What we do
Understanding and engineering the basic principles of life
Our mission is to advance the understanding of the physics of living systems across scales to bring solutions to some of the world’s most pressing bioengineering and health issues. To achieve this, we combine novel physics-centered experimental methods, system-level computational approaches, and conceptual bottom-up theory to decipher the physical laws governing the dynamic organization of life from molecules to cells. We re-engineer life-like processes and systems by employing state-of-the-art technologies and by developing novel life-inspired approaches. Our initiative is jointly supported by the LMU Center for NanoScience, the LMU Gene Center, and the LMU Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics.
Engineering Life Seminar
July 28 at 5.00 pm CEST
Jan-Philipp Junker, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Cell fate decisions in health and disease
Every time an egg is fertilized, the cellular diversity of an animal must be built again from scratch. This is achieved by the differentiation of initially pluripotent cells into a multitude of different cell types with distinct gene expression programs. A key goal of developmental biology is to understand how the large variety of different cell types in a fully grown organism is formed. Identification of cell types can be performed in a systematic manner based on single-cell RNA sequencing. However, in such snapshot data the information about the lineage history of cells is lost. Here, I present LINNAEUS, a strategy for massively parallel lineage tracing on the single cell level based on Cas9-induced genetic barcodes. We use LINNAEUS to reconstruct developmental lineage trees in zebrafish at larval stages, and we demonstrate the potential of our approach for studying organ regeneration upon injury. Specifically, use our method to identify the origin and function of transient pro-regenerative cell states that are generated upon heart injury.
Upcoming seminars
October 27
Stephen Quake, Stanford University
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November 3
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November 24
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Past seminars
Ebbe Sloth Andersen
Aarhus University
RNA origami: The art of folding an RNA strand to create nanoscale shapes
Hao Yan
Arizona State University
Designer Nucleic Acid Architectures for Programmable Self-assembly
Joachim Spatz
MPI for Medical Research Heidelberg
Matter to Life: Bottom-Up Assembly of Synthetic Cells
Stirling Churchman
Harvard Medical School
The dynamics of gene expression, from the nucleus to mitochondria
Donald E. Ingber
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Human Organ Chips: Reverse Engineering Human Biology for Medical Applications
Jochen Guck
MPI for the Science of Light
Erlangen
Physical states of cells somewhere between life and death
Alena Khmelinskaia
University of Bonn
Expanding the repertoire of de novo protein assemblies
Steffen Rulands
MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems
Understanding collective processes in the cell nucleus using single-cell genomics
Cameron Myhrvold
Princeton University
CRISPR-based technologies for detecting and destroying RNA viruses
Cathleen Zeymer
TU München
Design and engineering of lanthanide-binding proteins: from de novo metal coordination to catalysis
Irene Chen
University of California at Los Angeles
Emergent by-products of RNA evolution
Stephan W. Grill
MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Condensation of proteins on and with DNA
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