News

December
• Our collaborative paper with Christian Hiepen, Petra Knaus and many others is published in PLOS Biology. It shows the importance of the BMP pathway in mechanical signaling between cells and matrix.
• Anna-Maria starts as a PhD student. She will investigate if and how synthetic coiled coils undergo a force-induced transition from alpha-helix to beta-sheet. Welcome!

October
• Johanna starts as our new team assistant. Welcome!
• Our collaborative paper with Damien Faivre (and many others) about the new magnetite-binding protein Mad10 is published in Nano Letters.

September
• Lorena is leaving to start a new job in industry. All the best for your future career!
• Özlem is finishing her internship. Thanks so much for helping to develop protocols for cell imaging. All the best for your future studies in Turkey!
• Felix Rico (Aix Marseille University) is visiting for a presentation.
• Anne is leaving us for a new job at Charité in Berlin. Thanks a lot for your help and all the best for the challenges ahead.
• Valentin starts his internship. In cooperation with Cecile Bidan, he will investigate the mechanical properties of biofilms. Welcome!
• Amir starts as a MSc student. He will investigate the mechanical stability of triazoles. Welcome!

August
• Adrien starts as a PhD student. In cooperation with Cecile Bidan, he will investigate the mechanical properties of biofilms. Welcome!
• Akosua starts her internship. She will support us with peptide synthesis. Welcome!

July
• Isabell wins the poster price at the Multiscale Mechanochemistry & Mechanobiology Conference in Montreal. Congratulations!
• Lorena successfully defends her PhD thesis with the title “Osmotic pressure effects on collagen mimetic peptides”. Well done! Congratulations!
• Özlem starts with her internship. She will support us with cell culture experiments. Welcome!

June
• Aurora finishes her internship. Thanks a lot for your great support!
• Isabell receives a travel grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to attend the ‘Multiscale Mechanochemistry & Mechanobiology’ in Montreal.

May
• Patricia and Anna are leaving… All the best for your PostDoc projects in Canada and the US!
• We are becoming a proud new member of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR102 “Polymers under multiple constraints”. We are looking forward to many exciting collaborations with colleagues at the Universities in Halle and Leipzig.
• Patricia successfully defends her PhD thesis with the title "Coiled coils as mechanical building blocks" Well done! Congratulations!
• We have finalized the program for the second edition of "Multiscale Mechanochemistry & Mechanobiology"! We are looking forward to the many excellent talks!

April
• Our paper about the sequence-structure-mechanics relationships of coiled coils is published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
• Aurora starts with her internship. She will support us with peptide synthesis. Welcome!

March
• Our collaborative paper with Matt Harrington about metal-induced aggregation in coiled coil crosslinked hydrogels is published in Biomimetics.

February
• Patricia receives a travel award for attending the Molecular Biophysics Meeting of the DGfB in Hünfeld. Congratulations!

January
• Melis successfully defends her PhD thesis with the title "Coiled coils as molecular force sensors for the extracellular matrix" Well done! Congratulations!

December
• Our collaborative paper with Ana Bergues and Angelo Valleriani about the statistical analysis of force spectroscopy data is published in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
• Anna successfully defends her PhD thesis with the title "Shaping via binding: Do Mad proteins determine anisotropic growth of magnetite crystals?" Well done! Congratulations!

November
• Our collaborative paper with Valerio Molinari and Bernhard Schmidt about the synthesis and characterisation of carbon nitride-reinforced hydrogels is published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
• Tara successfully defends her MSc project at Ulm University. Congratulations and all the best for your PhD project in the Netherlands!
• Our collaborative paper with Matt Harrington describing the design of tunable, metal-reinforced coiled coils is published in Nanoscale.
• Our collaborative paper with Ana Bergues, Reinhard Lipowksy und Ana Vila Verde describing the mechanics of coiled coil trimers is published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

October
• Michael Nash (University of Basel & ETH Zurich) is visiting for a presentation.
• Ayesha starts as a PhD student. In cooperation with Yael Politi, she will investigate protein-chitin interactions. Welcome!

September
• Zeynep starts as a PhD student. In cooperation with Angelo Valleriani, she will further develop our mechanoresponsive hydrogels. Welcome!

August
• Our collaborative paper with Alan Rowan, Jurjen Tel and Carl Figdor about cytokine-functionalized synthetic dendritic cells is published in Advanced Therapeutics.

July
• Kerstin becomes a scientific editor of PLOS One. Looking forward to many interesting submissions!
• Anne starts as technical assistant. She will support our molecular biology and protein expression work. Welcome!

June
• Our collaborative paper with Alan Rowan, Anja Palmans and Bert Meijer describing the fluorescence-based analysis of catalytic single-chain nanoparticles is published in Molecular Systems Design & Engineering.
• Ruben finishes his internship. Thanks a lot for your great support!

