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
February 16 at 5.00 pm CET
Michael Levin, Tufts University
Engineering with agential materials: from evolution to biological robotics
A remarkable fact distinguishing biological bodies from current robotics is that they are made of cells, which are themselves active agents with problem-solving capacities that evolved during their time as free-living unicellular organisms. How do small components scale their capabilities into emergent larger-scale systems that solve problems in new spaces? How can evolution, and bioengineers, achieve adaptive complexity by behavior-shaping, not micromanaging, this remarkable agential material? In this talk, I will describe the mechanisms and algorithms by which non-neural bioelectricity enables cells to join into networks that navigate and solve problems in anatomical morphospace, and show synthetic life forms that offer new ways to think about control of form and function. More broadly, I will discuss the multi-scale competency architecture of life, and its implications ranging across evolutionary biology, regenerative medicine, synthetic bioengineering, and cancer medicine.
Upcoming seminars
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Past seminars
Maartje Bastings
EPFL
TRigidity at the Nanoscale: Engineering (Super-)Selective Interactions with DNA
Hagan Bayley
University of Oxford
Two aspects of protein nanopore technology that require more thought
Alexander A. Green
Biomedical Engineering Department, Boston University
Building Biological Control Systems Through RNA Engineering
Jan-Philipp Junker
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Cell fate decisions in health and disease
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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