New paper alert 🚀
Our NOMIS Fellow Antonin Affholder is a co-author on a new study exploring the potential for glycine fermentation to support life in Titan’s subsurface ocean.
Congrats to Antonin and the team!
🔗
We’re excited to welcome Mélanie Burnette as a new Lab Technician in the ELE group!
She’ll support Burgeon, WildinSync, and sediment aDNA projects, working on eDNA and aDNA processing through library prep. With a background in genetics and immunology, she brings strong expertise to the team.
Let's welcome Julia Gnägi as our new lab technician! She is an alumni from the FHNW where she did her BSc in Life Science with a focus on bioanalytics and cellbiology. At our group, she's going to support the WildinSync and sediment ancient DNA projects by processing DNA samples. We're so excited!
In the recent ETH news, our PI, Prof.Loïc Pellissier wrote a perspective on how can we encourage companies to do a better job of protecting biodiversity. Check it out here:
Hands-on eDNA sampling training was conducted to the forest officials from Bhutan on 11/2/2026 in collaboration with Department of Forest & Park Services of Bhutan, WWF Bhutan, WWF US, College of Natural Resources, Bhutan and ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Check out the pictures!
Gordian joined ELE group in September from Tanzania. His research is focusing on how eDNA can be availed to monitor vectors and pathogens of human and veterinary diseases. Welcome!
Our new PhD student, Jean Lucca, is using eDNA to understand how geological dynamics in mountains relate to speciation across some of the richest and most endemic landscapes around the globe. Welcome to the group!
Yu Yi a visiting PhD student joined the ELE group in November. Her work focuses on eDNA as a tool to monitor fish biodiversity in Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Welcome in the group!
Zhong Shuo calls for everybody to join his team to advance science by participating in their visual challenge. It takes just one minute. 👉 lab.citizenscience.ch/en/project/942
Liu Jingyi joined the ELE group in November bringing in her work that evaluates multi-decadal environmental impacts of mariculture in China. Welcome!
In August Meret Jucker collected eDNA and plankton net samples on R/V FOREL for the Greenfjord project to compare marine biodiversity in two fjords in SW Greenland.
🎄🎅❄ Merry Christmas from the ELE group! 🎄🎅❄
From 11 to 24 September 2025, our team deployed an environmental DNA (eDNA) autosampler in Alptal, right next to the WSL experimental infrastructure. Check out the pictures!
🚀 Applications are open for HACK-4-SAGES, a digital twin in astrobiology hackathon
🗓️ 9 to 13 March 2026
🌍 Join online or in person
🏆 Win an all-expenses-paid trip to ETH Zurich
⏳ Deadline: 16 January 2026
🔗 hack-4-sages.org
💡 We also welcome mentors: tinyurl.com/5bpnxn2y
The WSL’s new exhibition “Breaking the Code” highlights ELE group research, revealing new insights into biodiversity. Check it out!
🌍 New publication alert!
In Ecography, we show how landscape connectivity and climate dynamics shape plant endemism hotspots in the Hengduan Mountains. Endemism peaks at ~3,000–4,000 m, highlighting the complex interplay of geography and biodiversity.
Read the article here: buff.ly/AfI5xOk
💪 Check this out! The head of our group, Loïc Pellissier, was recently featured on Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia Instagram!
Here's the link: buff.ly/45HiX64
🎉 We did it — 500+ followers on LinkedIn!
A huge thank-you to everyone who supports ELE Group. Your energy keeps us moving forward! Join our LinkedIn community here: www.linkedin.com/company/ecos...
🌱 Fieldwork in Colombia!
Together with Fundación Universitaria de Popayán, Fundación Biodiversa de Colombia, and Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, our group carried out a pilot eDNA project in Puracé National Park.
Read more: fup.edu.co/impulsamos-i...
🚀 Our guest Nikita Zychowska was a recent speaker at the COPL Lunch Seminar. She's a BSc student in AI at Johannes Kepler Universität Linz and the co-founder of the Astroyouth society. She'll stay in our group for two more weeks to work on the co-evolution of planets and life project.
In the recent publication, we show that combining multispecies primers with CRISPR-Dx—a workflow dubbed ampliscanning—matches the effectiveness of metabarcoding for detecting terrestrial mammals via eDNA in remote, high-alpine catchments.
Read the article: buff.ly/9rVajwt
🌋 Let's welcome Roos van Wees, a new postdoctoral researcher in our group.
Roos's background is in geomorphology, having examined how erosion shapes volcanic landscapes over time. In BurGeoN project, she will investigate how geomorphological dynamics influence biodiversity in mountain regions.
🌍 New publication alert!
In our latest piece in Nature Cities, we highlight how biodiversity modeling can support urban planning by balancing human well-being with nature. This helps cities meet biodiversity targets while ensuring access to healthy ecosystems.
Read the article: buff.ly/zeRBrYh
🎉 Warm welcome to Antonin Affholder, a new NOMIS fellow and postdoc in our group.
He will research the dynamical mechanisms that caused the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere to occur hundreds of millions of years after the emergence of photosynthesis.
Exciting research is coming, stay tuned!
New publication alert!
Together with colleagues, we show how combining eDNA with remote sensing can improve models of fish biodiversity in tropical rivers.
🔗 Read the article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🌱 We’ve just completed the first sampling mission of Project Burgeon, supported by the SNSF. Over the summer, we explored multiple locations across the Puracé National Park to map the rich plant diversity of the Andean forest. We aim to uncover how geological dynamics shape mountain biodiversity.
Proud to see our work showcased at the Swiss Pavilion of the Expo 2025 in Osaka!
Over the years, we have co-designed robotic and eDNA technologies that can reveal the hidden presence of species and provide an early warning against invasive ones.
Image credits:
© FDFA, Presence Switzerland
🌱 This summer, we kicked off our first biodiversity monitoring initiative at ETH Zentrum and Hönggerberg using eDNA sampling. A big shoutout to everyone who made this day such a success!
Our PhD student Anna Lewkowicz is part of a team that recently raised nearly 13,000 CHF to organize an innovative astrobiology-themed hackathon. They're currently looking for hackathon co-hosts. DM us or write them an email if you'd like to get involved!
🌍 Congratulations to our PhD student Anna Lewkowicz for receiving an ESA Academy scholarship, which allowed her to participate in the XXI International School of Astrobiology ‘Josep Comas i Solà’: Origins to Organisms: Understanding Life’s Beginnings. Great job!