Mai
• Bruker visits us for an AFM workshop with lots of interesting test measurements from our group and external guests.
• Patricia receives a Wiley Protein Science Travel Award for attending the Protein Society Meeting in Boston. Congratulations!

April
• Alberto is leaving MPICI to start his Juan de la Cierva fellowship at the University of Cádiz. All the best and lots of success!!!
• Anne is leaving MPICI to start her well-deserved retirement. Thank you soooo much! Relax, have fun and enjoy all the planned trips!
• Our first collaborative paper with Reinhard Lipowsky and Ana Vila Verde describing the mechanical properties of coiled coils is published in Chemical Science.
• Our collaborative paper with Ethan Minot and Alan Rowan describing the characterization of FRET-based protease substrates is published in ACS Omega.
• Ruben starts with his internship. He will support us with peptide synthesis. Welcome!

March
• Tara starts as a MSc student. In collaboration with Damien Faivre, she will express and characterize magnetosomal proteins. Welcome!

January
• Aránzazu del Campo (Leibniz Institute for New Materials) is visiting for a presentation.
• Geonho starts as a PhD student. He will investigate the structure-function relationships of mechanosensitive sites in collagen. Welcome!

December
• Together with Peter Fratzl, Petra Knaus and Christian Hiepen (FU Berlin) we have received a Flexible Funds grant from the Einstein Center for Regenerative Therapies to study the effect of ECM mechanics on growth factor-ECM interactions.

November
• Emilia moves from Nijmegen to Potsdam to finalize the last experiments for her PhD. Welcome and lots of success for the last months…
• Jun starts as a PhD student. He will synthesize and characterize protein-based hydrogels with built-in molecular force sensors. Welcome!

October
• Patricia wins the poster price at the Multiscale Mechanochemistry & Mechanobiology Conference in Berlin. Congratulations!

September
• Isabell wins the JMR - AFMBioMed Young Investigator Award at the AFMBioMed conference in Krakow. Congratulations!

August
• Our collaborative paper with Carl Figdor and Alan Rowan about the affinity-based purification of protein-polymer conjugates is accepted in Bioconjugate Chemistry.
• Daniel successfully defends his MSc project at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. Congratulations!

June
• The program of our conference "Multiscale Mechanochemistry & Mechanobiology" goes online. Registration is still open!

May
• Renukka successfully defends her MSc project at Amity University in India. Congratulations!
• Together with Peter Fratzl, Petra Knaus and Christian Hiepen (FU Berlin) we have received a Kickbox grant from the Einstein Center for Regenerative Therapies to study the effect of ECM mechanics on growth factor-ECM interactions.

April
• Ana is leaving MPICI for TU Delft where she will start her PhD project. All the best and lots of success!!!
• Humboldt fellowship for Alberto. Congratulations!

March
• Joanna starts her internship in collaboration with Christian Hiepen and Petra Knaus (FU Berlin) to investigate cell stiffness with AFM. Welcome!

February
• Our collaborative paper with Carl Figdor and Alan Rowan about synthetic dendritic cells is accepted in ACS Omega.
• Ana starts with an internship to investigate coiled coils with single molecule force spectroscopy. Welcome!

January
• Renukka starts as a Master student. She will investigate spider silk proteins with single molecule force spectroscopy. Welcome!
• Ruby is leaving MPICI to start her own group at the University of Toronto. All the best and lots of success!!!

December
• Tetsuya Hiraiwa (University of Tokyo) is visiting for a presentation.

November
• Leonie Barner (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) is visiting to perform single molecule force spectroscopy of surface immobilized polymers.

October
• Cornelia Lee-Thedieck (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) is visiting for a presentation.
• Patricia wins the poster price at the International Symposium "Functional Biointerfaces" at FU Berlin. Congratulations!

September
• Isabell successfully defends her Masters project at the University of Potsdam. Well done! We are very happy that she stays as a PhD student…
• Our progress report about molecular force sensors is accepted in Advanced Materials Interfaces.

August
• Daniel starts as a Master student to work on the expression and characterization of magnetite binding proteins. Welcome!

July
• Our collaborative paper with Hans Heus on the DNA-based crosslinking of strain-stiffening materials is accepted in Advanced Functional Materials.

June
• Our collaborative paper with Damien Faivre on protein-templated assembly of magnetite nanoparticles is accepted in Advanced Materials Interfaces.

May
• Florian Rehfeldt (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) is visiting for a presentation.
• Hester starts as a PhD student to work on the mechanical regulation of protein activity. Welcome!

April
• Alberto starts as a PostDoc to work on the mechanochemistry of coiled coil crosslinked materials. Welcome!