Professor Matthias Lutolf is a Full Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Bioengineering at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. His highly innovative and cross-disciplinary research program is focused on the development of bio- and tissue-engineering strategies for improving organoid culture and enabling its translation to real-life applications.

He was trained as a Materials Engineer at ETH Zurich where he also carried out his Ph.D. studies on the development of a novel class of biomaterials for tissue engineering (awarded with the ETH medal in 2004). In 2005, with fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Lutolf joined the Baxter Laboratory in Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University to study microenvironmental regulation of adult stem cells. In 2007, Lutolf received a European Young Investigator (EURYI) award to start up his independent research group at EPFL. By interfacing advanced biomaterials engineering, microtechnology and stem cell biology, a major goal in his lab is to uncover mechanisms of stem cell fate regulation by developing and applying 'artificial niches,' knowledge that will contribute to better ways to grow stem cells in culture and use them for various applications.