Personal Statement
Kai has a degree in chemical engineering (Hochschule Fresenius, Idstein, Germany) and has studied for his PhD in microfluidic devices at the University of Surrey. After his PhD, he has worked at the medical engineering group at the University of Surrey and has developed technologies for the characterisation, separation and assembly of cells and nanoparticles using dielectrophoresis (DEP) and AC electrohydrodynamics.
He has further interests in lab on a chip, miniaturised bioreactors and laboratory automation.
He currently works on several projects studying life science in a space environment.
He is co-founded several companies:
DEPtech, has commercialised cell characterisation technology for life science and diagnostic applications based on work at Surrey.
Deparator is commercialising Cell enrichment technologies based on work at Surrey
PhenuTest Limited commercialising Antibiotic susceptibility testing for urinary tract infection based on work at the Unversity of Liverpool.
Since Dec 2014 he is a Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, pursuing his research on DEP and bioreactors.

Research Overview
Kai Hoettges's research is at the interface between engineering and life sciences. He works on developing new instruments to generate data-rich highly automated experiments for life sciences.
Highlights of his work are:
- Microgravity experiments: Developing highly automated miniaturised experiments to conduct life science experiments on the international space station. As part of a multidisciplinary team, he is part of MicroAge Launching an experiment studying muscle loss in microgravity on the ISS in Dec 2021 and is currently preparing work for MicroAge II which will be launched in 2025 and in FLUMIAS to be launched in 2025.
- Diagnosing antibiotic susceptibility in urinary tract infection. Translating technology developed at the University of Liverpool from a lab-based research assay to a point-of-care instrument that can be deployed to a primary care setting. This has led to a spin-out company PhenuTest Diagnostics Ltd.