiak, W. J. Stark, R. Heckel, R. N. Grass
DNA synthesis for true random number generation
Nature Communications 11, 5869 (2020). external pageLinkcall_made
- P. L. Antkowiak, J. Lietard, M. Z. Darestani, M. M. Somoza, W. J. Stark, R. Heckel, R. N. Grass
Low Cost DNA data storage using photolithographic synthesis and advanced information reconstruction and error correction
Nature Communications 11, 5345 (2020). external pageLinkcall_made
- J. Koch, S. Gantenbein, K. Masania, W. J. Stark, Y, Erlich, R. N. Grass
A DNA-of-things storage architecture to create materials with embedded memory
Nature Biotechnology 38, 39-43 (2020). external pageLinkcall_made
- L. C Meiser, P. L Antkowiak, J. Koch, W. D. Chen, A. X. Kohll, W. J. Stark, R. Heckel, R. N. Grass
Reading and writing digital data in DNA
Nature Protocols 15, 86-101 (2020). external pageLinkcall_made
- R. N. Grass, R. Heckel, M. Puddu, D. Paunescu, W. J. Stark
Robust Chemical Preservation of Digital Information on DNA in Silica with Error-Correcting Codes
Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 54, 2552-2555 (2015). external pageLinkcall_made - R. N. Grass, E. K. Athanassiou, W. J. Stark
Covalently functionalized cobalt nanoparticles as a platform for inexpensive magnetic separations in organic synthesis
Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 46, 4909-4912 (2007). external pageLinkcall_made
- R. N. Grass, S. Tsantilis, S. E. Pratsinis
Design of high-temperature, gas-phase synthesis of hard or soft TiO2 agglomerates
AIChE Journal 52, 1318-1325 (2006). external pageLinkcall_made