Dr. Junwei Wang
Main Focus
Nature's structural coloration creates vivid hues without pigments by interacting light with nanostructures, selectively reflecting visible wavelengths. While well-studied in eukaryotes, prokaryotic structural coloration, like in the marine bacterium Flavobacterium, is less explored. These bacteria form iridescent colonies due to their ordered, 3D cell arrangement acting as photonic crystals. Our interdisciplinary research combines microbiology, optics, and materials science to explore these mechanisms and develop bio-derived photonic materials for pigments, coatings, and sensors.
I am particularly interested in:
- Structural Colour in Microorganisms: We use multiscale characterization to link bacterial organization with optical properties through techniques like microscopy and tomography.
- Flavobacterium Self-Organization: We study bacterial structure and dynamics in various confinements, focusing on motility and interactions to achieve desired nanostructures.
- Bacteria-Based Materials: Using 3D bioprinting, we create sustainable optical materials and living materials with programmable growth and adaptation.
Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Junwei Wang is a group leader in the Department of Sustainable and Bio-Inspired Materials, headed by Prof. Silvia Vignolini at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.
Dr. Wang obtained his bachelor degree in Material Science and Engineering in Tongji University (Shanghai, China) in 2013, and master degree in Advanced Materials and Processes in Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Erlangen, Germany) in 2016. He finished his PhD in Erlangen in 2021, on the topic of confined colloidal self-assembly under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Vogel, and started working on bacteria-based structural colour materials in the group of Prof. Silvia Vignolini in University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) from 2022. Since 2023, he joined the Department of Sustainable and Bioinspired Materials in Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces to develop bacteria-based living materials.