Prof Michael Nash is a BRCCH co-investigator and tenure-track assistant professor with joint appointments at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Basel and the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) at ETH Zurich. Prof Nash earned a bachelor’s in biomedical cybernetics, graduating with the highest honours from UCLA, USA, in 2006. He has held internships at the California Institute of Technology/NASA and the Pacific Northwest National Lab in the USA and the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He earned a dual PhD in bioengineering and nanotechnology from the University of Washington, USA, in December 2010. Following postdoctoral work in applied physics at LMU Munich in Germany, he was promoted to group leader in May 2013. Prof Nash began his current position as a tenure-​track assistant professor in Basel in September 2016. His research interests are in the areas of molecular engineering and biophysics, specifically focusing on single-​molecule protein mechanical properties, protein and polymer engineering and the interface between synthetic and biological systems.