Even if it will take some time until it is ready for the market, the patent has been registered. In July, international media reported on the discovery and the team behind it. At that point, Inge Herrmann’s team had long been known in science. At the beginning of 2024, it made a name for itself with laser technology for closing open wounds. Before that, it invented an intestinal patch that sends out alarm signals when it threatens to become permeable.
Inspiration: Diversity in the team and thinking outside the box
Herrmann prefers to work where others stop: at the interface between chemistry, materials science, engineering and medicine. There she conquers new territory for science. For her, the key to this is diversity in the team and intensive conversations with people from completely different industries – this can also be at the table with friends over dinner.
Communication across disciplines and industries is of course demanding and takes time and energy. “The comfort zone is not the place where magic happens,” is Herrmann’s motto. Her commitment to science is also reflected in her CV: Born in 1985, she studied chemical engineering at ETH Zurich and TU Delft from 2003 onwards, and six years later presented a magnet-based process for blood purification in her doctoral thesis, which was later further developed at Harvard became.
In the Ingenuity Lab she wants to bring material innovations to the clinic
After research positions in the USA (University of Illinois, Chicago) and UK (Imperial College London), she returned to Switzerland in 2015. Herrmann is now not only a professor at the University of Zurich and a lecturer at the ETH Zurich. She also leads a team at the materials science laboratory of the Swiss Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute (Empa). And – since September 2023 – she is now head of the Ingenuity Lab at the Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich. The lab wants to bring material innovations into the clinic.
Four hats on one head – how does it work? Herrmann’s answer is surprisingly simple: she gives doctoral students and postdocs as much freedom as possible and only supports where it is necessary. She prefers to leave start-ups to the researchers in the team. And even when it comes to publications, your name is not always at the top of the list. First author of Endometriosis Study for example Alexandre is Anthis.
At the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin it will be announced on November 9th Women’s Impact Award receives. Inge Katrin Herrmann is one of three nominees. Read more portraits from the Table.Briefings series “Breakthrough Minds” for the Falling Walls Science Summit 2024 here.
This post is on September 12th Research.Table Briefing von Table.Media appeared.
