Tobias Ruff was born in Germany.
Tobias joined the IT’IS Foundation in October 2024. He studied chemistry and biochemistry at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, where he investigated the role of Fibronectin Leucine-Rich Transmembrane (FLRT) receptors in cortical development and retinal circuit formation.
After his PhD, Tobias joined the laboratory of János Vörös at ETH Zurich as a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP)-funded postdoctoral researcher. There, he led interdisciplinary work at the interface of neuroscience, bioelectronics, and neuroengineering to develop a biohybrid neural interface with living neurons for targeted, high-resolution stimulation of the visual system, with the aim of restoring vision. His work integrated stem cell-derived neural systems, high-density microelectrode arrays, microfluidics, and the fabrication of stretchable electrode arrays.
At the IT’IS Foundation, Tobias’s current focus is on fundamental research related to temporal interference (TI) stimulation. He serves as a bridge between engineering and biology in external and internal collaborations, leading the integration of in vitro neural models and experimental design.
| Amos, G., Vasiliauskaitė, V., Duru, J., Azevedo Saramago, M.L., Schmid, T., Suter, A., Torren, F.C., Küchler, J., Ruff, T., Vörös, J. & Vulić, K. An integrated in vitro platform and biophysical modeling approach for studying synaptic transmission in isolated neuronal pairs. iScience, 29(5):115488, 2026, doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.115488 |
| Maurer, B., Fassbind, S., Ruff, T., Duru, J., Spacone, G., Rodde, T., Vörös, J. & Ihle, S.J. Inkube: An all-in-one solution for neuron culturing, electrophysiology, and fluidic exchange. Lab on a Chip, 26(6):2074-2089, 2026, doi:10.1039/D5LC00971E |
| Chun, S.H., Yoon, D.E., Diaz Almeida, D.S., Todorov, M.I., Straub, T., Ruff, T., Shao, W., Yang, J., Seyit-Bremer, G., Shen, Y.R., Ertürk, A., Del Toro, D., Shi, S. & Klein, R. Cortex folding by combined progenitor expansion and adhesion-controlled neuronal migration. Nature Communications, 16(1):8048, 2025, doi:10.1038/s41467-025-62858-9 |
| Clément, B.F., Petrella, L., Wallimann, L., Duru, J., Tringides, C.M., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An in vitro platform for characterizing axonal electrophysiology of individual human iPSC-derived nociceptors. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 281:117418, 2025, doi:10.1016/j.bios.2025.117418 |
| Sifringer, L., Fratzl, A., Clément, B.F., Chansoria, P., Mönkemöller, L.S., Duru, J., Ihle, S.J., Steffens, S., Beltraminelli, A., Ceylan, E., Hengsteler, J., Maurer, B., Weaver, S.M., Tringides, C.M., Vulić, K., Madduri, S., Zenobi‐Wong, M., Roska, B., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An implantable biohybrid neural interface toward synaptic deep brain stimulation. Advanced Functional Materials, 35(12):2416557, 2025, doi:10.1002/adfm.202416557 |
| Sifringer, L., Fratzl, A., Clément, B.F., Chansoria, P., Mönkemöller, L.S., Duru, J., Ihle, S.J., Steffens, S., Beltraminelli, A., Ceylan, E., Hengsteler, J., Maurer, B., Weaver, S.M., Tringides, C.M., Vulić, K., Madduri, S., Zenobi‐Wong, M., Roska, B., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An implantable biohybrid neural interface toward synaptic deep brain stimulation. Advanced Functional Materials, 35(12):2416557, 2025, doi:10.1002/adfm.202416557 |
