Maurice Filo

Maurice Filo is a senior research scientist at the Department of BioSystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich. His research interests mainly focus on the intersection of various scientific disciplines with control theory and dynamical systems. His academic journey began with a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering, followed by a transition to mechanical engineering where he earned another master's degree and a PhD. Maurice's current research pivots towards synthetic biology.

During his role as a postdoc and senior research scientist at ETH, Maurice focused on the intersection of control theory, chemical reaction network theory, and genetic circuit design and analysis. He devised advanced biomolecular controllers to enhance adaptation in biological systems amidst their inherent noise. By utilizing chemical reaction networks as foundational components, he mathematically realized fundamental control-theoretic architectures such as proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback controllers and anti-windup modules. Maurice employed deterministic and stochastic methodologies to analyze and refine these controllers, aiming to enhance their dynamic behavior and mitigate cellular variability and noise. Collaborating closely with experimental biologists, he transformed theoretical models into genetic circuits for empirical testing and validation, aligning with theoretical predictions. This interdisciplinary effort yielded several publications and two pending patents.

For his Ph.D., Maurice explored a variety of topics, including the development of a control-theoretic framework for analyzing structured stochastic uncertainty and investigating instabilities in the ear. He also worked on optimal path planning for mobile sensors in various environments, focusing on designing trajectories that maximize estimation accuracy. His research involved multiple sensing techniques and the assimilation of measurement data with physical laws, expressed through partial differential equations, leading to an infinite-dimensional optimal control problem. This large-scale control problem prompted further research into novel numerical methods for solving broad optimal control challenges.