We are a research group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. We use organic chemistry, polymer chemistry and surface science to develop novel biofunctional surfaces and materials, superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces and micropatterns. We also work on the development of novel drug- and gene-delivery systems. Our research is very interdisciplinary and we closely collaborate with biologists and physicists in Germany, USA and other countries.

Some of our projects are focused on the development of new robust methods for surface modification and creating micropatterns of different functionalities and surface properties. Other projects are more application oriented where we use variety of surface functionalization methods in biological applications to solve fundamental biological questions, such as how to control stem cell behavior in-vitro or how to make patterns of different cell types to study cell signaling processes. In our group both chemists and polymer chemists work together with biologists in different joint projects.

15.05.2013

View Dr. Levkin´s presentation at the 2013 Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting in San Francisco.

 

13.05.2013

Press-release about our recent review in Advanced Materials:
Biologie: Anwendung von wasserliebenden und wasserabstoßenden Mikroschichten

 

05.04.2013

Wenqian Feng joins our group to perform his PhD (Department of Organic Chemistry, Heidelberg University). Welcome!

10.03.2013

Erica´s paper in Advanced Materials will appear on the (back) cover of the journal. Congrats!

01.03.2013

Congratulations to Linxian Li for receiving the "CHINESE GOVERNMENT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SELF-FINANCED STUDENTS ABROAD"!

The award amounts to 6000 US dollars. This year 30 students in Germany have received this prestigious award. The ceremony for students in Germany will be held on April 6th in the Chinese embassy in Berlin.

25.01.2013

Our review on "Emerging Applications of Superhydrophilic-Superhydrophobic Micropatterns" is now online in Advanced Materials. Link

24.01.2013

New Group Photo:

Click to see more photos.

01.10.2012

Priscila Auad, Thiago Felipe and Joao Machado join our group for 1 year as exchange students between Brasil Universities and Heidelberg University. Welcome!

10.10.2012

Erica´s paper "DropletMicroarray: Facile Formation of Arrays of Microdroplets and Hydrogel Micropads for Cell Screening Applications" has been accepted to Lab on a Chip. Congratulations!

20.09.2012

A patent application describing a novel type of cell- and bacteria-resistant coating has been submitted to the European Patent Office. Congratulations to Erica and Junsheng! The work is a cooperation with the Schwartz group in IFG, KIT.

01.08.2012

Linxian´s paper on combinatorial synthesis of vectors for gene-delivery via thiol-yne click chemistry has appeared online in Biomaterials

10.07.2012

Martin Maiwald and Felix Braun join our group as internship students to continue projects started by Aniket and Asritha.

01.07.2012

Kubilay Demir finishes his PhD in the group of Prof. Boutros (DKFZ) and joins our group as a postdoc. Welcome! Kubilay is going to work on the application of our superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic microarrays for the high-throughput cell screening.

22.07.2012

Our new paper "A Biomimetic Lipid Library for Gene Delivery through Thiol-Yne Click Chemistry" has been just accepted to Biomaterials. Congratulations to Linxian!

21.07.2012

A patent application describing the DropletArray method - a new application of superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic micropatterns - has been submitted to the European Patent Office. Congratulations to Erica!

10.06.2012

Proposal for a non-contact liquid dispenser system (100.000€) was supported by the Helmholtz Association.

01.06.2012

Asritha Nallapaneni and Aniket Gudadhe join our group as interns for summer. Welcome!

25.05.2012

Our paper on "Printable Superhydrophilic−Superhydrophobic Micropattern" was just accepted to Langmuir. Congratulations to Junsheng, Erica, Linxian and Asritha!

15.04.2012

Incella GmbH is founded! Incella is a startup that will commercialize new gene- and drug-delivery systems developed in our group and in collaborations. The first product – highly efficient transfection reagent ScreenFect A – is already on the market in Germany, China and Austria. ScreenFect is a result of a collaborative  project with the group of Dr. Gary Davidson. More info is on the website: www.incella.com

15.04.2012

Our website is updated.

01.04.2012

Conny joins our group as a technical assistant. Welcome!

20.11.2011

Congratulations to Florian who has joined the group of Yi Liu in Berkeley (LBNL) (http://foundry.lbl.gov/liugroup/index.html) as an intern student.

01.09.2011: Xin, Bai and Girish join the group as PhD students. All have received external scholarships to pursue their graduate work. Congratulations and welcome!

30.05.2011

Results of Florian’s and Erica’s work are accepted to Angewandte Chemie

20.05.2011

Results of David’s work are published in Advanced Materials

01.04.2011

Barbara Kwiatkowska joined the group as a master student.

29.12.2010

EU patent application based on Florian´s results is submitted with the help of the KIT and the Müller-Boré & Partner law firm

09.12.2010

Results of Florian´s research work lead to receiving the Helmholtz-Enterprise grant for opening a start-up company. More information can be found at the Helmholtz Association website or at the KIT website

01.12.2010

Victoria Nedashkivska joined the group

01.11.2010

Erica Ueda joined the group

01.09.2010

Junsheng Li joined the group

01.08.2010

Alexander Efremov has joined the group

01.06.2010

Linxian Li joined the group

01.01.2010

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 ausgestattet.