Max Planck School Matter to Life

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Aysecan Ünal wearing a sweater with orange and purple stripes, standing against a brick wall.

On #InternationalWomensDay our PhD candidate Aysecan shares what resilience, interdisciplinary science, and a pair of running shoes taught her along the way.

Read the full interview here 👉 mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/aysecans-story

#mattertolife #WomenInScience #passionforscience

Flyer for the title, including the title "Reprogramming malignant gene expression with chemical inducers of proximity" and a call to register

The Matter to Life Lecture Series continues on 11 March at 3 pm CET with MtL Fellow Roman Sarott @romansarott.bsky.social from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research @mpi-mr.bsky.social!

Register now: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Coarse-Grained Martini 3 Model of Chondroitin Sulfate A Chondroitin sulfate A (CSA) is a negatively charged linear glycosaminoglycan that plays a vital role in many biological processes. Research on CSA has been challenging due to its size, chemical heterogeneity, and multitude of binding partners. To address these issues, we developed a model of CSA for coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations based on the Martini 3 force field. We demonstrate that this model is capable of reproducing atomistic properties of the repeating CSA disaccharide unit, including its molecular volume, bonded interactions, and structural polymer properties of CSA chains of different lengths. In particular, for biologically relevant long chains and despite using an explicit solvent, the computational cost is significantly reduced, relative to the cost equivalent atomistic simulations would require. The compatibility of the model with the Martini Go̅ protein model was tested by retrieving the force–response relationship of the CSA–malaria adhesin VAR2CSA complex. Importantly, we explored the influence of electrostatics on CSA aggregation. We show that the default Martini 3 parameters lead to overaggregation. We provide at least three different strategies to alleviate this issue, making use of a bigger bead for sodium cations, reflecting their hydration shell, partial ionic charges as a mean-field resource to take into account electronic polarizability, and, optionally, particle mesh Ewald summation as a more robust treatment of long-range electrostatics. Our model enables predictive modeling of CSA and potentially other chondroitin sulfates with the Martini 3 force field. In addition, this model provides insights for the further development of coarse-grained models of highly charged systems.

🧪 Simulating large biomolecules without massive compute costs

This new study from the group Frauke Gräter presents a coarse-grained model of chondroitin sulfate A (CSA) using the Martini 3 framework.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@mpip-mainz.mpg.de @hitsters.bsky.social

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Today we would like to highlight and celebrate our brilliant female PhD candidates who represent our Female Power in Science.

#WomenInSTEM #Representation #GirlPower

📣 Don't forget to join us on Wednesday!
Register now at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

👩🔬On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Matter to Life Lecture Series will highlight the work of our Fellow Seraphine Wegner from @uni-muenster.de. Join us for her talk on “Spatiotemporal control in synthetic and living cells using light”.
11 Feb at 3 PM CET: bit.ly/3ZKkf99

📣 Don't forget to join us on Wednesday! Register now at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Flyer for the lecture that takes place on January 21st at 3 pm CET

We’re excited to kick off 2026 with a rescheduled talk in the Matter to Life Lecture Series:
“Droplets Come to Life” by MtL Fellow David Zwicker @zwickergroup.bsky.social from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization 🙌

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Our #mattertolife PhD candidate Christoph Karfusehr will defend his PhD thesis next Tuesday, 13 January 2026 at 3 pm.
Register here and join the defense live on Zoom 👉 us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Upcoming Lectures & Events – Matter to Life Program Explore upcoming Matter to Life events and join free faculty lectures highlighting interdisciplinary research across chemistry, physics, and biology.

Each talk is followed by a Q&A session, offering you the opportunity to ask the speaker anything related to their work!

👉 Register now on our website: mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/news-and-eve...

From February to May, you can then meet some of our newest faculty members: Seraphine Wegner from @uni-muenster.de, Roman Sarott from @mpi-mr.bsky.social, Laura Heinen from DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials and Thomas Scheibel from @unibayreuth.bsky.social!

After we had to cancel his talk previously, we are glad to welcome David Zwicker @zwickergroup.bsky.social from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization on January 21st! We are looking forward to learning about "Droplets Come to Life" 👏

List of MtL Lecture Series in 2026: David Zwicker on January 21st, Seraphine Wegner on February 11th, Roman Sarott on March 11th, Laura Heinen on April 15th and Thomas Scheibel on May 13th. All talks take place at 3pm. At the bottom it says "... and more!"

