Highlighted Projects

Legged robots for potential lunar missions: The European Space Agency and the European Space Resources Innovation Center have called on European and Canadian research teams to develop robots and exploration technologies that can cope with the challenging conditions in the Moon's shadowy south polar region: Materials and exploration technologies have to meet extreme demands due to steep crater walls, difficult lighting conditions, a dusty subsurface, and high temperature fluctuations.

Our team GLIMPSE, consisting of researchers and engineers from the University of Zurich, ETH, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and the University of Basel, as well as industry partners Maxon and Anybotics, successfully competed with three quadrupedal robots at the ESA-ERIS Space Resources Challenges in the Netherlands and in Luxembourg. I was responsible for the science and scientific payloads comprising Raman spectrometers, multispectral context camera with a filter wheel, and a UV-VIS-NIR microscopic imager mounted to the robot's robotic arm.

The goal of the OWLS Project is to build a field prototype instrument to perform molecular and cellular analyses autonomously on Earth, which paves the way for a future spaceflight instrument ready for a life-detection mission on another world in the coming decade. In three years, OWLS will build the Field Prototype Instrument to take to Borup Bjord Pass in the Canadian High Arctic, a location that serves as an analog environment for ocean worlds such as Enceladus and Europa. My contribution is the development of a capillary electrophoresis coupled to laser-induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) instrument for the chiral analysis of amino acids at low parts-per-billion levels.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of engineers and technologists at NASA/JPL decided to develop an emergency ventilator to augment the inventories worldwide. After only 37 days, a functional ventilator that meets the needs of a COVID-19 patient was developed, and presented at The White House to the President of the United States. Less than a week later, the FDA emergency use authorization was granted.

EMILI is an instrument investigation designed to address the top science objectives of a future Europa lander mission, such as documented by the recent Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT). EMILI seeks to detect and characterize potential organic molecular biosignatures, which may be present only at ultralow (nM) concentrations. I advise our partner Honeybee Robotics Inc. on the technical aspects of the subcritical water extractor and lead the development at JPL toward a spaceflight compatible laser inducedfluorescence detector, which will be coupled to a capillary electrophoresis analyzer.

The MILA instrument is an automated end-to-end chemical analyzer which is capable of ingesting solid samples and producing chemical distributions of amino acids at ppm to ppb levels. This capability is essential for future life detection missions to Mars and ocean worlds. MILA contains a front-end extraction unit that accepts regolith samples and produces liquid extracts that are then passed to a microchip electrophoresis analyzer, known as the Chemical Laptop, for amino acid analysis.

The ARADS project iteratively developed a simulated Mars rover biomarker-detection mission over four successive field deployments at the Atacama Desert Mars-analog site in 2016-2019. For this project, I developed an automated, remotely controlled subcritical water extractor that received drill fines from a robotic arm, extracted amino acids from the solid sample, and transferred the extract to a chemical analyzer. This was NASA’s first demonstration of sample-in-data-out amino acid analysis with a fully automated and remotely operated liquid-based analysis system. Partners on ARADS were several NASA centers – Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, and JPL – as well as Johns Hopkins University, Honeybee Robotics, the University of Antofagasta and CampoAlto SpA, both in Chile, and Spain’s Center for Astrobiology.

On this field-trip to the Arctic, we evaluated our underwater robots, equipped with sampling and sensing platforms, in the icy ocean. Every morning, we drove several kilometers over the open sea ice with our snowmobiles, where we then released our robotic explorers, while armed locals protected us from roaming polar bears. I designed, built, and tested a submersible instrument which was equipped with a liquid sample acquisition mechanism, internal computational power and heater, microfluidics including pumps and valves, ion-selective electrodes, as well as pressure, temperature, and colorimetric sensors.

Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (ELSAH) was an astrobiology concept mission proposed in 2017 to NASA's New Frontiers program to send a spacecraft to Enceladus to search for biosignatures and assess its habitability. Although ELSAH was not selected for launch in this instance, it received technology development funds to prepare it for future mission competitions. I was tasked to design the optical sensing module for the microchip electrophoresis analyzer.

The RADAR 7-member consortium of private enterprises and research associations was funded under the EU FP7 program to undertake a collaborative project aimed at developing a biosensor for monitoring small molecules such as toxins and pollutants in aquatic environments. My role in the project was to develop the automated, remotely-controlled waveguide grating-based, label-free biosensor. Additionally, I was the task lead for Optics Balzers.

The goal of aTORCH was the development of an optically active, high sensitivity label-free biosensor. A novel, nanostructured photonic resonator was simulated by FDTD, fabricated, and tested. As the inventor of the concept, I led the project as the principal technical investigator. Project partners were CSEM SA, NTB Interstate University of Technology Buchs, and industrial partners Optics Balers AG and Dynetix AG.

INNOBond successfully explored the fabrication, automated assembly, and quality control of an optical biosensor chip by a robotic arm. The complex hybrid assembly consisted of an injection molded, microfluidic manifold, an adhesive gasket, and a glass chip. I was supporting the design of the microfluidic chip and the final testing of the assembled biosensor. Project partners were the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil, Weidmann Plastics Technology AG, Dynetix AG, and CSEM SA.