✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #7 – Answer! ✨ 🐝 Bee stinger! Fun fact: The bee stinger’s barbed design inspired microneedles for painless drug delivery! 💉✨ Stay tuned for the next Microscopy Mystery Monday! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

It's so exciting to start a new research lab until you realize that science is expensive and your budget ran out after installing the benches 😅 Any junior PIs out there who can relate? #memesky #lablaughs #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery Monday #7 🔬🕵️ Looks like something you wouldn’t want to step on… what could it be? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #6 – Answer! ✨ 🦋 Insect wing membrane! Fun fact: Insect wings have vein networks that give them strength, flexibility, and airflow regulation during flight! 🦋✨ Stay tuned for the next Microscopy Mystery Monday! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

Microscopy Mystery Monday #6 🔬🕵️ Magnified mystery — can you guess what’s in the picture? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #5 – Answer! ✨ Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) HUVECs are a key model for studying how blood vessels grow and interact with materials! 🩸✨ Stay tuned for the next Microscopy Mystery Monday! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

Happy Halloween from the Ghosts in our lab! 🎃 The lab has claimed many a scientists' soul and on Halloween, they come out to play 👻👻👻 #Halloween #Ghostphotoshoot #academicsky #memesky

Science is hard. Often the success rate of anything we try is only 10%, not unlike some of the toughest games out there! But it's all worth it, since every little success gets us closer to the next level (of knowledge and technology) #LabLaughs #memesky #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery Monday #5 🔬🕵️ Under the lens: what’s in the picture? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

Microneedles + conductive ink = sturdier on-skin sensing INM co-authors show a fenestrated shell that protects the sensing layer for transdermal pH readout. Out now in Advanced Functional Materials - doi.org/10.1002/adfm... @nicovoelcker.bsky.social @wiley.com #academicsky

A PhD is an amazing opportunity but it's also really tough, especially in the final years. If you're planning to start one or have started one, be prepared for an emotional roller coaster. Anyone out here with a doctorate who hasn't experienced this? #LabLaughs #memesky #academicsky

We recently discovered that our engineered lactobacilli are far more obedient when confined in a gel - doi.org/10.1016/j.jc... If you want the highlights of the story, check out the LinkedIN post image. @marcblanch.bsky.social @varunsays.bsky.social @leibnizinm.bsky.social

✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #4 – Answer! ✨ A gel made of Gold Nanowires! Ultrathin gold nanowires form a pale, conductive gel ⚡️—for flexible electronics, microsensors, and electrocatalysis. Stay tuned for the next Microscopy Mystery Monday! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #Microscopy #academicsky #MMM

This seems like a hypothetical scenario but has anyone experienced this? As scientists, we're trained to question everything, especially completely absurd occurrences 😅 #LabLaughs #memsky #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery Monday #4 🔬🕵️ This structure isn’t what it seems… what could it be? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #MicroscopyMystery #academicsky #STEM #MMM

✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #3 – Answer! ✨ 💇 It’s a hair strand 💡Did you know? A single human hair can hold up to 100 grams — roughly the weight of a small apple 🍎! Stay tuned for the next Microscopy Mystery Monday! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #Microscopy #academicsky #MMM

Today's German Unity Day celebrations had us showcase work from two ends of the materials science spectrum - bio-gels and batteries. And it was all in DIY mode - Make your own Vegan Caviar and button batteries. We even had an astronaut try them out! #tde25 #tagderdeutscheneinhiet #stem #mint

Probiotic drinks, DNA candy, Agar Art, Bio-art keychains, "Materials with Life" stickers, and funny post-cards! That's how we reached out to the public about our science on the German Unity Day #tde25 Check out my LinkedIN post if you're curious how it worked - www.linkedin.com/posts/shrikr...

Link to publication 👇🏼 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The final major work of my PhD is finally out! In this work, we generated genetic switches that exerted enhanced performance upon bacterial encapsulation within materials, leading to switchable protein release from ELMs! Link in the comments🧬🧬 @varunsays.bsky.social 👏🏻 @shrikrishnans.bsky.social 👏🏻

We've got a real treat for tomorrow, literally! - Probiotic drinks, DNA candy, Bacterial paintings and Bio-art keychains! #tagderdeutscheneinheit #tde25 #academicsky

The Paris Summit of Synthetic Biology Centers, organized by @riceuniversity.bsky.social brought together global leaders of SynBio centers, biofoundries, and consortia to work out how to combine forces, grow expertise, fund discovery, and ensure ethical progress. A productive 2 days in Paris!

