GRK 3142:  The Biological Making of Materials

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine ; Materials Science
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 547089869

Organisms produce a staggering array of versatile materials by controlling the hierarchical organization of a limited set of building blocks. They achieve this in aqueous environments at ambient pressure and temperature, thus may serve as architypes for the sustainable design and processing of bio-inspired materials. To date, dedicated research into the formation mechanisms of biological materials is still scant and needs to be stimulated. Towards this end, the primary goal of the RTG “Biological Making of Materials” is to train a new generation of researchers that are set to unravel the mechanisms employed by organisms to form functional materials and control their properties in space and time. This new type of "Materials Biologists" will be equipped with a toolkit to answer materials-relevant questions within biological settings, to collaborate with materials scientists and engineers, and to integrate bioscience and materials science innovatively in developing sustainable materials synthesis and processing routes. Moreover, well trained Materials Biologists will be crucial for advancing other technological applications such as engineered living materials, implantable scaffolds, tissue engineering and bioelectronics. We will study biological materials represented in three major classes of materials: biominerals, polysaccharides and proteins. Importantly, our investigations will cross boundaries between these classes and will address the formation of materials at multiple length scales - from subcellular compartments to the tissue level. Our team of fifteen principal investigators includes biologists, chemists, physicists, materials scientists and mathematicians, working together to launch an interdisciplinary training program. We will explore the formation of biological materials in a set of biological systems to uncover the importance of biosynthetic and morphogenetic pathways, including liquid-liquid phase separation, crystallization, compartmentalization, mechanical feedback, directed cellular flows and more, requiring broad expertise from soft-matter physics to cellular biology. The RTG approaches the "Biological Making of Materials" by examining a phylogenetically diverse group of organisms to identify both common and unique solutions to materials requirements found in nature. The insight gained from natural biosynthesis and processing routes will ultimately stimulate the development of bioinspired sustainable materials-processing techniques.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
• Spokesperson: Professorin Yael Politi, Ph.D.
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Simon Alberti; Luca Bertinetti, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Henrik Bringmann; Professor Dr. Christian Dahmann; Professorin Dr. Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich; Professor Dr. Benjamin M. Friedrich; Professorin Dr. Franziska Knopf; Professor Dr. Nils Kröger; Rita Mateus, Ph.D.; Nicole Poulsen, Ph.D.; Dr. James Saenz; Professor Dr. Michael Schroeder; Professor Dr. Axel Voigt; Dr. Igor Zlotnikov