Welcome to the Wollscheid Laboratory at ETH Zürich
Every cell talks to the world through its surface. We build the tools to listen in, and turn what we hear into the next generation of medicines.
The big idea
The surfaceome is the gatekeeper between a cell's inner life and the world outside, a crowded landscape where proteins gather into neighbourhoods to sense, decide and signal.
Signals pass from the extracellular world, through the surfaceome, into the cell's interior, one connected network. Learn to read it at molecular resolution, and you can understand, and one day rewrite, how cells communicate in health and disease.
What we study
The surfaceome is the complete set of proteins on the outer surface of a cell's plasma membrane, the interface where medicine acts. It is the docking site for hormones, the entry point for viruses, the surface the immune system reads, and the target of most of today's biologic drugs.
These proteins don't act alone. They cluster into functional communities, and by mapping which proteins sit next to which we reveal not just single targets but co-target pairs, combinations far more selective for a diseased cell than any protein on its own.
A sense of scale
If one surface molecule were blown up to the size of a person, the surface of a single immune cell would cover roughly three times the area of New York's Central Park. Proteins, like people, gather in neighbourhoods to get things done, each "baseball diamond" is a place where a specific job happens. Step off the field, and the game stops.
We read the nanoscale architecture of the surfaceome and translate it into next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics for patients.
Central Park, New York, an aerial analogy for the cell surface
Prefer to listen? A general-audience podcast about the lab's research, what the surfaceome is, and why mapping the cell surface matters.
Listen to the podcast →The toolkit
Fewer than thirty proteins underpin every antibody therapy in use today. To go beyond them, you need to see the surface as it really is, crowded, dynamic and organised into communities.
Over two decades we've built a toolkit that spans chemistry, biology, machine learning and mass spectrometry: to capture the surfaceome, predict it, and watch it organise on living cells in real time.
Cell Surface Capture (CSC) is the founding method of the field, antibody-free chemical labelling that selectively enriches N-glycosylated proteins exposed on living cells, revealing both the identity and the relative quantity of the receptors a cell displays. These measurements feed the Cell Surface Protein Atlas (CSPA), the community's reference surfaceome spanning dozens of human and mouse cell types. Because it reads the surface directly on intact cells and needs no prior knowledge of the targets, CSC captures the receptor landscape exactly as the cell presents it, an unbiased starting point for finding disease-selective receptors.Nat. Biotechnol. 2009
LUX-MS is our optoproteomic technology: pulses of light and singlet-oxygen chemistry capture split-second protein contacts on and between living cells. It resolves the nanoscale organisation of receptors, charting the surface protein communities and neighbourhoods that make a target selective for a diseased cell, and reveals which cells physically talk to each other, all without genetic engineering. Because the labelling is triggered by light, experiments can be timed and localised with precision, showing how receptor neighbourhoods rearrange as cells interact and change state.Nat. Commun. 2021
Ligand-Receptor Capture (LRC) chemistry pinpoints exactly which receptors a drug, antibody, ligand or pathogen engages on living cells. TriCEPS couples the ligand of interest and covalently crosslinks it to its receptor's glycan; the water-soluble HATRIC variant extends the approach to de-orphanise interactions, turning proximity into a directly identifiable, druggable target. Because it works on native cells and tissues rather than purified proteins, an interaction found in the dish can be traced back to the receptor that actually drives the biology in disease.Nat. Biotechnol. 2012Nat. Commun. 2018
SURFY is a machine-learning predictor of the human surfaceome. Trained on high-confidence experimental evidence, it defines ~2,886 proteins likely to reach the cell surface, and explains why. It scores every human gene product for surface localisation and pairs each prediction with the evidence behind it, turning a sprawling proteome into a ranked, searchable shortlist. That makes SURFY a fast first filter, an in-silico reference map that narrows thousands of candidates to the few worth testing before ever touching a cell.PNAS 2018
Protter renders any protein's sequence and membrane topology as an interactive map, layering annotated features and experimental proteomic evidence directly onto the drawing, so a surfaceome dataset becomes a publication-quality illustration you can read at a glance. Users can overlay their own data, glycosylation sites, transmembrane domains, peptides identified by mass spectrometry, and export figures ready for publication. Freely available online, it has become one of the field's most widely used tools for visualizing cell surface receptor proteoforms.Bioinformatics 2014
High-throughput, data-independent mass spectrometry turns millions of spectra into quantitative proteotype maps, the digital proteome of a cell. This data layer lets us compare surfaces across cells, patients and disease states, and validate candidate targets at scale. The same hybrid-PRM/DIA approach reads out phosphorylation-modulated signalling networks, quantifying targeted phospho-sites and discovery-wide changes in one run, so the cell's active signalling state can be captured alongside its proteome.Clin. Proteomics 2024
Open science
Discovery depends on sharing. We publish our surfaceome resources openly, atlases, predictors and visualisers used by thousands of researchers worldwide.