| Amos, G., Ihle, S.J., Clément, B.F., Duru, J., Girardin, S., Maurer, B., Delipinar, T., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. Engineering an in vitro retinothalamic nerve model. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 18:1396966, 2024, doi:10.3389/fnins.2024.1396966 |
| Duru, J., Maurer, B., Ruff, T., Vulić, K., Hengsteler, J., Girardin, S., Vörös, J. & Ihle, S.J. A modular and flexible open source cell incubator system for mobile and stationary use. HardwareX, 20:e00571, 2024, doi:10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e00571 |
| Vulić, K., Amos, G., Ruff, T., Kasm, R., Ihle, S.J., Küchler, J., Vörös, J. & Weaver, S. Impact of microchannel width on axons for brain-on-chip applications. Lab on a Chip, 24(22):5155-5166, 2024, doi:10.1039/D4LC00440J |
| Duru, J., Maurer, B., Giles Doran, C., Jelitto, R., Küchler, J., Ihle, S.J., Ruff, T., John, R., Genocchi, B. & Vörös, J. Investigation of the input-output relationship of engineered neural networks using high-density microelectrode arrays. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 239:115591, 2023, doi:10.1016/j.bios.2023.115591 |
| Girardin, S., Ihle, S.J., Menghini, A., Krubner, M., Tognola, L., Duru, J., Fruh, I., Müller, M., Ruff, T. & Vörös, J. Engineering circuits of human iPSC-derived neurons and rat primary glia. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17:1103437, 2023, doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1103437 |
| Duru, J., Küchler, J., Ihle, S.J., Forró, C., Bernardi, A., Girardin, S., Hengsteler, J., Wheeler, S., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. Engineered biological neural networks on high density CMOS microelectrode arrays. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16:829884, 2022, doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.829884 |
| Girardin, S., Clément, B., Ihle, S.J., Weaver, S., Petr, J.B., Mateus, J.C., Duru, J., Krubner, M., Forró, C., Ruff, T., Fruh, I., Müller, M. & Vörös, J. Topologically controlled circuits of human iPSC-derived neurons for electrophysiology recordings. Lab on a Chip, 22(7):1386-1403, 2022, doi:10.1039/D1LC01110C |
| Ihle, S.J., Girardin, S., Felder, T., Ruff, T., Hengsteler, J., Duru, J., Weaver, S., Forró, C. & Vörös, J. An experimental paradigm to investigate stimulation dependent activity in topologically constrained neuronal networks. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 201:113896, 2022, doi:10.1016/j.bios.2021.113896 |
| Llerena Zambrano, B., Renz, A.F., Ruff, T., Lienemann, S., Tybrandt, K., Vörös, J. & Lee, J. Soft electronics based on stretchable and conductive nanocomposites for biomedical applications. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 10(3):2001397, 2021, doi:10.1002/adhm.202001397 |
| Ruff, T., Peters, C., Matsumoto, A., Ihle, S.J., Morales, P.A., Gaitanos, L., Yonehara, K., Del Toro, D. & Klein, R. FLRT3 marks direction-selective retinal ganglion cells that project to the medial terminal nucleus. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 14:790466, 2021, doi:10.3389/fnmol.2021.790466 |
| Del Toro, D., Carrasquero-Ordaz, M.A., Chu, A., Ruff, T., Shahin, M., Jackson, V.A., Chavent, M., Berbeira-Santana, M., Seyit-Bremer, G., Brignani, S., Kaufmann, R., Lowe, E., Klein, R. & Seiradake, E. Structural basis of teneurin-latrophilin interaction in repulsive guidance of migrating neurons. Cell, 180(2):323-339.e19, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.014 |
| Del Toro, D., Ruff, T., Cederfjäll, E., Villalba, A., Seyit-Bremer, G., Borrell, V. & Klein, R. Regulation of cerebral cortex folding by controlling neuronal migration via FLRT adhesion molecules. Cell, 169(4):621-635.e16, 2017, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.04.012 |
