Contact: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Campus North) Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen Germany Tel: +49-724782-9175 Fax: +49-7247-82-3354 RESEARCH MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS HOME MEMBERS CONTACT The University of Heidelberg, Department of Applied Physical Chemistry The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Toxicology and Genetics We are a research group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany that uses organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, cell biology and microbiology approaches to develop innovative research tools and to answer important biological questions. The goal of our research is to gain better understanding of biological interfaces and to advance our ability to effectively control and direct behavior of cells and bacteria. We are working on the development of biologically active functional polymer surfaces and materials, "smart" switchable polymer surfaces, and gradient surfaces that we use for fundamental investigation of biological interfaces, for studying cell- and bacteria-surface interactions and for studying biofouling. The motivation behind our research is: to learn how cells and bacteria interact with surfaces; to develop biocompatible, biomimetic and "smart" materials that can improve performance of existing biomedical or cell culture devices; and to use this knowledge and materials to achieve control over behavior of cells and bacteria on surfaces. Our research is very interdisciplinary and we closely collaborate with biologists and physicists. Research Group of Functional and Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Materials