Each tool takes years of measurement and turns it into something anyone can query in seconds: a searchable map of the cell surface, a prediction for any human protein, an interactive view of the evidence.
Experimentally verified, cell-surface-accessible proteins and therapeutic targets across dozens of human and mouse cell types, the community's reference surfaceome. Built from Cell Surface Capture data, it lets anyone look up which receptors a given cell actually displays, compare surfaces between cell types, and spot the markers that set a diseased cell apart. What once took a dedicated proteomics campaign is now a few clicks, a trusted starting point for target discovery in labs around the world.
Open CSPA → PredictorA machine-learning predictor and browser for the 2,886-protein human in-silico surfaceome, ask whether any human protein is likely to reach the surface, and why. Every call comes with the features and confidence behind it, so you can weigh a candidate at a glance instead of trusting a black box. It turns "is this protein a possible surface target?" from days of literature digging into an instant, evidence-backed answer, before you commit a single experiment.
Open SURFY → VisualisationAn open-source tool for drawing proteoforms and layering annotated and experimental evidence directly onto a protein's sequence and membrane topology. Drop in your own peptides, glycosylation sites or modifications and Protter renders a clear, publication-ready topology diagram in seconds. It has become a lab staple for communicating membrane-protein biology, one figure that shows, at a glance, exactly where the evidence sits on the protein.
Open Protter →From map to medicine
By reading the cancer surface at scale, and the communities proteins form there, we surface the novel, cancer-selective targets and co-target pairs that next-generation medicines have been waiting for.
Decode the surfaceome of a diseased cell at molecular resolution, every accessible protein, and the neighbourhoods they cluster into. Cell Surface Capture, LUX-MS and proteotyping turn the living surface into data.
Read which proteins sit side by side to reveal novel, cancer-selective targets, and co-target pairs whose combination marks a diseased cell far more precisely than any single protein others have mined.
Convert validated targets and target pairs into precision biologics, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecifics and T-cell engagers, designed to hit the diseased cell and spare the healthy one.
Advance first-in-class, surfaceome-directed therapies toward the patients with the greatest need, the discovery-to-clinic path now proven by the lab's spin-off, DISCO Pharmaceuticals.
Spin-off · Schlieren · Cologne · Boston
Built on the discovery platform pioneered in this lab, DISCO combines cell-surface proteomics with advanced protein-community mapping to reveal previously inaccessible targets and target pairs, and to build first-in-class, surfaceome-directed medicines: bispecific antibody-drug conjugates and T-cell engagers. Because DISCO reads the surfaceome as a connected system rather than one protein at a time, it can pinpoint target pairs that flag a diseased cell while sparing healthy tissue, exactly the selectivity next-generation therapies depend on. That map-first approach is what turns a molecular atlas into a pipeline: every target is discovered, validated and prioritised on the same platform. With its technology now proven through major pharma partnerships and a growing wave of surfaceome-directed candidates, DISCO is staking out the cell surface as one of the richest, and least-exploited, frontiers in modern drug discovery.
Second spin-off · Schlieren
Dualsystems Biotech puts the lab's ligand-receptor capture technology, LRC-TriCEPS and HATRIC-LRC, licensed from ETH Zürich, directly into the hands of scientists in academia and industry worldwide. Through ready-to-use kits and contract services, any team can pinpoint the receptors and off-targets of a ligand, drug, antibody or virus on living cells, in their native state and without genetic modification, answering the deceptively simple question that so often stalls drug discovery: what does my molecule actually bind? From de-orphanising a receptor to flagging a therapeutic's off-target liabilities long before it reaches the clinic, it turns what was once a bespoke, months-long experiment into a routine, reproducible readout. It is how a discovery made at the bench becomes an everyday tool for the global research community. Watch the TriCEPS movie to see how it works.
Visit Dualsystems →The next frontier
Featured project · in collaboration with Roche
The next frontier is intercellular communication, how one cell's surface engages another's. Nowhere is this more consequential than the immunological synapse, the contact zone where a T cell decides whether to kill.