Happy holidays from the Max Planck School Matter to Life! 🎄❄️

Our Lecture Series will be back next year, exploring “What is life?” with free talks by our MtL faculty via Zoom Webinar. Mark your calendars, stay curious, and see you in 2026 🙌

mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/news-and-eve...

3rd Advent, 40 brilliant minds, big ideas ✨
Our Fellows met in Heilbronn to reflect on the past seven years of Matter to Life and shape the New Era ahead. Read more 👉 mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/fellow-meeti...

Its a new day..its a new dawn!
Fellows from #mattertolife have convened at Heilbronn to recap the path traversed, give feedback, and brainstorm about what lies ahead.
Lets shape the future that advances the research field and empowers our PhD candidates!

Flyer for the lecture, which takes place on December 10th at 3 pm (Central European Time)

🎄❄️ Let’s wrap up the year with an MtL Lecture Series Christmas Special with guest speaker Dr. Michael Levin @drmichaellevin.bsky.social from @tufts.edu! Don't miss "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Behavioral Sciences in Developmental Biology and Bioengineering”: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Couldn't join? Watch the recording here: us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/uF...
Only available until December 3rd!

Design of a Trigger‐Responsive Photothermal Vesicle‐Based Cargo Delivery Platform Drug delivery is reimagined with a vesicle platform that responds only to light. Gold nanorods are anchored to giant unilamellar vesicles through cholesterol, and tuning the cholesterol concentration...

A new publication from our PhD graduate, Anastassiya Schramm! 📜
They developed NIR responsive cargo delivery platform based on lipid vesicles and gold nanorods, which could then be used to kill bacteria in a controlled, light-triggered way.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A chemist, a biologist, and a physicist walk into a symposium…

Check out our recap of this year's #mattertolife Fall Days! 👉
mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/426906/mtl-f...

@graeterlab.bsky.social
@landfesterdept.bsky.social
@weilgroup.bsky.social

There's only one week left to apply to our Integrated MSc/PhD program - apply now! mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/application

Don't forget to register! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Flyer for the lecture that takes place on November 26th at 3 pm (Central European Time)

Tune in next week to our next virtual lecture by MtL Fellow Viktorija Glembockyte @glembockyte.bsky.social from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research @mpi-mr.bsky.social. She will speak about "Engineering Optical Nanoscale Tools with DNA". 🧬

Register now 👉 us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

A group of Matter to Life PhD candidates are sitting at a table on a terrace with drinks and papers. In the background, a few clouds can be seen in the sky.

View of a cable car ascending a rocky mountain slope toward the Schneefernerhaus research station on the Zugspitze under a clear blue sky.

Wide mountain panorama near the Zugspitze with sharp, dark ridges, light rocky terrain in the foreground, and a bright blue sky with scattered clouds above.

Science at New Heights🏔️ In August, our #mattertolife community headed to the Zugspitze (2,962 m) for a 4-day symposium organized by our PhD candidates Sophia Hampe & Irene Pellini. Read the recap 👉 mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/381440/zugsp...

During his Master’s practical training at #mattertolife, Andrey Sysoev joined a collaborative project by Petra Schwille from @mpibiochem.bsky.social and @hendrikdietz.bsky.social from @tum.de, bridging wet-lab work and computational workflows. Read about his experience on our website👉 bit.ly/47Sd0zG

Tomorrow, 12 PM CET:
📣 Last Q&A! Got questions about your application? Bring them!
Then stick around for an Ask-a-Student session right after 😊 register now👇🏻

📢 Don't miss our Lecture Series Alumnus Special - register now! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Join us tomorrow: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Flyer for the lecture, which takes place on 12 November at 3 pm (Central European Time)

"Turning Peptides into Drugs - Protacs and Permeability"

Join us for a special lecture where MtL alumnus Philipp Baur will share insights from his postdoctoral research experience at the University of Queensland.

📍 Our lecture series is open to all. Register now at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...!

Don't forget to register - we will host three info sessions next week! Meet MtL coordinators and students, and ask us any questions regarding the program or your application! mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/get-to-know-...