Recent highlights: Received seed funding from the SynGen Center to explore synthetic genomes in bottom-up synthetic biology. 🚀 The first work of my PhD is now published: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Huge thanks to Franziska Gießler, Tobias Abele, Stefan Maurer, and @kgoepfrich.bsky.social

Next up, the great Kerstin Göpfrich @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de on her long-term vision of synthetic cells, and very concrete approaches using RNA origami. #gfv2026

Still time to apply until January, 19th!

We are recruiting a tenure track professor in the broader area of molecular biology @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de at Heidelberg University! www.nature.com/naturecareer... Please share and apply!

New to RNA design? Please try pyFuRNAce! Looking forward to your feedback 🧬

Is it possible to engineer new cellular life from the bottom up? The Göpfrich group @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @mpi-mr.bsky.social have designed an RNA origami nanotube 🟡 to mimic the cytoskeleton: www.nature.com/articles/s41... It was a fun challenge to animate T7 RNA polymerase 🔵 #blender #b3d

Welcome, Dana!

Curious about RNA, aptamers, lipid membranes, molecular dynamics simulations, synthetic cells - and how these topics come together? Join @floppleton.bsky.social's talk in the unano webinar blogs.ed.ac.uk/unanowebinars

RNA droplets that grow and segregate by ribozyme catalysis. Check out our latest preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673008v1

@tranmai.bsky.social handed in her PhD thesis! Celebrating in style with egg coffee from Hanoi, Mai's place of birth. P.S.: Mai is looking for a PostDoc position! Check out her latest RNA nanostructures for synthetic cells @natnano.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415...

DNA hydrogels as mechanical sensors in cell-culture systems by @towalther.bsky.social 🧬🧬🧬 If you catch him at a conference bar, ask him the story, it’s an adventure and a half!

EMBL Cell Biology and Biophysics department is searching for a new director. A major position to lead this field in Europe and beyond. embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

So excited to finally be able to share this manuscript!! Thanks to all collaborators for making this possible! Special thanks to @kgoepfrich.bsky.social and @xaviertrepat.bsky.social for their guidance and supervision in this!

Preprint by @towalther.bsky.social at al! We design DNA hydrogel microparticles with sequence-controlled stiffness from 30 Pa to 6.5 kPa. They are remodelled in fibroblast spheroids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thanks @ibecbarcelona.eu @xaviertrepat.bsky.social @pcusachs.bsky.social

Leben aus toter Materie zu erschaffen ist ein zentrales Thema der Synthetischen Biologie. @kgoepfrich.bsky.social‬ et al. liefern dazu RNA-Origami-Strukturen, die sich selbst organisieren und eine cytoskelettartige Architektur aufbauen. Holger Dill berichtet mehr: www.laborjournal.de/rubric/journ...

📢Conference alert📢 Only one week left to register for the Engineering Life 2025 Symposium at Dresden September 1-3. This year's edition focuses on the function of mechanical forces in biology. engineering-life-dresden.de

#SCNAC2025 we are looking forward to hear about your thoughts on our RNA design tool #PyFuRNAce pyfurnace.streamlit.app developed by @monari-luca.bsky.social

I am excited to be talking to @neildegrassetyson.com soon! What should I tell him from his German fan community?

News on clusters of excellence in Germany. The DFG has announced the continuation of 45 projects already funded and 25 new clusters Congrats to the SynCellEU community members - Kerstin Gopfrich, Tobias Erb and more - whose applications have been successful and who will receive funding for 7 years

A nice thread on our recent paper in Nature Nanotechnology by the first author and PhD student from the group @tranmai.bsky.social 👇

#SynthImmune is getting real! Super excited that our excellence cluster got funded today @dfg.de Thanks to everyone involved @uniheidelberg.bsky.social, especially @dimichelelab1.bsky.social and Oliver Fackler!

New technology challenges communication inside and outside the classroom, as my recent paper explains. Fingers crossed we get to explore this question soon for emerging synthetic biotechnology within SynthImmune www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

Our PIs Kerstin (@kgoepfrich.bsky.social) and Michael (@meineckelab.bsky.social) joined Wolfgang Heim to talk about scientific CVs, engaging in public outreach and the wonders of cellular membrane remodelling. Don’t miss the SFB1638 edition of Überlebensstrategien — now streaming!

On the show, we also talk about the potential of bottom up synthetic biology approaches for immunology - the aim of our excellence cluster SynthImmune (in German). We hope to get funded!