PhD researcher Arend Keller, together with the Roche Innovation Center, is using light-based proximity labeling (SILAC LUX-MS) to map the “artificial” synapse that a T-cell-bispecific antibody, glofitamab (CD20×CD3), builds between a patient's T cell and a lymphoma (DLBCL) cell. Reading that interface at molecular resolution turns a black box into a blueprint for better therapies.
Adapted from Bi‑Chang Chen et al., “Lattice light‑sheet microscopy: imaging molecules to embryos at high spatiotemporal resolution,” Science 346, 1257998 (2014).
The ecosystem
From the institute we help build, to Switzerland's personalised-health infrastructure, to the global proteomics community and the co-authors we publish with, our science runs on the people around us.
Swiss personalised health
Our science reaches patients through Switzerland's personalised-health network, where the lab helps build the infrastructure that turns molecular data into clinical decisions.
At SMOC, we combine genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics to profile the body as one interacting molecular network, building a high-resolution, multi-dimensional map of health and disease.
Multi-omics isn't about amassing data, it's about extracting insight. By linking these measurements to clinical information, SMOC bridges laboratory discovery and clinical practice, providing the expertise and resources to advance a new era of personalised medicine.
smoc.ethz.ch → ETH Domain Strategic Focus AreaPersonalised Health & Related Technologies, an ETH-domain focus area. Bernd Wollscheid chairs its Executive Committee. PHRT aligns the ETH Domain's research institutions behind a shared mission, building the technologies, data standards and talent together with our Swiss clinical partners, carrying personalised health from proof-of-concept into routine clinical practice for the benefit of patients. Its flagship technology and data projects give researchers across the ETH Domain a shared platform to move discoveries toward the clinic.
sfa-phrt.ch → SERI Swiss National Health InitiativeThe Swiss Personalised Health Network, a federal effort building the nationwide, interoperable health-data infrastructure. It sets the semantic and governance standards that let hospitals, universities and research groups share patient data securely, the connective tissue that turns isolated datasets into a national resource for discovery. Backed by the federal government and coordinated with Swiss university hospitals, it is the backbone that lets nationwide studies draw securely on real-world clinical data.
sphn.ch → Private public partnershipA flagship multi-omic, functional tumor-profiling study for clinical decision support, with surfaceome analysis from the lab. It unites academic hospitals, ETH and industry partners around individual cancer patients, showing how deep molecular characterisation can guide real treatment choices when standard options run out.
tumorprofilercenter.ch → National Data streamNational paediatric data streams, including rapid personalised diagnosis of sepsis in children, bringing multi-omics to the youngest patients. By linking clinical, genomic and proteomic data across Swiss children's hospitals, they aim to shorten the path from symptom to diagnosis and give paediatricians answers in hours, not days.
Explore via SMOC → Our Research strategyMeasure, integrate, analyse, validate, the workflow that connects every program here, from raw spectra to biological insight. It is the through-line that ties our technologies to the network: each measurement feeds the next, and every hypothesis is tested against real biology before it moves toward the clinic.
See the science →Project highlight: Horten CONPRO · 3M CHF
Funded by the Horten Foundation, the Swiss Multi-Omics Center and the University Children's Hospital Zurich are combining genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data to speed up and sharpen the diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism, rare disorders that are most dangerous in newborns and early childhood.
Rapid and Accurate INborn Disease Recognition via multi-Omics Profiling. A three-year project drawing on a 30-year biobank, led by a team including Matthias Baumgartner, Sean Froese, Patrick Pedrioli, Nicola Zamboni and Sandra Goetze.
The IMTM at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST).
The Wollscheid lab is a core member of the new IMTM. The IMTM brings molecular discovery and clinical medicine under one roof, developing next-generation measurement technologies and translating them into diagnostics and therapies that reach patients. Bernd Wollscheid serves as the elected head of the Institute.
The institute develops and applies proteomic, multi-omic and chemical-biology technologies to reveal how molecules, and the way they are organised, shape health and disease.
It moves those discoveries from bench to bedside, converting molecular findings into biomarkers, diagnostics and therapeutic strategies for precision, personalised care.
And it trains scientists and physician-researchers at the interface of biology, chemistry, engineering, data science and medicine, the people who will carry translational medicine forward.
Community leadership
Bernd Wollscheid helps steward the global proteomics community, serving on the Human Proteome Organization's Executive Committee and helping organise its flagship World Congresses.
