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.

We have several open Ph.D. positions at the moment. We are looking for highly motivated students majored in chemistry or polymer chemistry. Applications should be sent by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Die Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft fördert fünf neue Nachwuchsgruppen am KIT. Damit können fünf herausragende junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler in Karlsruhe ihre eigenen Forschungsgruppen aufbauen und leiten. Jede Nachwuchsgruppenleitungsstelle ist mit einem Jahresbudget von mindestens 250.000 Euro über fünf Jahre....

Am Institut für Toxikologie und Genetik (ITG) des KIT widmet sich die Gruppe "Functional and Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Surfaces" von Dr. Pavel Levkin gemeinsam mit Forschern der Universität Heidelberg der Synthese neuartiger Materialien auf Polymer-Basis mit bestimmten Eigenschaften, was Morphologie, Oberflächenchemie und Elastizität betrifft, und untersucht das Verhalten von Zellen und bakteriellen Biofilmen auf der Oberfläche solcher Materialien.