On September 18th, the SEP group had a strong presence at the 2026 Eawag Symposium! Our postdocs Oliver and Sandra shared the latest progress on their research: Oliver presented an update on the project "Decarbonisation of Switzerland: Solid Sequestration of CO2 in Deep Aquifers Using Piezo-Tolerant Extremophile Bacteria", Sandra presented a poster on the sustainability of Mediterranean crop rotations. Two great examples of the diverse research happening in our group.

We are happy to announce that a new publication by Maximilian Stoll and Joaquín Jiménez-Martínez appeared in PNAS! This work is the result of a fruitful collaboration with Marco Dentz (CSIC, Barcelona) and Roman Stocker (ETH Zürich). By developing and innovative microfluidic system to mimic the formation of chemical hotspots occurring in natural soil, we investigate how bacterial chemotaxis is modulated by flow in heterogeneous porous media. Check the paper out here!

Ignacio Gutiérrez-Cortés, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, will be visiting SEP group for the entire academic year 2026-2027. He will mainly work on connecting microhabitat architecture to microbial colonization and persistence under climate change using Antarctic Rock-on-a-Chip. Welcome, Ignacio!!!

New publication in collaboration with colleagues from the Volcani Institute (Israel) and CSIC (Barcelona). Our study shows that in porous media, liquid-gas phase distributions remain remarkably stable across different flow rates, with local capillary effects playing a greater role than global flow dynamics. Relative permeability is instead strongly linked to dead-end connectivity, saturation, and tortuosity. You can find more information here!

Together with colleagues from Eawag, we have made public a national-scale database of groundwater level data for Switzerland. This has been published in Scientific Data. Check it out here!

Happy to share that a new paper has just been published in Biomicrofluidics. Led by Aleksandar Loncar, this work is the result of a collaboration between the SEP group and Geosciences Rennes (University of Rennes 1 and CNRS). We study the response of bacteria to dissolved oxygen gradients using a new microfluidic platform. Check out the full article here!

SEP Group has been very present at the last Gordon Research Conference and Seminar on Flow and Transport in Permeable Media 2026 (Les Diablerets, Switzerland). 😁Thanks to all group members for having contributed to the scientific discussions in an incomparable scenery!Looking forward to the next GRC and GRS on Flow and Transport in Permeable Media in 2028!!!

We are excited to share that a new paper has just been published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments. Led by Juanita Lara‑Gutiérrez, this work stems from the long‑standing collaboration between the SEP group and Stocker’s Lab. It presents a millifluidic continuous culture protocol enabling bacterial cultivation under low‑nutrient conditions and dynamic nutrient environments. Check out the full article here !

Check out our latest publication in Hydrological Processes! The paper, "Modelling climate change effects on groundwater recharge and temperature for a pre-alpine lysimeter", combines lysimeter observations with modelling to assess how climate change influences groundwater recharge and subsurface temperature in a pre‑alpine region in Switzerland. Check it out here.

We had a great time at InterPore2026 in Nantes, where SEP group contributed an exciting lineup of oral and poster presentations. Joaquin showcased chaotic advection and mixing in unsaturated porous media, powered by 3D pore‑scale simulations and synchrotron micro‑CT imaging. Chiara presented an information‑theory‑based framework to quantify how pore scale dynamics shape bacterial behavior, as part of a new collaboration between SEP and MIPORE groups. Xin highlighted key aspects of his original micromodel equipped with reactive surfaces - a powerful platform for studying reactive transport in real time. Zahra showed how local biofilm mechanics shape colonization patterns under varying flow conditions, a collaboration with Eleonora Secchi at ETH. A fantastic week of science and collaboration! Looking forward to the next InterPore annual gathering.