Sustainable & Bioinspired Materials

Nudibranchs create their colourful patterns using structural colours, which they arrange in microscopic dots similar to Impressionist paintings more

Thanks to the Max Planck Society’s Minerva Fast-Track Program, Dr. Vera Titze launches her independent research group “Ecophotonics”. The group will explore how living systems process light and how living materials based on bacteria or microalgae can carry out light-based functionalities.The long-term goal is the to develop new bio-hybrid photonic materials and optical devices, including bio-derived lasers and self-powered environmental sensors. more

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