Levkin Research Group of Biofunctional Materials

Annual ECLIPSE meeting in beutiful Sicily - EIC Pathfinder EU Project: https://eclipse-project.eu/

In this work, we continued to develop the method for fabricating functional porous 3D structures. In this ChemComm paper, we extended our approach to the thiol-ene chemistry, which surprisingly enhanced the mechanical properties of the macroporous 3D structures, compared to their polymethacrylate counterparts. More details in the publication: „3D printing of reactive macroporous polymers via thiol-ene chemistry and polymerization-induced phase separation“. Congratulations to Nikolaj K Mandsberg and Fatma Aslan! 👏🏼👏🏼 Read the full article here.

Two more patents from the Levkin Group have been granted. Congratulations to all the inventors!

 A: „Patterned substrate having hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas and method for producing the same“. – method for making hydrophilic and omniphobic patterns for confining organic solvents.
European Patent Nr. 3 205 394
Inventors: Pavel Levkin, Wenqian Feng, Linxian Li 

B: “Patterned substate having hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas” – method for making SH-SL patterns for aqueous solutions
European Patent Nr. 3 733 277
Inventors: Pavel Levkin, Michael Grunze, Zheqin Dong, Konstantin Demir, Simon Widmaier, Marius Brehm, Anna Popova

Check out Joaquin, Pavel, and Anna´s paper in Droplet on a Digital Twin of a Droplet Microarray where we study different aspects of the behavior of arrays of nanoliter droplets. Fantastic collaboration with the Britta Nestler´s group. Read the full article here.

Our traditional annual winter group retreat in the Black Forest. It was fantastic — talks, scientific discussions, brainstorming, hikes, games, cooking, and time spent together with the group <3

Our very own Dr. Janne Wiedmann recently won the prize for the best poster at the EFMC-ASMC International Symposium on Advances and Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (September 2023, Zagreb) 😃 We are super proud of you - well done! :)

https://www.efmc-asmc.org/prizes

Prof. Levkin participates in the World Laureate Forum (WLF) in Shanghai (https://2023.wlaforum.com/en), which brings together about 200 scientists from all over the world including many recipients of prestigious awards, such as the Nobel Prize, the Turing Award, the Wolf Prize, the Breakthrough Prize, the Fields Medal, etc. The WLF is committed to "promote basic science, advocate for international cooperation, and support the development of youth".

Prof. Levkin discusses about our recent development of UV-based method for the degradation and recycling of diapers (superabsorbers) on Programm BR24: Click for audio file

News articles (click to read articles): 

• Scientists improve diaper recycling
  
• Diapers reloaded: 200 times faster recycling with light - Recycled plastic molecules can be used in many way
• Windeln reloaded: 200-mal schneller recyceln mit Licht – Recycelte Kunststoffmoleküle vielseitig einsetzbar
• Diapers transformed into raw materials by light
• Windeln 200-mal schneller recyceln mit Licht
• KIT: Windeln reloaded: 200-mal schneller recyceln mit Licht
• Windeln durch Licht in Rohstoffe verwandelt
• Vielseitig anwendbar: Recycelte Polymere aus Windeleinlagen
• So kann man Superabsorber aus vollen Windeln recyceln
• Wie man Windeln zu Verdickungsmitteln und Haftklebstoffen recyclen kann

Read the full article here.

A very warm welcome to the newest member of our family, Tatiana Starikova! We are very excited to work with you and look forward to being a part of your wonderful scientific journey. Welcome! :D

2 million tons (yearly) of non-recyclable superabsorbers (diapers) may no longer end up in landfills or incinerators. We report a rapid UV-based recycling method for sodium polyacrylate hydrogels, accelerating the degradation time by 200x. No chemicals, just water and UV! The product of pampers degradation is soluble sodium polyacrylate with numerous applications - from eco-friendly dyes to pressure-sensitive adhesives. This simple new approach is fast, scalable, and green, promising a sustainable future for these polymers. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Zhenwu, whose paper on “High-Performance Pressure Sensors based on Shaped Gel Droplet Arrays” has been accepted in Small! Great job! We wish you all the best in your new Postdoc position at Harvard.

Congratulations to Julius Höpfner! His paper "On-chip palladium-catalyzed synthesis of biphenyls in nanoscale" has been just accepted for publication in Small. Well done, Julius!

Biggest congratulations! 🥳🥳🥳 

Julius is a Master's student that recently joined us for his thesis. He is a Mechanical Engineer interested in tissue engineering and biofabrication. Hurray and welcome! :) 

Mariia's paper just got published in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering! :)

Here, Mariia and coauthor explore polymer structures with nano-, micro-, and macroporosity, fabricated via 3D printing, for lightweight materials with high mechanical durability. The relationship between pore size, density, and stiffness is investigated, highlighting the potential for further research on lattice architectures and other printing methods. 

Biggest congratulations! 🥳🥳🥳 Link to paper.

We recently created a Twitter account for our group - stay easily up to date by following us - click here!

Matthew Morben from Doane University just joined us as an intern for the Summer. Excited to have you with us :D 

Congratulations to Anna Popova, Haijun Cui and Sun Xueyuan, whose paper has been just accepted for publication in Advanced Healthcare Materials: "Repurposing FDA-Approved Drugs for Temozolomide-resistant IDH1 Mutant Glioma using High-Throughput Miniaturized Screening on Droplet Microarray Chip"!🥳🥳🥳

In this paper, several thousands of FDA approved drugs were screened with Glioma spheroids. This was a very successful collaboration with the group of Sevin Turcan from Heidelberg/DKFZ. The screen identified several novel compounds potent against glioma (brain tumor).

Link to paper :)

We are currently seeking a highly motivated and talented individual to join our team as a PhD student. The successful candidate will have a background in chemistry or materials science, with a keen interest in sensors, diagnostics, surface coating and chemical surface modification.

Read more under "Open Positions".

We present our comprehensive concept that considers assisted image annotation, algorithms for image processing of grid-like high-throughput experiments, and enhanced learning processes. Congratulations to Marcel and co-authors (incl. Razan,Joaquin, Anna, and Pavel)!

Link to the paper.