Visit HUPO →
It takes a village
Nobody succeeds alone. Great surfaceome science is a team sport, and this is the village we play with: colleagues, co-authors and grant partners across labs, clinics, companies and continents. Our lateral interactions across the community enable us to tackle questions no single lab could answer on its own: to read the cell surface at the nanoscale, to test what it means in the clinic, and to turn that knowledge into next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics.
Hover a node to see who is there.
Wollscheid LabETH Zürich · homeThe hub every collaboration returns to.
ETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland · 23 co-authorsRuedi Aebersold, Matthias Gstaiger, Berend Snijder, Yannik Severin, Sohyon Lee, Klara Kropivsek, Jeffrey W. Bode, Raphael Hoffmann, Erick M. Carreira, Roman Sarott, Annette Oxenius, Nicolas Barandun, Fabienne Gräbnitz, Martin Loessner, Yang Shen, Samuel Kilcher, Tobias Schwarz, Alexander Leitner, Niko Beerenwinkel, Christian Beisel, Kjong-Van Lehmann, Nicola Zamboni, Gunnar Rätsch
University of ZurichZürich, Switzerland · 11 co-authorsJohn A. Robinson, Stefan Vetterli, Katja Zerbe, Milon Mondal, Bernd Bodenmiller, Lucas Pelkmans, Csaba Földy, Shiva Tyagarajan, Urs Meyer, Michael Berney, Markus Seeger
University Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland · 11 co-authorsMichael Weller, Markus G. Manz, Peter J. Wild, Mitchell P. Levesque, Holger Moch, Reinhard Dummer, Viktor H. Koelzer, Alexandre P. A. Theocharides, Andreas Wicki, Arnold von Eckardstein, Lucia Rohrer
University Children's Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland · 3 co-authorsJean-Pierre Bourquin, Matthias Baumgartner, D. Sean Froese
University of Basel · BiozentrumBasel, Switzerland · 4 co-authorsThomas Bock, Alexander Schmidt, Marc van Oostrum, Carolyn King
University Hospital BaselBasel, Switzerland · 2 co-authorsViola Heinzelmann-Schwarz, Markus Tolnay
University of LausanneLausanne, Switzerland · 1 co-authorRosa Chiara Paolicelli
EPFLLausanne, Switzerland · 1 co-authorMaria Pavlou
Biognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland · 7 co-authorsSebastian Müller, Maik Müller, Lukas Reiter, Oliver M. Bernhardt, Jan Muntel, Karel Novy, Martin Mehnert
Roche · Innovation Center BaselBasel, Switzerland · 3 co-authorsManuel Tzouros, Tom Dunkley, Marina Bacac
ProteomedixSchlieren, Switzerland · 1 co-authorRalph Schiess
Agroscope · SIBWädenswil, Switzerland · 1 co-authorChristian H. Ahrens
DISCO PharmaceuticalsZürich, Switzerland · 1 co-authorEmanuela S. Milani
Pitsch Nucleic AcidsLausanne, Switzerland · 1 co-authorStefan Pitsch
CeMMVienna, Austria · 2 co-authorsUlrich Omasits, Ulrich Goldmann
University of Freiburg · BIOSSFreiburg, Germany · 2 co-authorsMichael Reth, Kathrin Kläsener
University of GreifswaldGreifswald, Germany · 1 co-authorUwe Völker
MPI for Brain ResearchFrankfurt, Germany · 1 co-authorSusanne tom Dieck
Berlin Institute of HealthBerlin, Germany · 1 co-authorDieter Beule
University of GothenburgGothenburg, Sweden · 1 co-authorAnna Härtlová
CRG · Pompeu FabraBarcelona, Spain · 2 co-authorsEduard Sabidó, Cristina Chiva
EMBL-EBIHinxton, United Kingdom · 1 co-authorYasset Perez-Riverol
University of BirminghamBirmingham, United Kingdom · 1 co-authorJason Mercer
UC San DiegoSan Diego, USA · 2 co-authorsNuno Bandeira, Jeremy Carver
Northeastern UniversityBoston, USA · 2 co-authorsOlga Vitek, Meena Choi
University of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA · 5 co-authorsAlexey I. Nesvizhskii, Guo Ci Teo, Andy Kong, Felipe da Veiga Leprevost, Dmitriy Avtonomov
Stanford UniversityStanford, USA · 1 co-authorRuth Hüttenhain
Gladstone Institutes · UCSFSan Francisco, USA · 1 co-authorErik Verschueren
UC IrvineIrvine, USA · 1 co-authorLan Huang
Univ. of Nebraska Medical CenterOmaha, USA · 1 co-authorRebekah L. Gundry
Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterLos Angeles, USA · 1 co-authorJennifer Van Eyk
Johns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, USA · 2 co-authorsHui Zhang, Kenneth R. Boheler
Institute for Systems BiologySeattle, USA · 2 co-authorsRobert L. Moritz, Julian D. Watts
University of TorontoToronto, Canada · 1 co-authorPeter Zandstra
University of GuelphGuelph, Canada · 1 co-authorJennifer Geddes-McAlister
University of AdelaideAdelaide, Australia · 1 co-authorPeter Hoffmann
University of SydneySydney, Australia · 1 co-authorStuart Cordwell
Westlake UniversityHangzhou, China · 1 co-authorTiannan Guo
Beijing Proteome Research CenterBeijing, China · 1 co-authorFuchu He
Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China · 1 co-authorWenguang Shao
Osaka UniversityOsaka, Japan · 1 co-authorYohei Yamauchi
