It is with great pleasure that I can announce the positive outcome of my habilitation procedure after a successful defense (research talk and teaching lecture) today.
Thank you very much to everyone who supported me along the way!

Our #chemistree entry this year. Enjoy the festive season!

And just like that, 2025 will be my most-cited year to date :)

#ChemSky

Seine Staatssekretärin im Bundesumweltministerium war von 2009-2013, also im relevanten Zeitraum eine gewisse Katharina Reiche. Sie ist konsequent, das muss ich ihr lassen.

Bio‐Based Microfluidics With Snail Slime: A By‐Product of Agriculture Plays an Exciting Role in the Chemistry of Microfluidic Reaction Chambers Due to a broad spectrum of active ingredients, snail slime presents a variety of exciting physical properties and chemical reactivities. Especially in the role of the reduction- and stabilizing agent...

Gardening meets Polymer Science: Andrea used snail slime in hydrogel-based microfluidics. This goes to show that many overlooked natural carbon sources can be highly functional and chemically very much useful. Out now in Macromolecular Rapid Communications!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Nanoprecipitation and Drug Delivery with PMTC: Toward Biomedical Application of Polyesters from Radical Ring‐Opening Polymerization Homopolyester from Radical Ring-Opening-Polymerisation (RROP) have been applied in nanoprecipitation to form nanoparticles for drug delivery. These nanoparticles are stable over various weeks and sho....

Why bother with a block-copolymer, when a homopolymer works better? Nanoprecipitation of PMTC from Radical Ring-Opening Polymerisation is not toxic and very potent to deliver Coumarine to cells - if the sweet spot of branching and molar mass is hit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Degradable Nanocarriers Capable of Gene Delivery Derived from pH‐Responsive Polyester: RROP Copolymerization Between Cyclic Ketene Acetals Polyesters with inherent pH-sensitivity are prepared through radical ring-opening polymerization between cyclic ketene acetals. These polyesters demonstrate great potential as alternatives to convent....

Delivery of genetic material into cells - our most compelling case for cyclic ketene acetals. Cationic lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles with low toxicity and very good biodegradability. Now out in MARC.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Big thanks to Yiyi Deng, Jonas Debbeler + Anja Träger

Aber das funktioniert doch noch!!! 😅

Polyester Networks from Radical Ring-Opening Polymerization Radical ring-opening polymerization (RROP) of cyclic ketene acetals (CKAs) constitutes a powerful route to accessing degradable polyesters with unique properties. These multifaceted materials are mainly known as linear polymers. Polymer networks based on RROP have been scarcely described in the literature, and existing studies have focused mainly on incorporating complementary proportions of degradable units through RROP. The current study fills this critical gap and reports the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of polymer networks solely derived from RROP of CKAs, providing key insights into the network formation as well as the underpinning structure–property-relationship. Specifically, 2-methylene-1,3,6-trioxocane (MTC) was utilized as the main CKA building block in conjunction with a CKA cross-linker as well as a vinyl ether-based cross-linker. The polymer network formation was performed in bulk and in solution to exploit the solvent’s mediating effect. Subsequent comprehensive analysis of the gels’ macroscopic properties revealed the formation of hydrophobic 3D networks with storage moduli ranging from 1.9 to 312 kPa in the dry state, depending on the kind and amount of the employed cross-linker and the presence of solvent. In addition, the degradation behavior of these materials under alkaline conditions was examined, evidencing their susceptibility to rapid hydrolysis. These readily degradable hydrolyzable networks from RROP with tailored mechanical strength might hold promise in different fields of application ranging from 3D cell culture to polymeric scaffolds in tissue engineering.

I am happy to share that radical ring-opening polymerisation (RROP) is now able to form networks just by itself! 3D structures formed just from CKAs can even keep up with a vinylic cross-linker!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Now out in @pubs.acs.org ACS Applied Polymer Materials!

Festnahmewelle in New York - Rund 200 Schwule inhaftiert Der Vorwurf stimmt: Die New Yorker Polizei hat in der U-Bahn Penn Station über 200 Schwule in eine Falle gelockt und dann wegen Cruising verhaftet.