| Seiradake, E., Del Toro, D., Nagel, D., Cop, F., Härtl, R., Ruff, T., Seyit-Bremer, G., Harlos, K., Border, E., Acker-Palmer, A., Jones, E. & Klein, R. FLRT structure: Balancing repulsion and cell adhesion in cortical and vascular development. Neuron, 84(2):370-385, 2014, doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.10.008 |
| Clément, B.F., Osselaer, T., Zhang, C., Paccagnan, G., Ruff, T. & Vörös, J. A three-compartment microfluidic platform for investigating signal transmission in the human sensory pathway. bioRxiv, 2026, doi:10.64898/2026.01.06.698004 |
| Maurer, B., Vasiliauskaitė, V., Hengsteler, J., Cathomen, G., Ruff, T., Schmid, C., Vörös, J. & Ihle, S.J. Reinforcement learning for closed-loop optimisation of spatiotemporal stimulation in patterned neuronal networks. bioRxiv, 2026, doi:10.64898/2026.04.14.718383 |
| Clément, B.F., Pfister, C., Kurer, T., Labouesse, C., Deshmukh, D.V., Hengsteler, J., Lehmann, J., Paganella, L.G., Ruff, T., Dranseika, V., Weaver, S., Sommer, L., Tibbitt, M.W., Vörös, J. & Tringides, C.M. HydroMEA: A 3D Hydrogel based microfluidic device to study electrophysiology for myelinated nerve-on-chip. bioRxiv, 2025, doi:10.1101/2025.07.24.666400 |
| Connolly, S., Vulić, K., Zare-Eelanjegh, E., Simonett, M., Duru, J., Ruff, T., Clément, B.F. & Vörös, J. Constructing well-defined neural networks of multiple cell types by picking and placing of neuronal spheroids using FluidFM. bioRxiv, 2024, doi:10.1101/2024.09.03.610979 |
| Sifringer, L., Fratzl, A., Clément, B.F., Chansoria, P., Mönkemöller, L.S., Duru, J., Ihle, S.J., Steffens, S., Beltraminelli, A., Ceylan, E., Hengsteler, J., Maurer, B., Weaver, S.M., Tringides, C.M., Vulić, K., Madduri, S., Zenobi-Wong, M., Roska, B., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An implantable biohybrid nerve model towards synaptic deep brain stimulation. bioRxiv, 2024, doi:10.1101/2024.05.31.596665 |
| Cassarà, A.M., Karimi, F., Newton, T.H., Capstick, M.H., Kuster, N., Neufeld, E. & Ruff, T. In silico safety investigation of temporal interference stimulation and electric stimulation in the presence of implants. Brain Stimulation 2025, 18:296, doi:10.1016/j.brs.2024.12.244 |
| Karimi, F., Ruff, T., Vörös, J., Kuster, N., Neufeld, E. & Newton, T.H. Mechanistic Insights into Temporal Interference Stimulation from Computational models and human iPSC-Based Networks. , Bernstein Conference 2025 |
| Sifringer, L., Fratzl, A., Clément, B.F., Chansoria, P., Mönkemöller, L.S., Duru, J., Ihle, S.J., Steffens, S., Beltraminelli, A., Ceylan, E., Hengsteler, J., Maurer, B., Weaver, S.M., Tringides, C.M., Vulić, K., Madduri, S., Zenobi-Wong, M., Roska, B., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An implantable biohybrid neural interface towards synaptic deep brain stimulation. In Abstract Collection of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience 25th Annual Meeting (SSN 2025), Lausanne, Switzerland, February 6–7, 2025, pages 53, SSN 2025 |
| Sifringer, L., Fratzl, A., Clément, B.F., Chansoria, P., Mönkemöller, L.S., Duru, J., Ihle, S.J., Steffens, S., Beltraminelli, A., Ceylan, E., Hengsteler, J., Maurer, B., Weaver, S.M., Tringides, C.M., Vulić, K., Madduri, S., Zenobi-Wong, M., Roska, B., Vörös, J. & Ruff, T. An implantable biohybrid neural interface towards synaptic deep brain stimulation. In Abstract Collection of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience 25th Annual Meeting (SSN 2025), pages 53 |