Sandra GoetzeWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Patrick G. A. PedrioliWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Audrey van DrogenWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Thijs WildschutWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Jonas AlbinusWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Martin GesellWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Sebastian SteinerWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Arend KellerWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Jens SettelmeierWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Heidi FunkeWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Jacqueline HammerWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Julia BoshartWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Johanna Wahn ZavaletaWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Silvana AlbertWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Simon WidmerWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Aaron FehrWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Selina FreiWollscheid LabZürich, Switzerland
Ruedi Aebersold · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Matthias Gstaiger · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Berend Snijder · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Yannik SeverinETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Sohyon LeeETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Klara KropivsekETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Jeffrey W. Bode · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Raphael HoffmannETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Erick M. Carreira · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Roman SarottETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Annette Oxenius · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Fabienne GräbnitzETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Martin Loessner · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Yang ShenETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Samuel KilcherETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Tobias SchwarzETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Alexander Leitner · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Niko Beerenwinkel · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Christian Beisel · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Kjong-Van Lehmann · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Nicola Zamboni · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Gunnar Rätsch · PIETH ZürichZürich, Switzerland
John A. Robinson · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Stefan VetterliUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Katja ZerbeUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Milon MondalUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Bernd Bodenmiller · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Lucas Pelkmans · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Csaba Földy · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Shiva Tyagarajan · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Urs Meyer · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Michael Berney · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Markus Seeger · PIUniversity of ZurichZürich, Switzerland
Michael Weller · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Markus G. Manz · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Peter J. Wild · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Mitchell P. Levesque · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Holger Moch · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Reinhard Dummer · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Viktor H. Koelzer · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Alexandre P. A. Theocharides · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Andreas Wicki · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Arnold von Eckardstein · PIUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Lucia RohrerUniversity Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Jean-Pierre Bourquin · PIUniversity Children's Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Matthias Baumgartner · PIUniversity Children's Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
D. Sean Froese · PIUniversity Children's Hospital ZürichZürich, Switzerland
Thomas Bock · PIUniversity of Basel · BiozentrumBasel, Switzerland
Alexander Schmidt · PIUniversity of Basel · BiozentrumBasel, Switzerland
Marc van Oostrum · PIUniversity of Basel · BiozentrumBasel, Switzerland
Carolyn King · PIUniversity of Basel · BiozentrumBasel, Switzerland
Viola Heinzelmann-Schwarz · PIUniversity Hospital BaselBasel, Switzerland
Markus Tolnay · PIUniversity Hospital BaselBasel, Switzerland
Rosa Chiara Paolicelli · PIUniversity of LausanneLausanne, Switzerland
Maria Pavlou · PIEPFLLausanne, Switzerland
Sebastian MüllerBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Maik MüllerBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Lukas Reiter · PIBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Oliver M. BernhardtBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Jan MuntelBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Karel NovyBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Martin MehnertBiognosys AGSchlieren, Switzerland
Manuel TzourosRoche · Innovation Center BaselBasel, Switzerland