Bitte lesen. Wer glaubt, es bliebe bei der Menschenjagd auf Migranten und Linke, sollte so langsam die Realität zur Kenntnis nehmen.

Congratulations to Sven Schäfer for winning the poster prize at @evonik.bsky.social meets Science 2025 with our contribution on RROP of CKAs! It was a short, intense but very insightful symposium in Heidelberg. #ems2025

Together with Andrea Koball and Doreen Hofmann, the group had a good representation at #bps25 Thanks a bunch to the organisers!

Das Deutschlandticket soll ab Januar 63 Euro kosten.
Oder wie es intern auch heißt: das 7-Mal-9-Euro-Ticket.

I had a blast at the @scienceslam.de in Hamburg at Uebel & Gefährlich. Wonderful evening with amazing science presented in very entertaining talks. Congrats to Verena Schulze for the deserving victory!

The rising danger of AI-generated images in nanomaterials science and what we can do about it - Nature Nanotechnology Generative AI has made it trivial to generate fake microscopy images that are indistinguishable from real images, even for experts. As researchers in nanoscience, it is time for us to face this realit...

Now in @natnano.nature.com: We need to acknowledge that - as with all new tech - AI also poses hazards we need to be aware of. Thanks @besfordgroup.bsky.social (Quinn A. Besford 🇦🇺🇩🇪🇺🇦) for leading this effort.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Auch erschreckend, wie sehr der Ruf nach Abbau der umweltschädlichen Subventionen verstummt ist. Und die Union nicht versteht, dass ein schwacher Sozialstaat auf lange Sicht auch ihr Ende ist, weil eine kaputte Gesellschaft halt kaputt ist.

The worst thing is actually that this is not a fake image.

IPF was part of the "Dresden is(s)t bunt" on Monday. Including experiments for kids and showing that Dresden can be open to foreigners and celebrate an international culture.
I have to admit though that the predominant skin colour on this picture speaks volumes about the issues in the city.

Just gotta ask the correct AI!

Oh, yes, I remember that. And the remaining "1" it was based upon.

It was a privilege, quite some fun and also a bit of an honor to ring the last-lap bell continously on national television for the National Championships this weekend as part of "Die Finals" 2025 in Dresden. Maybe not as good as @simonhammann.bsky.social in Berlin back in 2018, but I tried :)

Dass die Wirtschaftsministerin eine Lobbyministerin ist, zeigt sich unter anderem dadurch, dass sie ungefiltert die Position der Arbeitgeber vertritt.

Beschreibung oder Sehnsucht?

Mountaineering is my passion. Guiding my parents (75, 71) onto our maybe last shared 4000m-peak (Vincentpyramide, 4217m), was an absolute privilege and honour. No cable car was used up or down and a good friend joined as well. Really proud of and happy for them!

Black and white photo of a young girl wearing a dress and a bow in their hair

9 July 1937 | A French Jewish girl, Rosette Garbarz, was born in Paris.

In August 1942 she was deported to #Auschwitz and after the selection murdered in a gas chamber.

Fine‐Tuning the Crystallinity and Enzymatic Degradation of Nanoparticles Produced by Radical Ring‐Opening Polymerization (RROP) Amphiphilic block-copolymers were obtained from radical ring-opening polymerization (RROP) of 2-methylene-1,3,6-trioxocane (MTC) and 2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane (MDO). Targeted variations in the MTC/MD...

Unlocking a new RROP-Level with Nathany Lisbôa: Fine-tuning crystallinity and hence degradation speed by copolymerising CKAs! A bit suprisingly, hydrophobicity also plays a role as our enzyme seems to prefer a more hydrophobic polymer in its' pocket. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Dynamic Characteristics of Redox‐ and Thermoresponsive Hydrogel Films on the Nanometer Scale to Compensate Structure Defects Dually responsive nanogel-films have undergone temperature- and redox-cycles. These have shown that synthetic stress has to be released before predictive behaviour can be reached.

To get the most out of your precious responsive hydrogels, a little pre-treatment does the trick as Doreen Hofmann has shown here quite nicely. You need to clear out possible defects or stresses from synthesis to fully unlock your functions. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Call me old-fashioned, but 180 € seems expensive :)

When molecules stop brownian motion - don't panik, it's 0K!