dr. Clementine Boutry

Expertise: Biodegradable technologies, biodegradable materials and devices (MEMS, sensors, actuators, and electric circuits) for Organ-on-Chip, medical and environmental applications

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Clementine Boutry obtained her bachelor and master degrees in microengineering at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland. She did her master thesis at Philips Research in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, working on the electronics of a giant magnetoresistance-based biosensor. She then joined the IT'IS Foundation at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, working as a scientist on bioelectromagnetic dosimetric studies. In 2012, she obtained her PhD degree in biodegradable electronics from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, awarded with the ETH Zurich Medal for outstanding PhD thesis. Her work, performed in the Micro and Nanosystems group (Prof. Christofer Hierold), focused on biodegradable passive resonant circuits for wireless implant applications. She then joined Philips Research in Shanghai, China, where she developed piezoelectric and accelerometer biomedical sensors for cardiovascular disease diagnosis, from prototypes to the implementation of human clinical studies. She then obtained a European Marie Curie fellowship and a Swiss SNSF mobility grant, and joined as a postdoc the group of prof. Zhenan Bao at Stanford University (Organic Electronics, USA), with a return phase in the group of prof. Stephanie Lacour at EPFL Lausanne (Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces, Switzerland). In addition to her pioneer work on biodegradable medical sensors, she also worked on stimulating nerve scaffolds for peripheral nerve repair. After participating in the Innosuisse Business Concept program in Geneva, Switzerland, she joined the group of prof. Hatice Altug at EPFL (BioNanoPhotonic Systems laboratory), developing microfabricated infrared nanophotonic biosensors for biomolecular analysis. Since September 2021, she is assistant professor at the Department of Microlelectronics, TU Delft, The Netherlands, where she leads the Biodegradable Technologies group at ECTM (Electronic Components, Technology and Materials Laboratory). She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2023 to pursuit her research on biodegradable MEMS.

Clementine Boutry’s research focuses on biodegradable technologies. These devices are designed to operate for a predefined period of time and then disappear naturally without leaving a trace. They are fully degradable, including electrical circuits, opening up fascinating perspectives in many application areas. With her multidisciplinary team of electrical engineers, biomedical engineers, material scientists, chemists and physicists, she develops biodegradable MEMS, a new class of micro-electro-mechanical systems made entirely of biodegradable materials, including sensors, actuators, and electric circuits, for medical and environmental applications. More details can be found on our website.

Clementine Boutry has been recognized by a number of awards and grants including:

• ERC Starting Grant Nerve-Repair 2.0 (2023), European Research Council, EU 
• 4TU HTSF (High Tech for a Sustainable Future) Grant Green Sensors (2022), The Netherlands
• TU Delft ME Synergy grant (2023), The Netherlands
• Bioengineering Institute grants (2022, 2023), The Netherlands
• Innosuisse award for best life sciences project (2020), Switzerland
• Geneus award for Life science innovation (2020), Switzerland
• Delft University of Technology Fellowship (2019), The Netherlands
• 2nd Best Paper Prize at IEEE SENSORS (2015), Korea
• European Marie Curie fellowship (2014), EU
• Swiss SNSF mobility grant (2014), Switzerland
• ETH Zurich Medal 2013 for outstanding Ph.D. thesis (2013), Switzerland

Last updated: 6 Nov 2023