Dr. Michael Gerlt

Michael Gerlt is Junior Research Group Leader of the Biomedical Microfluidics group at the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials (IMSEAM), Heidelberg University, which he established in March 2026. His research combines acoustics, microfluidic engineering, and extracellular vesicle (EV) technologies to develop new approaches to cancer diagnostics and therapy. EVs are tiny membrane-bound particles released by cells that carry molecular information and can also serve as vehicles for therapeutic cargo. His group develops methods to isolate EVs, separate EV subpopulations, and load them with therapeutic molecules. A central goal is to translate these technologies into disposable devices suitable for mass production and, ultimately, point-of-care applications. His research is supported by the ERC Starting Grant TheraSonic and the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Nexus grant AcouVesi.

Michael Gerlt received a B.Sc. (2013) and M.Sc. (2015) in Electrical Engineering from Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the Technical University of Munich, respectively, with specialisations in nanoelectronics, semiconducting devices, and flexible organic photodiodes. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (ETH Zurich, 2021) under Prof. Jürg Dual. His dissertation focused on ultrasonic particle manipulation for cell-secretome analysis, bacteria transformation, and metal 3D printing, bridging acoustics, microfluidics, biology, and materials science.

Following his doctorate, he held postdoctoral positions at ETH Zurich (D-CHAB, 2021–2023) and Lund University (2023–2026). At ETH Zurich, he developed a microfluidic platform to investigate how shear forces influence protein aggregation and engineered strategies for efficient cargo loading into extracellular vesicles, demonstrating more than a 100-fold improvement compared to bulk loading methods. At Lund University, he pioneered Acoustochromatography, a patented method that uses ultrasound to rapidly enrich EVs from very small volumes of blood plasma. This work enabled EV enrichment and subsequent protein analysis from just 1 µL of plasma, opening opportunities for biomarker discovery when sample volumes are limited.

His work combines acoustic particle manipulation, microfluidics, device fabrication and optimization, 3D printing, and the study of the physical properties of nanoscale biological particles. He has collaborated extensively with research groups across engineering, chemistry, and biosystems science at institutions including ETH Zurich, Lund University, and TU Munich.

Michael’s broader research interests include acoustofluidics, micro- and nanofabrication, EV biology and analytics, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic delivery. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, he aims to turn advances in microfluidic technology into practical tools for biomedical research and future clinical use, with a particular focus on cancer.