With the Flick of a Switch: Shaping Cells with Light

The therapeutic potential of this research is immense

15-Apr-2024 - 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 ...

Let’s build a cell

Researchers engineer a minimal synthetic cellular system to study basic cell function

24-Jan-2020 - Cells are the basic unit of life. They provide an environment for the fundamental molecules of life to interact, for reactions to take place and sustain life. However, the biological cell is very complicated, making it difficult to understand what takes place inside it. One way to tackle this ...

Diagnostics for everyone

Researchers present a cost-effective machine for the production of microarrays

16-Oct-2019 - Microarrays are state-of-the-art tools in molecular biology that enable the rapid and parallel diagnosis of various diseases. Therefore, they are indispensable for the development of new vaccines. Like a computer chip, microarrays contain a lot of information in the smallest space. Microarrays ...

Otto Hahn Medal for Sanja Sviben

Award for research of biomineralization in coccolithophorid algae

12-Jun-2018 - Sanja Sviben has been awarded with the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society (MPG). She will receive the award during the annual meeting of the MPG, which takes place from June 13th-14th in Heidelberg. The society recognizes her outstanding doctoral thesis on the investigation of the ...

Nanotubes: cellular membranes on supply

Osmotic forces play a role in nanotube formation in cells

16-Mar-2011 - When unfolding a tent for the first time, you may wonder how the huge tarpaulin fits into a bag the size of a football. Biologists wonder about something similar: when a cell divides, the surface area of the cell membrane grows. Moreover, when molecules are brought from one organelle to another ...

Energy-saving powder

13-Nov-2009 - It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and ...

Oscillating Pattern in Nanoparticle Crystallisation

Max Planck researchers in Potsdam demonstrate an oscillating pattern in nanoparticle crystallisation and self-organisation

30-Jun-2006 - In order to survive, biological systems need to form patterns and organise themselves. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, have now combined self-organisation with chemical pattern formation. Scientists are especially interested in oscillating ...