dr. Clémentine Boutry

Expertise: Biodegradable technologies; Functionalized soft biodegradable materials for organs-on-chip, biodegradable implantable sensors, and robotic manipulators for medical applications

Clémentine Boutry is Assistant Professor in the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials Laboratory at the Department of Microlelectronics of TU Delft.

Clémentine is passionate about biodegradable technologies. These devices are designed to work for a defined period of time, and then reabsorb naturally without leaving a trace. They are completely degradable, including the electronics. The development of functional biodegradable materials and their integration into microsystems open up new horizons, particularly in medicine and for environmental monitoring applications. Her focus is on soft biodegradable materials with tailored electrical, magnetic, chemical and mechanical properties, and their integration into organ-on-chips, biodegradable implantable sensors and robotic manipulators for medical applications.

After studying microengineering at EPFL (Switzerland), Clémentine joined Philips Research in Eindhoven (Netherlands) for her Master thesis, working on the electronics of a biosensors based on giant magnetoresistance effect. She then joined the IT’IS Foundation (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) as a scientist, investigating the interactions between external electromagnetic fields and the human body through dosimetric studies. For her PhD thesis, performed at ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Christofer Hierold (group of Micro and Nanosystems), she worked on biodegradable conducting polymer composites and their integration into passive resonant circuits for wireless implant applications. Her work was rewarded with the ETH Zurich medal for outstanding PhD thesis.

Interested in scientific research in an entrepreneurial context, Clémentine joined Philips Research in the healthcare department in Shanghai (China). She developed piezoelectric and accelerometer-based biomedical sensors diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, leading the development of sensor prototypes, and setting up clinical studies. Intrigued by the development of medical soft integrated transducers based on stretchable and organic electronics, Clémentine then applied and was rewarded with both a Marie Curie European IOF grant and a Swiss SNSF Mobility grant, financially securing four years of postdoctoral research activities. She joined the group of Prof. Zhenan Bao (Organic Electronics) at Stanford University (USA), with a return-phase performed at EPFL (Switzerland) in the group of Prof. Stephanie Lacour (Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces, Center for Neuroprosthetics). At EPFL, in addition to her research on biodegradable soft medical sensors, she also worked on stimulating nerve scaffolds for mechanical stretching of neural cells. After participating in the Innosuisse Business Concept program in Geneva (Switzerland), she joined the group of Prof. Hatice Altug (BioNanoPhotonic Systems laboratory) at EPFL for one year, integrating microfabricated nanophotonic devices and mid-infrared components into a point-of-care device for biomolecular analysis.

Clémentine joined the ECTM laboratory and the Department of Microlelectronics at TU Delft since September 2021.

Last updated: 3 Oct 2022