Tanja Weil
Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany
”I am a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and trained in macromolecular chemistry. My expertise spans polymer and supramolecular chemistry, chemical biology, and biointerfaces. My team investigates how dynamic molecular assemblies operate in complex biological environments, with particular emphasis on supramolecular polymers that form and function inside cells. We develop adaptive materials capable of exchanging chemical information with living systems and modulating cellular processes through non-genetic mechanisms. This work establishes new principles for material–cell communication and the bottom-up design of programmable, life-like molecular systems.”
”Our research develops adaptive supramolecular and polymer-based systems that interface synthetic and living cells. We assemble functional peptide fibrils and catalytic nanostructures within cellular environments, where they modulate biochemical processes through non-genetic mechanisms. In parallel, we engineer proteinosome-based synthetic cells with minimal metabolic and catalytic networks that exchange metabolites with living cells and establish bidirectional chemical communication. Within SynCell-nExUs, we will investigate how reaction-driven supramolecular assembly, catalysis and compartmentalization can be integrated to create synthetic cells that sense, process and transmit chemical information in living systems. Postdoctoral projects may focus on intracellular supramolecular assembly or metabolically communicating proteinosomes.”
For more information, visit the Department of Prof. Tanja Weil webpage.
| Main area(s) | Sub-area(s) |
|---|---|
| Information processing and evolution of synthetic cells | Synthetic signaling Interfacing synthetic and natural cells Non-equilibrium self-assembly Autocatalytic reaction networks |