Tom DunkleyRoche · Innovation Center BaselBasel, Switzerland
Marina BacacRoche · Innovation Center BaselBasel, Switzerland
Ralph Schiess · PIProteomedixSchlieren, Switzerland
Christian H. Ahrens · PIAgroscope · SIBWädenswil, Switzerland
Emanuela S. Milani · PIDISCO PharmaceuticalsZürich, Switzerland
Stefan Pitsch · PIPitsch Nucleic AcidsLausanne, Switzerland
Ulrich Omasits · PICeMMVienna, Austria
Ulrich GoldmannCeMMVienna, Austria
Michael Reth · PIUniversity of Freiburg · BIOSSFreiburg, Germany
Kathrin KläsenerUniversity of Freiburg · BIOSSFreiburg, Germany
Uwe Völker · PIUniversity of GreifswaldGreifswald, Germany
Susanne tom Dieck · PIMPI for Brain ResearchFrankfurt, Germany
Dieter Beule · PIBerlin Institute of HealthBerlin, Germany
Anna Härtlová · PIUniversity of GothenburgGothenburg, Sweden
Eduard Sabidó · PICRG · Pompeu FabraBarcelona, Spain
Cristina ChivaCRG · Pompeu FabraBarcelona, Spain
Yasset Perez-Riverol · PIEMBL-EBIHinxton, United Kingdom
Jason Mercer · PIUniversity of BirminghamBirmingham, United Kingdom
Nuno Bandeira · PIUC San DiegoSan Diego, USA
Jeremy CarverUC San DiegoSan Diego, USA
Olga Vitek · PINortheastern UniversityBoston, USA
Meena ChoiNortheastern UniversityBoston, USA
Alexey I. Nesvizhskii · PIUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA
Guo Ci TeoUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA
Andy KongUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA
Felipe da Veiga LeprevostUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA
Dmitriy AvtonomovUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, USA
Ruth Hüttenhain · PIStanford UniversityStanford, USA
Erik VerschuerenGladstone Institutes · UCSFSan Francisco, USA
Lan Huang · PIUC IrvineIrvine, USA
Rebekah L. Gundry · PIUniv. of Nebraska Medical CenterOmaha, USA
Jennifer Van Eyk · PICedars-Sinai Medical CenterLos Angeles, USA
Hui Zhang · PIJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, USA
Kenneth R. Boheler · PIJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, USA
Robert L. Moritz · PIInstitute for Systems BiologySeattle, USA
Julian D. WattsInstitute for Systems BiologySeattle, USA
Peter Zandstra · PIUniversity of TorontoToronto, Canada
Jennifer Geddes-McAlister · PIUniversity of GuelphGuelph, Canada
Peter Hoffmann · PIUniversity of AdelaideAdelaide, Australia
Stuart Cordwell · PIUniversity of SydneySydney, Australia
Tiannan Guo · PIWestlake UniversityHangzhou, China
Fuchu He · PIBeijing Proteome Research CenterBeijing, China
Wenguang ShaoShanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China
Yohei Yamauchi · PIOsaka UniversityOsaka, Japan
Cities — where in the world the village lives.
Institutions — the organizations behind the work.
Main PIs & lab heads — the group leaders driving each collaboration.
The people
Life after the lab
A PhD or postdoc here opens doors far beyond a single field. Our alumni have gone on to lead research groups, found and join biotech and pharma companies, and move into data science, the clinic, consulting and entrepreneurship, proof that learning to read the cell surface is a launchpad, not a lane.
Open positions
We're a publicly funded lab always looking for curious scientists, chemists, biologists, engineers and computational minds, to push surfaceome technology into new territory.
PhD projects
The Wollscheid lab is a member of the Life Science Zurich Graduate School and takes on doctoral candidates through its PhD programmes in Molecular Life Sciences (MLS), Neurosciences (ZNZ), Molecular and Translational Biomedicine (MTB) and Systems Biology. We are always looking for exceptional candidates: chemists, biologists, engineers and computational minds who are curious enough to cross disciplines and stubborn enough to make a new technology work. Apply through one of the programmes, or write to us first and we'll shape a project around the question you want to answer.
Master projects
Our lab continuously offers a variety of computational and wet-lab projects for highly motivated Master's students. If you're interested in conducting your semester or Master's project in our lab, just write us an email or visit the lab.
Teaching & mentoring
Education is inseparable from research in the Wollscheid lab. Every member, from the principal investigator to first-year doctoral students, teaches, mentors and trains the next generation of scientists working at the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine.
We believe the best way to understand a technology is to teach it. Our people lecture, run hands-on courses, supervise Bachelor’s and Master’s theses, host lab rotations and mentor researchers within ETH Zurich’s Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D‑HEST).
Bernd Wollscheid is a lecturer at D‑HEST and tutor for the Molecular Health Sciences major within the MSc in Health Sciences and Technology, guiding students through surfaceome science and translational medicine.
The lab contributes to ETH’s graduate proteomics teaching, including the Advanced Proteomics block course, where students learn hands-on how modern proteomic datasets are acquired, processed and interpreted.