Awesome, congrats! Looking forward to take this further together, hopefully within our excellence cluster SynthImmune - fingers crossed for 22nd May!

The SynthImmune project by Heidelberg University& partner institutes advances a "bottom-up" synthetic biology approach to immunotherapies. Hoping they do well in the German government's Excellence Strategy—anticipating the announcement on 22 May. Perspective article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An exciting new approach in single-cell metabolomics from two SFB1638 groups! Carsten Hopf’s group from CeMOS with support from the Göpfrich lab (@kgoepfrich.bsky.social) unveil tech that tracks brain cell changes linked to neurodegeneration. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Boosting to the 🧬Molecular Programming🧬 feed! Check out our new design tool at PyFuRNAce.de! I particularly like the “make simple origami” button, which makes it so easy to get a base structure which you can functionalize!

There is a German language video of a TV discussion on "Biology From the Building Block" in which ZMBH's Kerstin Goepfrich @kgoepfrich.bsky.social was one of the two invided experts: www.3sat.de/wissen/scobe...

Excited to announce the Molecular Biology of Archaea (MBoA) 2026! Join us in Cambridge, UK, from 6–10 July 2026 for the only international meeting dedicated to Archaea.

Hey #RNA world, we are excited to share our RNA design engine #pyFuRNAce - an integrated tool for RNA origami experts and novices alike. Kudos to @monari-luca.bsky.social @floppleton.bsky.social et al! Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Try it out at pyfurnace.de Feedback welcome!

🧬Great opportunity for exchange between representatives of biotech companies, researchers, and transfer technology experts happened during the #GermanBiotechDays2025 in Heidelberg. Health & Life Science Alliance acted as academic partner for the event. Keynote speech by @kgoepfrich.bsky.social

Awesome talk by @petrsulc.bsky.social today at #BioQuant on self-assembly of DNA- and RNA-origami. Check out e.g. their design of a crystal that avoids kinetic traps while growing doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Thank you for sharing so much cool science on DNA self-assembly!

The Goepfrich lab @kgoepfrich.bsky.social yesterday published the creation of cytoskeleton-like structures with different properties inside lipid vesicles using RNA origami: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In the latest from @kgoepfrich.bsky.social’s group, led by the relentless @tranmai.bsky.social, we expressed RNA origami “cytoskeletons” in vesicles! We were fascinated that small changes in design led to divergent results. Future potential for directed evolution?! 🧬🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RNA Origami: Artificial Cytoskeletons to Build Synthetic Cells – Synthetic biologists from Heidelberg University create nanotubes folded from the natural RNA biomolecule www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/newsroom/...

RNA-Origami: Künstliche Zytoskelette für die Konstruktion synthetischer Zellen – Forscherinnen und Forscher der Universität Heidelberg auf dem Gebiet der synthetischen Biologie schaffen Nanoröhrchen, die aus dem natürlichen Biomolekül RNA gefaltet werden www.uni-heidelberg.de/de/newsroom/...

Insanely beautiful insights into Nature's own RNA origami!

Super cool methodology and findings!

Thank you, Laura! Come join our group and awesome network for a PhD👇

Looking forward! Thanks for coming over!

I'm happy to share this roadmap towards the synthesis of life! It is the result of one of the best workshops I ever attended, where scientists across biology, chemistry, and physics came together to map out the key challenges to synthesize life. Enjoy! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New Master's programme in Heidelberg! Please share with interested students

Thrilled to share our latest publication on DNA origami folding and functionalization! A fantastic collaboration with @kgoepfrich.bsky.social and Anabel Lostao teams. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... #DeDNAmers project 🧬with Jesús del Barrio @inmadivulga.bsky.social

How to achieve a high degree of functionalization on DNA origami in a cost-effective manner: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... It's been great to work with Siliva Hernandez-Ainsa again - twelve years after we first published on DNA origami together!

Looking for an awesome scientist who would like to become our neighbour. Application deadline coming up. Please share!

Overjoyed and honestly relieved to share a Chem Rev magnum opus from Brian Chen & Julia Li titled Synthetic Lipid Biology! In it, we organize efforts across numerous fields to create, manipulate, and analyze lipids and biomembranes. Check it out! doi.org/10.1021/acs.... #lipidtime #chemsky #chembio

Mitochondria consist of networks of cylindrical tubes, right? Not necessarily! - in our new preprint, @gavsturm.bsky.social investigates how mitochondria transiently adopt a beads-on-a-string morphology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We have an open professorship in #synbio / biological engineering in Heidelberg! jobs.zeit.de/jobs/full-pr... Check it out!