Any PhDs relate to this? A PhD can be rough, but it usually works out in the end, especially if you've friends in the lab. #lablaughs #memesky #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery Monday #3 🔬🕵️ Under the lens: what’s in the picture? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #Microscopy #academicsky #STEM

My final presentation this Hamburg trip was at the NextGen Materials conference @dgm-ev.bsky.social It was a great experience discussing my work on Remote Controlled Living Therapeutic Materials with the innovative materials scientists at the event! #academicsky #healthsky

The SPP2494 on Productive Biofilm Systems kicked-off in style! In the 1st part I had fun sharing the vision of our collaborative project on getting algae and lactobacilli to work together But the 2nd part was even more fun with a tour of Hamburg, a boat ride on the Elbe and tapas dinner 😁

The INM team joined thousands of runners and Nordic walkers at the Cross Against Cancer event in Homburg! It's a beautiful initiative to promote good health in more than one way! Neither rain nor mud through the woods could dampen the excitement of our participants 🏃‍♀️🏃 #fitnesssky #cancer

Meeting with this community is always so delightful and inspiring! I enjoyed presenting our project, ContainELMs, on a novel biocontainment systems in engineered living materials, along with my PhD student, Victoria Pinto, and our collaborators from KIT, Meike Koenig & Robin Wilhelm! #academicsky

✨ Microscopy Mystery Monday #1 – Answer! ✨ These are the stinging hairs of a nettle leaf! They work like tiny glass needles, snapping on touch and injecting chemicals that give you that classic nettle sting. Ouch! Stay tuned for the next mystery! 🔬👀 #MicroscopyMystery #Microscopy #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery #2 🔬🕵️ Which world are we zooming into here? (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #Microscopy #academicsky #STEM

To Homburg & Hamburg in a day! Morning - Homburg - 5k run in the @leibnizinm.bsky.social team for the Cross Against Cancer Next 10h - travelling 650k to Hamburg for a week of scientific events - SPP meetings and NextGen Materials conference Play hard Work hard 😁

A PhD doesn't have to be a prolonged mental health challenge. It should be exciting, inspiring, educational, rewarding, and even fun. And a supervisor who's got your back goes a long way toward this! This is what we try to foster at INM. #lablaughs #memesky #academicsky

Microscopy Mystery #1 🔬🕵️ Biology pop quiz: what’s in the picture?​ (👉 Like the comment with your answer to vote!) #Microscopy #academicsky #STEM

All work and no play ruins a scientist's life! At least, that's our excuse to take some time off and become kids again. 😁 By popular vote, the main activity was Laser-tag, which was as fun as it was exhausting! I feel lucky to have such a fun group to create these memories with!

The thrills of being a researcher! There's no better feeling than an experiment that worked #meme #LabLaughs #academicsky

Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy.

That's us, the Scrappy Sandpipers 😁 All teams were randomly made and we needed to learn to work together quickly! It was a really fun time and I'm so grateful our institute promotes these initiatives

Everyone else: "A timeless meme, relatable and loved by scientists. Publish without further changes" Reviewer 2: "This meme lacks novelty and uses an inferior character, Boromir, instead of Aragorn. Reject!" #meme #lablaughs #lotr

I engineer bacteria, but never saw it as a tech product until I unboxed Zbiotics' Sugar-To-Fiber! The packaging is beautifully designed to be encouraging and educational about this incredible GMO probiotic that turns sugar into gut-friendly fiber. Anyone else tried it yet? #healthsky #foodsky

"Just hear me out...I've got an idea to 3D print a fully sustainable fusion reactor using recycled soda cans and filamentous fungi" 😂 #Lablaughs #academicsky #meme #science

Academia is an adventure and having a strong boss backing you up greatly enhances the experience. So, what kind of Advisor are you with on this adventure? #academicsky #meme #science #RPG

Not me discovering time is linear after the abstract deadline! #meme #lablaughs #ScienceHumor #AcademicSky

What do you get when an espresso machine inspires a scientist? An exciting discovery, new materials, and a Material Minds episode exploring it! We chat with Luai Khoury (Technion) about his inspired protein materials Here's our conversation - www.leibniz-inm.de/podcast/mate... #science #molbiol

Just a dose of scientific humor to brighten your scroll- not everything here is peer-reviewed #meme #lablaughs #ScienceHumor #AcademicSky @wilfriedweber.bsky.social @matsynbio.bsky.social

A Special Issue on Living Drug Carriers in the Journal of Controlled Release! Microbial engineers, now is your chance to show off the power of microbes for drug delivery! Submit here - www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu... Guest editors - @julienguyenlab.bsky.social, Paul Joyce, & myself

Ship of Science - The MS Wissenschaft is now in Saarbrücken. On it, our booth showed how lithium can be extracted without chemicals-just mine water, geothermal, or seawater. 💧🔋 And Saarland’s Finance & Science Minister, Jakob von Weizsäcker, was there to witness this smart science! #energysky

We were thrilled to host Saarland's Minister of Economic Affairs, Jürgen Barke! He witnessed our eLiFlow project on lithium recovery, funded by the ministry, and learned about our other research - smart contact lenses, biodegradable sensors, & sustainable building materials. #energysky #science

Huge shoutout to the amazing organizers (William Ludington, Jan-Peter van Pijkeren) for creating such a vibrant scientific space. And a big thank you to my PI (Shrikrishnan Sankaran) for his constant support 🙌 #GRC #GRS #LacticAcidBacteria #SyntheticBiology #LivingTherapeutics

🎧 Dr. Christoph Kaiser vom INM ist zu Gast in der neuen Podcast-Folge von @LeibnizHealth! Von der #LaserWorldOfPhotonics 2025 berichtet er über bioaktive Materialien, Photonik & smarte MedTech-Lösungen. Jetzt reinhören: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

My first Waymo self-driving car exotics in San Francisco! It's was so much fun and surprisingly felt totally normal after a few minutes. The car handles the traffic really well and I felt safe and relaxed inside. Curious to see how fast this tech expands elsewhere. #technology