A hands-on course at the core of the lab’s science: students learn to measure and interpret the extracellular interactome, the surface proteins and interaction networks through which cells sense and signal to one another. Restricted registration keeps the group small and project-driven.
Reading biology at the systems level, building quantitative models of molecular networks and integrating multi-omics measurements to understand how cellular behaviour emerges from many interacting parts.
The molecular foundations of life, proteins, enzymes and metabolic pathways, giving students the biochemical grounding they need before moving into proteomics, chemical biology and translational research.
Doctoral and postdoctoral researchers supervise Bachelor’s and Master’s theses, semester projects and lab rotations, turning everyday research into training in experimental design, data analysis and scientific communication.
Members share their science through seminars, international summer schools and community initiatives such as HUPO, carrying surfaceome science to a global audience of students and researchers.
For the authoritative, always-current list of courses taught by lab members each semester, see the official ETH Zurich sources:
Publications
Browse the full, always-current record on Google Scholar, PubMed and ORCID, or see a selection of high-impact papers below.
No papers in this theme yet.
Steiner SN, Yu C, Keller A, Baumann M, Zwicky A, Bode JW, Huang L, Leitner A, Wollscheid B, preprint / under review.
Preprint / under review · 2025
Uses an antibody to steer a photocatalyst to a chosen protein, cross-linking its immediate neighbours on demand. Aims to read protein structure and contacts on native, unpurified proteins.
Settelmeier J, Goetze S, Boshart J, … Wollscheid B.
Journal of Proteome Research · 2025
An interpretable gradient-boosting workflow that sifts noisy multi-omics data for robust biomarker candidates. Helps clinical studies prioritise signals that actually replicate.
Tumor Profiler Consortium (incl. the Wollscheid Laboratory), advanced-melanoma cohort · preprint.
Research Square (preprint) · 2025
A Tumor Profiler melanoma-cohort study assembling a single-cell, multi-omic atlas of advanced melanoma. Links tumour cell states to actionable drug vulnerabilities to guide phenotype-directed treatment.
Miglino N, Toussaint NC, … Milani ES, Goetze S, … Wollscheid B, Tumor Profiler.
Nature Medicine · 2025
Tests whether deep multi-omics tumour profiling can be delivered fast enough to inform real melanoma treatment decisions. Assesses the clinical feasibility of the Tumor Profiler workflow.
Laman Trip DS, van Oostrum M, Memon D, Frommelt F, … Aebersold R, Gstaiger M, Wollscheid B, Beltrao P.
Nature Biotechnology · 2025
Builds a tissue-wide atlas of protein–protein associations across human tissues. Uses the resulting network to prioritise candidate disease genes.
Goetze S, van Drogen A, Albinus JB, … Wollscheid B, clinical proteotyping at the Swiss Multi-Omics Center.
Clinical Proteomics · 2024
A single mass-spec run that measures known clinical markers (targeted) while still discovering new ones (untargeted). Makes routine, scalable clinical proteotyping practical.
Wegmann R, Bonilla X, … Goetze S, Jacobs A, … Wollscheid B, Snijder B.
Nature Communications · 2024
Maps, at single-cell resolution, how acute myeloid leukemia cells resist therapy from the outset and after treatment. Nominates the cell states behind innate and acquired drug resistance.
Lee S, Weiss T, … Goetze S, van Drogen A, Pedrioli PGA, … Wollscheid B, Weller M, Snijder B.
Nature Medicine · 2024
Screens neuroactive drugs at scale for activity against glioblastoma. Identifies repurposable candidates that could be redirected to this hard-to-treat brain cancer.
Frommelt F, Fossati A, Uliana F, Wendt F, … Wollscheid B, Aebersold R, Ciuffa R, Gstaiger M.
Nature Methods · 2024
Introduces DIP-MS, an ultra-deep interaction-proteomics method to resolve how proteins assemble into complexes. Deconvolutes overlapping complexes that standard approaches miss.
Wildschut MHE, Mena J, van Oostrum M, … Settelmeier J, Pedrioli PGA, Goetze S, van Drogen A, … Wollscheid B, Snijder B.
Nature Communications · 2023
Combines proteomic and genetic drug-response profiling of myelofibrosis samples. Uncovers targetable dependencies to inform therapy for this blood cancer.
Kropivsek K, Kachel P, Goetze S, … van Drogen A, … Wollscheid B, Manz MG, Snijder B.
