Great to see Felicia Schön representing our group at the #CIMT Annual Meeting in Mainz! She presented her poster on multiadjuvant antigen #nanocapsule vaccines & their impact on dendritic cell activation & the #tumor microenvironment. Congrats on a successful presentation! 👏 #Immunotherapy

Science Day – Familientag „17 Ziele für die Zukunft“. 31. Mai, 10.30-13.30, Kunststoffpfad am MPI für Polymerforschung. Speed Dating, Mitmach-Aktionen, Kinderuni für die ganze Familie und Kreative. Highlight: Preisverleihung für Augmented Reality-Arbeiten von Düsseldorfer Student:innen.

🎉 Just wrapped up inspiring days at the Zsigmondy Colloquium 2026 in Erlangen. Thanks to Prof. Nicolas Vogel for the fantastic organization! Big thanks to the #KolloidGesellschaft for continuing the legacy of scientific excellence.

Shoutout to Gabrielle Ong & Florian Deussen for rocking the German Conference on Synthetic Biology in Münster! 🔬 Gabrielle: poster on smart #ArtificialCells for tumor modulation. Florian: #FlashTalk on aptamer-powered paracrine-like signaling in #SyntheticCells. Proud of our team’s impact! #Research

🎉 Huge congrats to Carina Jung on defending her #PhD! 🎉 “Surface Functionalization of Nanocarriers for Biomedical Applications” a dive into smarter nanovaccines that target dendritic cells to fight cancer. Key takeaways: ✅ Protein nanocapsules = tunable surface chemistry = precise passive targeting

🎉 Max Schaaf defends his PhD at @mpip-mainz.mpg.de ! Developed smart #liposomes with polymer-based surfaces for targeted immune cell delivery: anti-CLEC9A antibodies, stable diABZI loading, in vivo efficacy. A leap forward in #nanomedicine & #Polymer #Engineering. #Immunotherapy #DrugDelivery

🚀 Work package meeting in Mainz: a game-changer for #Polymers5B! From #AI-driven polymer design to scalable synthesis, we set the course for real-world impact. Great collaboration across Europe: science, data, and sustainability in motion. #SustainablePolymers #ResearchCollaboration #EUProject

🎉 Daksh defends his PhD at @mpip-mainz.mpg.de His work: AI-powered CLEM — automated, training-free registration of light & electron microscopy. No manual landmarks. No big datasets. Just precision. Handles 11k×11k px images. Scalable. Reproducible. #CLEM #Bioimaging #AI #Science #MachineLearning

Great time at ICONN 2026 in Sydney! I had the honour to give a plenary talk on Nanocapsules and Coacervates as Artificial Organelles, sharing our work on artificial cells, small peptide coacervates, and challenges for biomedical nanocapsules.

It was a pleasure to give a plenary talk at the RSC Chemical Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Symposium. "Adaptive Nanomedicine: Designing Smart Therapeutic Systems” sparked many great questions in a truly inspiring, historic setting. Thanks Daniela Carta for the invitation & excellent organisation!

Two inspiring days at Burg Reichenstein for our NanoBrain Retreat & SAB meeting ☀️ Many thanks to Hong Chen, Caroline Ménard, Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke, and Meltem Avci-Adali for the fantastic advice. NanoBrain is growing — engineering mental health by nanocarriers.

Many thanks&congrats to Nantawat Kaekratoke for a fantastic year as GuestPhD @mpip-mainz.mpg.de👏 Great work on fluorine-labeled proteins to probe conformational changes at nano–bio interfaces by NMR, with the TargetProtCorona project with Prof. Daniel Crespy (VISTEC). All the best for your PhD!

Thank you for the great talk @hellmichgroup.bsky.social 👏 Her lecture “Regulation through disorder” @mpip-mainz.mpg.de showed how IDPs are central to TRP channel regulation: example of how structural “disorder” is key to biological function. Wonderful to see Ute pushing this field forward in Jena.

Congratulations to Dr. Maria Micheva on defending her PhD thesis! Within the CRC1450 Insight, she developed an innovative optical, minimally invasive platform for real-time sensing of temperature and oxygen in cell culture. Her methods allow for long-term, high-res sensing without cell disruption

Congratulations to Dr. Xueqing Zhang on successfully defending her PhD thesis! She investigated protein corona formation on NPs & its cellular interactions revealing how pre-conditioning NPs can guide corona formation. The findings provide insights into designing improved NP-based delivery systems.

A department from the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy and Mobility visited @mpip-mainz.mpg.de last week. Ulrike Schneider guided the group along the Polymer Path, and doctoral students Yannick Fröder and Timon Léon presented their research on lignin capsules and OLEDs.

Ina Tutzschky spent 3 weeks @cvrinfo.bsky.social working with our former PhD student to Iain Harley. Ina learned about #CryoEM and tomography software tools to apply to NMs here at @mpip-mainz.mpg.de for her PhD project. Thank you to the CVR team and Iain for the fruitful exchange. #Cryo4NM

@fraaamazzz.bsky.social attended the #CCP4 Northern Meeting presenting our work @mpip-mainz.mpg.de on Single Particle #CryoEM of synthetic NMs, exploring the LEGO-like interactions that drive their self-assembly. Great discussions&new ideas on how structural biology can be adapted to NMs! #Cryo4NM

Lukas, Richard, and @fraaamazzz.bsky.social visited Prof. Nirgila Ricardo’s lab at UCF Fortaleza through a #DAAD exchange — two inspiring weeks of science, collaboration, sunshine, and great food! 🌞🔬 #ResearchExchange #MPIP

Great days for the ArTCell project at the @mpip-mainz.mpg.de in Mainz! We kicked off our meeting with a warm gathering at Eulchen in Mainz, and continued with productive discussions and exchange of results. It is wonderful to see how our artificial cell is steadily taking shape.

For two days, we had now our group leader retreat from the AK Landfester in the Gonsbergloft. Two days of effective discussions and planning of our next research steps, our group strategy, our website and many more. It was a fantastic atmosphere in a great environment.

🌍✨ Science in the city! At the 23rd Mainz Science Market we brought research to life – from a nanocapsule role play for school classes to hands-on PET recycling and bioplastics experiments. A fantastic weekend to spark curiosity in young and old alike. Big thanks to everyone who made it possible! 🙌

Great team spirit at the Mainz Company Run 2025! 🎉 Colleagues from @mpip-mainz.mpg.de – including the Landfester group – joined hundreds of runners through the streets of Mainz. 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ #TeamMPIP #CompanyRunMainz

Exciting news from @mpip-mainz.mpg.de 🎉 Minister Clemens Hoch handed over the grant for our project CoronaProtTargeting. Together with Prof. Daniel Crespy (VISTEC, Thailand) we will develop protein-coated nanocarriers to cross the blood-brain barrier & tackle diseases like MS.

Congratulations to Dr. Iain Harley 🎉 We congratulate Iain Harley for successfully defending his PhD thesis about "Integrating Cryo-EM into Soft Material Research: Method Development and Adaptation".

Congratulations to Ute Heinz for 25 years in public service!

Unusual temperatures require unusual formats for the department seminar. That's why we simply held our seminar outside. In the shade and with a little wind, it was very bearable. What a wonderful atmosphere! Why not give it a try!

Große Freude: Unser Kunststoff-Bildungspfad wurde mit dem Dr. Ursula Grübler-Schoch Preis 2025 ausgezeichnet! Verliehen vom Förderverein für MINT-Berufe – danke! Schöne Preisverleihung in der Villa Alwind in Lindau & toller Austausch. Danke an Gerald Grübler & Ursula Steiner!

Check out our new work, where we show how CryoEM structural biology tools can be used for the characterization of NMs! Iain shows how 2D classification can easily classify&quantify different populations of NPs with just a few images & little manually picking! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

🍀 Our lab has gone green! 🍀 Making real and impactful changes to decrease environmental footprint of our research with the GreenLabCertification Program. A thorough assessment of our labs has awarded us the greenest level! We encourage others to join this fantastic program: bit.ly/greenlabcert

We had our Kick-off Meeting of the project "Interactive Biomaterials for Neural Regeneration" (InteReg) at the Eulchen in Mainz. It was a super inspiring meeting with great talks, new ideas and many discussions.

Award ceremony in Berlin National Award - Education for Sustainable Development. The Polymer Path is one of the top 20 and was honored by the UNESCO Commission and the BMFSFJ on 22 May. Ulrike Schneider represented the „Lernort“ and was delighted to receive the award.

Many families came to the Science Day. The children's university, speed dating, and guided tours appealed to everyone who wanted to know more about polymers. On stage, many children helped bake the Black Forest gateau and at the speed dating event they were able to ask questions to researchers.

Tsvetomir Ivanov gave an excellent flash talk and poster presentation about our work on "Short Peptide Coacervates" at the conference on Biomolecular condensates: From fundamental principles to applications in health and biotech, in Copenhagen. It was great to have so many scientific discussions.

20th anniversary for Katja at the @mpip-mainz.mpg.de Congratulations on reaching this milestone! It is a pleasure to have you in our team!

Congratulations to Tsvetomir Ivanov for defending his PhD. "Development of Multi-Compartment Cell Mimics for Enhanced Biocatalysis" presents engineering&application of multicompartment active materials. Together with Priyanka Sharan he will lead the artificial cell group in my group.

Congratulations to @fraaamazzz.bsky.social for obtaining her PhD with the highest distinction. "Soft matter characterization beyond resolution limit" shows interdisciplinary work at the interface between nanomaterials & structural biology. Looking forwards to a successful PostDoc at our Institute!

Science Day am 18. Mai, 10–13 Uhr auf dem Kunststoff-Bildungspfad! Großes Familienprogramm rund um Kettenmoleküle. Kinderuni zum Thema „Was hat Wissenschaft mit einer Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte zu tun?“, Sonder-Führungen und Speed Dating mit Forscherinnen. www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de/events/41661...

Thanks to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). It was great to talk to many group leaders, postdocs and PhD students. Special thanks to José Berrocal and Carla Casadevall for taking me out for a wonderful dinner in Tarragona.

Priyanka Sharan, Zhicheng Wang, Ilona Kalte and Philipp Föckler presented their current research projects at the meeting held in Göttingen at the the MPI for Dynamics and Self Organization. We had stimulating two days filled with insightful talks and productive discussions with our collaborators.

🚨🚨We are hiring!🚨🚨 Together with my colleague @waltherlab.bsky.social, we are searching for a motivate PhD candidate to work on "Ultrapecise mRNA Delivery for Targeted Neurotherapeutics" within our Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung-funded project InteReg. More details can be found below.

Thanks to Beatriz Prieto, José Augusto Berrocal, and Carla Casadevall, for the invitation to give a talk at the seminar of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia sponsored by @basf.bsky.social A great chance to talk to all scientist there and to participate in the institute's Calçotada.

New paper out! 🎉 We describe how by mixing two short peptides we generate programmable coacervates which respond to multiple stimuli and perform logic inside artificial cells. Check out the detailed in our paper: 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🙏 Big thanks to the amazing team of co-authors!

'Corals as rubbish dumps - What does research say about the threat posed by microplastics?' Jonathan Jung from @mpic.de and I delved into the world of corals, their effect with microplastics and on how much more research needs to be done!

Today we want to congratulate one of our group leaders, Dr Maria Villiou for being selected as one of the Daimler und Benz Stiftung scholarship holder! Maria's project will develop next generation bioadhesives for the biomedical field. Good luck Maria! www.daimler-benz-stiftung.de/cms/de/foerd...

Die Leiter:innen der LernOrte kamen zusammen. Jan Hendrik Winter, Bildungsministerium, und Michael Staaden, Umweltministerium, machten klar, dass die BNE-Strategie dringend weiter in Rheinland-Pfalz verankert werden muss. Workshop, Laborbesuch und Führung über den Pfad rundeten die Agenda ab.

Die Leiter:innen der LernOrte kamen zusammen. Jan Hendrik Winter, Bildungsministerium, und Michael Staaden, Umweltministerium, machten klar, dass die BNE-Strategie dringend weiter in Rheinland-Pfalz verankert werden muss. Workshop, Laborbesuch und Führung über den Pfad rundeten die Agenda ab.

The collaborative research center SFB1066 "Nanomaterials for Tumor Immunotherapy" took place in Mainz. After 12 years of research within SFB1066 between MPIP, JGU and Uniclinic Mainz, we are really proud of all the achievements: chemistry and nanomedine really grew closely together.

We have now updated our discussion corners. The newly designed rooms show moss pictures of the scientists as well as a short biography of their achievements. In the ground floor, the room is dedicated to Marie Curie.

We defended our Cluster of Excellence Proposal "CoM2Life" - Communicating Biomaterials at the DFG in Bonn. We are very proud of being part of this wonderful team consisting of researchers of the @mpip-mainz.mpg.de, University of Mainz and TU Darmstadt. May CoM2Life come to life!