Levkin Research Group of Biofunctional Materials

In this paper, we demonstrate the encapsulation of cells or individual cell spheroids within nanoliter-scale hydrogels. This method enables on-demand immobilization of cells or cell spheroids on an array slide, facilitating subsequent culturing, washing, or immersion into media without cell detachment. The selective gelation of individual droplets is particularly interesting, as it allows for sorting cells or single-cell spheroids by stabilizing desired droplets while removing unwanted spheroids from the surface through simple washing. This approach holds potential for high-throughput cell screenings and miniaturized workflows in 3D microenvironments, advancing research in fields such as cell, spheroid or organoid screenings, drug discovery, and precision medicine.

Check out the paper here.

Yesterday, our group visited Wiley in Weinheim, we had a great time talking to the editors and left our mark on their wall at the end! ;)

Congratulations to our two PhD students on successfully defending their dissertations! The celebration continued at our annual Christmas party. Well done!:)

Ever wondered how to perform tens of thousands of nanoliter droplet manipulations in a truly parallel fashion? Here we show a method that enables parallel medium exchange in thousands of nanoliter-scale cell cultures, facilitates the extraction of nanoliter-sized aliquots from thousands of nanodroplets, and allows for the simultaneous transfer of single-cell spheroids between individual 200 nL droplets—in seconds and across thousands of droplets at once! 💪

Check out the paper here.

Today’s photo of our amazing research group dedicated to Dr. Maximilian Seifermann’s farewell party after nearly four incredible years with us. Wishing Max all the best in his future endeavors! 💪

One of the greatest advantages of working in academia is being constantly surrounded by smart, talented, and eternally young people 😂

Functional Surfaces and Micropatterns: from Superhydrophobicity to Drug Discovery. Lecture at the Wiley´s Advanced Summit in September 2024. Many thanks to the entire Wiley team and all the editors of Advanced journals for organizing this wonderful symposium.

Watch the lecture here.

Our paper "Drug‐Induced Differential Gene Expression Analysis on Nanoliter Droplet Microarrays: Enabling Tool for Functional Precision Oncology" has been accepted in Advanced Healthcare Materials!

Congratulations to Razan, Anna, Shraddha, Mei and all co-authors! 💪

Our paper "Highly Parallel and High-Throughput Nanoliter-Scale Liquid, Cell, and Spheroid Manipulation on Droplet Microarray" has been accepted in Advanced Functional Materials!

Congratulations to Joaquin, Anna, Mei, Nikolaj, Julian, Julius, Sida and Markus🥳

We have enhanced the temperature responsiveness of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogels by incorporating hierarchical porosity into the polymer. Nanometer-sized pores were created through polymerization-induced phase separation, while larger pores were formed using 3D printing. This has resulted in PNIPAM 3D structures that exhibit very fast temperature-responsiveness, despite their macroscopic size. Check out our latest paper. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Razan and Anna for winning the best poster award at the SLAS conference in Barcelona! ?

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".

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

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.

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.