Nature Cancer · 2023
Measures how individual multiple-myeloma samples respond to drugs ex vivo. Turns that heterogeneity into personalised treatment options for each patient.
Forny P, Bonilla X, … Shao W, Goetze S, van Drogen A, Pedrioli PGA, … Wollscheid B, Baumgartner MR, Froese DS.
Nature Metabolism · 2023
Applies integrated multi-omics to methylmalonyl-CoA mutase deficiency, a rare metabolic disease. Reveals anaplerotic rewiring of metabolism as a disease mechanism.
Koetemann A, Wollscheid B.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2022
Shows the cell surface differs between the top and bottom faces of polarised epithelial cells, and that this architecture depends on the tumour suppressor PTEN. Links surface organisation to polarity and cancer.
Goetze S, Schüffler P, Athanasiou A, Koetemann A, … Wild PJ, Schiess R, Wollscheid B.
Clinical Proteomics · 2022
Applies targeted proteomics to stratify prostate-cancer patients by risk from a defined protein panel. Supports deciding which tumours truly need aggressive treatment.
Irmisch A, Bonilla X, … Wollscheid B, Rätsch G, Levesque MP.
Cancer Cell · 2021
A prospective study pairing deep multi-omic and functional single-cell profiling with real-time tumour boards for advanced cancers. Demonstrates that such profiling can feasibly guide treatment decisions.
Müller M, Gräbnitz F, Barandun N, … Oxenius A, Wollscheid B, the LUX-MS platform.
Nature Communications · 2021
Introduces LUX-MS, a light-controlled proximity-labelling method that maps how surface proteins are organised and which cells physically talk to each other. A new lens on intercellular receptor networks.
Goetze S, Frey K, Rohrer L, … von Eckardstein A, Wollscheid B.
Journal of Proteome Research · 2021
Establishes a reproducible pipeline to quantify the protein cargo carried by HDL particles. Standardises HDL proteomics for cardiovascular biomarker work.
van Oostrum M, Campbell B, Seng C, Müller M, tom Dieck S, Hammer J, Pedrioli PGA, Földy C, Tyagarajan SK, Wollscheid B.
Nature Communications · 2020
Finds that neuronal surface proteins are actively remodelled during development and synaptic plasticity, independent of bulk protein turnover. Frames the surface as a dynamically regulated compartment.
van Oostrum M, Müller M, Klein M, … Rolink A, Wollscheid B, autoCSC.
Nature Communications · 2019
Uses automated Cell Surface Capture to build surfaceome maps that distinguish B-cell developmental stages. Shows surface signatures alone can define immune-cell identity.
Novy K, Kilcher S, Omasits U, … Mercer J, Wollscheid B.
Nature Microbiology · 2018
Proteotype profiling exposes a signalling network that poxviruses need for assembly and gene expression. Points to host-viral dependencies as antiviral targets.
Sobotzki N, Schafroth MA, Rudnicka A, … Carreira EM, Wollscheid B.
Nature Communications · 2018
Introduces HATRIC, a water-soluble ligand-receptor capture chemistry that identifies the receptors of orphan ligands on living cells. De-orphanises interactions central to drug and target discovery.
Bausch-Fluck D, Goldmann U, Müller S, van Oostrum M, Müller M, Schubert OT, Wollscheid B, SURFY.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2018
Uses machine learning to predict the human surfaceome, defining ~2,886 high-confidence surface proteins (SURFY). Provides a foundational reference map of the druggable cell surface.
Bausch-Fluck D, Milani ES, Wollscheid B, review / perspective.
Current Opinion in Chemical Biology · 2018
A perspective on how surface proteins assemble into nanoscale communities and interaction networks. Sets the conceptual and technical agenda for surfaceome spatial biology.
Frei AP, Jeon O-Y, … Wollscheid B, the TriCEPS / ligand-receptor capture method.
Nature Biotechnology · 2012
Introduces TriCEPS-based ligand-receptor capture to pull out the receptors of ligands, drugs and viruses directly on live cells and tissues. The enabling method later commercialised by Dualsystems.
Wollscheid B, Bausch-Fluck D, … Watts JD, the founding Cell Surface Capture method.
Nature Biotechnology · 2009
The founding Cell Surface Capture method: chemically tag N-glycosylated surface proteins and identify them by mass spectrometry. Opened systematic, unbiased mapping of the surfaceome.
A selection, newest first. For the complete, continuously updated record, including all 2024–2025 papers, see Google Scholar.
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Institute of Molecular & Translational Medicine · Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich.