9 Individual circulating tumor cells can be detected in a microfluidic system. Till Ryser worked on the development of this type of detection system as part of his master’s thesis at the Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel. A variety of electrolytes are being studied with a view to investigat- ing new types of cost-effective and environmentally friendly lithium-ion batteries. For her master’s thesis at Empa and the Department of Physics, University of Basel, Camilla Vael studied a range of mixtures and salts for this application. Polymeric nanomaterials might once be used for DNA delivery in gene therapies. In his master`s thesis at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Bio- zentrum, University of Basel, Matej Siketanc studied polymeric nanoma- terials for DNA delivery. He applied a biomimetic approach to increase the transfection efficiency of this non-viral gene delivery system.