Matter to Life Lecture Series

Weekly lecture series held every Wednesday at 2 pm CET!

Get to know the Max Planck School Matter to Life

Q&A about your application for the Matter to Life program

The MtL coordinators will give an overview about the school for everyone interested. Get to know our combined Master's & PhD program. We're looking forward to your questions!

November 18^th at 2 pm CET - register here

Matter to Life Lecture Series

The faculty of the Max Planck School Matter to Life will present their research in a weekly virtual lecture. See the upcoming schedule below for a list of talks and to sign up!

October 21^st at 2 pm CET - 
"Feeling the Force: Protein Molecules and Materials as Mechano-Sensors"

Prof. Frauke Gräter 
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) & Heidelberg University

November 4^th at 2 pm CET - 
"Swimming with Magnets - From Bacteria to Microrobots"

Prof. Stefan Klumpp 
University of Göttingen

November 11^th  at 2 pm CET -
"Controlling the Activity of Drugs, Proteins and Genes by Ultrasound"

Prof. Andreas Herrmann
DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Aachen & RWTH Aachen University

Past lectures

October 14^th at 2 pm CET -
"Physics of Active Droplets"

Prof. Frank Jülicher 
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden & Technical University Dresden

October 7^th at 2 pm CET

Prof. Katharina Landfester 
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz

September 30^th at 2 pm CET -
"Simulation Studies of Pore Formation, Fusion and Fission"

Prof. Marcus Müller 
University of Göttingen

September 16^th at 2 pm CET - 
"The Role of Phase Separation in Physiology and Disease"

Prof. Anthony Hyman 
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden

September 2^nd at 2 pm CET - 
"A Minimal Cytoskeleton - Filament Mechanics and Interactions"

Prof. Sarah Köster 
University of Göttingen

August 26^th at 2 pm CET -
"Emerging Material Robotics"

Matter to Life Guest Speaker Dr. Stoyan Smoukov 
Queen Mary University of London

August 19^th at 2 pm CET - 
"Feeling for Cell Function"

Prof. Jochen Guck 
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light

August 12^th at 2 pm CET -
"Drop by Drop Towards an Artificial Chloroplast – Building Soft Matter Machines to Fix Carbon Dioxide"

Prof. Tobias Erb 
Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

August 5^th at 2 pm CET -
"Nanoscale Contact Area of Soft Objects upon Adhesion”

Prof. Karin Jacobs 
University of Saarland

July 29^th at 2 pm CET -
"Dynamic Matter Through Self-Assembly Inspired by Life"

Prof. Job Boekhoven 
Technical University of Munich

July 22^nd at 2 pm CET -
"Designing Complex Biofunctional Materials through the Combination of Opposite Properties”

Matter to Life Guest Speaker: Dr. Pavel Levkin 
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

July 15^th at 2 pm CET -
"How Non-Muscle Cells Combine Signaling and Self-Assembly to Generate Force on Demand”

Prof. Ulrich Schwarz
Heidelberg University

July 8^th at 2 pm CET -
"Chemically Active Matter"

Prof. Ramin Golestanian 
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen & University of Göttingen

July 1^st at 2 pm CET -
"From Cardiomyocyte to Whole Heart: Three-Dimensional Structure Analysis by X-Ray Diffraction and Tomography"

Prof. Tim Salditt
University of Göttingen

June 24^th at 2 pm CET -
"Cortex Mechanics of Cells - Where Bottom-Up and Top-Down Strategies Meet"

Prof. Andreas Janshoff
University of Göttingen

June 17^th at 2 pm CET -
"From 3D to 2D: Functional Multicomponent Membranes on Supports"

Prof. Claudia Steinem 
University of Göttingen

June 10^th at 2 pm CET -
"Reconstitution of 'Life-like' out-of Equilibrium Systems”

Prof. Philippe Bastiaens 
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund & TU Dortmund University

June 3^rd at 2 pm CET -
"Growing Tissues One Cell at a Time: Patient-Derived Organoids for Drug Screening"

Prof. Michael Boutros
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg & Heidelberg University

May 27^th at 2 pm CET -
"Nanomachines at Work: Atomistic Simulations of Biomolecular Systems"

Prof. Helmut Grubmüller
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen & University of Göttingen
Click here for answers to remaining questions from our Q&A session

May 20^th at 2 pm CET -
"Growing Tissues with Synthetic Building Blocks"

Prof. Laura De Laporte  
Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Aachen & RWTH Aachen

May 13^th at 2 pm CET
"From Fluid Based Transport Networks in the Brain to Building Synthonems by Synthetic Biology"

Prof. Eberhard Bodenschatz 
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen & University of Göttingen

May 6^th at 2 pm CET -
“Protein Self-Organization: Design Features of Life“

Prof. Petra Schwille
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich & Technical University of Munich

April 29^th at 2 pm CET - 
"Metal-based Sensors and Devices for Biological Systems"

Prof. Peter Comba 
Heidelberg University

April 22^nd at 2 pm CET - 
"Synthetic DNA Machines to fight Viruses and other Troubles"

Prof. Hendrik Dietz
Technical University of Munich

April 15^th at 2 pm CET -
"Future Materials Inspired by the Chemistry of Life"

Prof. Martin Möller
Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials & RWTH Aachen

April 8^th at 2 pm CET - "How to Build a Cell Bottom-Up"

Prof. Joachim Spatz
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research & Heidelberg University