News from the Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials dept.

We still don’t understand how nature spins simple sugar chains into the ultra-strong cellulose fibers that hold plants together – and we can’t yet copy this architecture ourselves. With an ERC Consolidator Grant, Yu Ogawa aims to decode this process and build a miniature lab “factory” to make cellulose from scratch and tailor it for a bio-based, circular economy. more

An internationally renowned triennial conference, Biomembrane Days 2025 gathered over 200 researchers from 19 countries to discuss recent advances in the structure, dynamics, and functions of biological and synthetic membranes. more

SusMax is the first Max Planck network for circular, sustainable materials—founded through an interdisciplinary collaboration of six Max Planck Institutes and open to new partners from across the Max Planck Society. Submissions for joint projects open on 23 October 2025 and close on 5 December 2025. more

A prestigious award goes to our scientist for advancing synthetic membrane research and revealing the physical principles of cellular organization. more

Challenge: It's not just whether a membrane is in a "solid" or "liquid" state that matters—how tightly its molecules are packed also influences how protein-rich droplets (condensates) stick to it
Finding: More tightly packed membranes push away condensates, while loosely packed ones attract them
Impact: Understanding these interactions is key to grasping essential cellular functions and disease progression more

Supported by the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and the UK Guarantee Scheme, the 'Condensates at Membrane Scaffolds – Integrated Systems as Synthetic Cell Compartments’ doctoral network seeks 17 PhD candidates. This international and interdisciplinary program aims to train future biomedical and biotechnology researchers to explore cellular mechanisms with advanced synthetic models. more

 Scientists can now predict structural colors in bacteria. By sequencing a wide range of bacterial DNA and developing an accurate predictive model, reseachers uncovered how bacteria organize themselves into specific patterns within colonies to interfere with light and create iridescence.Their findings hold great promise for sustainable, pigment-free color production. more

Biomolecular condensates may play a crucial but overlooked role in remodeling membrane structures within cells. Rumiana Dimova and her team demonstrated that these droplets can shape parts of the endoplasmic reticulum into nanotubes and double-membrane discs without the need for specific curvature-molding proteins. more

Imagine switching on a light and being able to understand and control the inner dynamics of a cell. This is what the Dimova group has achieved: by shining lights of different colors on replicates of cells, they altered the interactions between cellular elements. Controlling these complex interactions enables us to deliver specific drugs directly into the cells. more

Little is known yet about the interaction between these biomolecular condensate droplets and the membrane-bound organelles. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam developed synthetic membraneless organelles and visualized what happens when they meet a membrane. more

Prof Silvia Vignolini, Ph.D. is establishing the new Department "Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials". She is working at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science and perfectly complements the institute's profile of research on chemistry, materials and sustainability. more