Eaton made foundational contributions to understanding how tissues acquire their shapes and sizes, through her work on Drosophila wing morphogenesis and her pioneering studies on the long-range dispersal of morphogens. Beyond her own discoveries, she played a key role connecting biological and physical approaches to study living systems, and was a central figure in establishing Physics of Life as a field. This award reflects her enduring legacy and the spirit of interdisciplinary thinking that she brought to the study of life itself.

The Suzanne Eaton Awards for Physics of Life recognize outstanding scientific contributions to the physics of living systems, encompassing theoretical, experimental, and computational work at the interface of physics and biology. The Awards are presented in two tiers: the Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award and the Suzanne Eaton Rising Star Award. 

The Selection Committee has chosen L. Mahadevan, Professor at Harvard University, as the recipient of the inaugural 2026 Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award. The inaugural 2026 Rising Star Award will go to Anna Erzberger, group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). 

To honour both recipients, an award ceremony will be held at the Annual Meeting of the Physics of Life Excellence Cluster in Dresden (Germany). The event will take place on November 20, 2026 from 9 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and livestreamed for international viewers on the Physics of Life YouTube channel. 

Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award recipient: L. Mahadevan (Harvard University)
L. Mahadevan is the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at Harvard University. His work has helped define physics of life by showing how a small set of theoretical principles closely linked with experiments determine the shapes and motions of multicellular tissues, organs, organisms and their collectives. From gastrulation to gut looping and brain folding, from stem to leaf and flower morphology, his contributions to the field have shown the importance of growth and activity driven instabilities for the emergence of complex functional shapes. Separately, he has illustrated how plants exploit instabilities to turn slow biological processes into fast, robust motion, how rapid muscle contraction rates are ultimately limited by slow water movements, and how the brain, body and environment work together to coordinate the dynamics of locomotion in such instances as crawling worms, slithering snakes and walking and swimming fish. 
Further work by his group on active and collective systems — from cytoskeletal assemblies to cell sheets, and social insects including termite swarms, ant colonies and bee clusters — has framed living collectives as adaptive, sentient matter that uses distributed physical intelligence to solve physiological problems on scales much larger than individuals. The breadth of topics covered by his research is a testament to his remarkable creativity, which has helped exchange ideas between physics, biology, engineering and mathematics, for the benefit of each discipline. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 
“It is a tremendous honor to be the inaugural recipient of the Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life prize. Suzanne Eaton’s infectious enthusiasm for science without boundaries has long been a driver for the field, and I was fortunate to have been part of the circle that she influenced and led. Working at the interface of physics and biology with a wonderful group of students, postdocs and colleagues has been a privilege that I am grateful for, and the award is a recognition of our collective efforts.”

Rising Star Award: Anna Erzberger, EMBL Heidelberg
Anna Erzberger is a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg, where her research investigates the theoretical principles of self-organisation in complex systems, using cellular and multicellular systems as paradigms. Her contributions span the mechanics of early mammalian development, the emergence of supracellular fluidity in patterning processes, and the role of active surfaces and shape fluctuations in cellular signal processing. In 2025, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant and selected as an EMBO Young Investigator. 
“Having our work recognized in association with Suzanne Eaton’s legacy is an incredible honor. To me, her achievements and the way of conducting science revealed under what conditions an enormous domain of problems can become scientifically accessible. A big part of that was an uncompromisingly collaborative approach, that continues to serve as the highest standard of effective interdisciplinarity in our community.”

With its new slogan, “Wo Neugier Wissen schafft" (Where curiosity creates knowledge), and a refreshed design, the Dresden Science Night offered over 800 program items all over Dresden.

Thank you to all volunteers and to our curious visitors!

Overview of the full program at MPI-CBG

Stephan Grill receives 2.5 million euros of funds to pursue research on the ERC project “DNA Sequence-Dependent Structure Formation in the Cell Nucleus.” This project connects biology with physics and theory with experiment, aiming to build a physical theory of genome organization across scales. It will bring an understanding of how DNA sequences control structure formation processes inside the cell nucleus, with broad implications for development and disease.

Only about 1.5% of the human genome makes proteins. Stephan Grill explains, “The remaining 98.5% have been referred to as junk, but this DNA isn’t junk. Instead, it harbors the regulatory blueprint of life. It provides a landscape for the weak association of special proteins that act in concert to build larger assemblies. Where and how these assemblies form ultimately depends on the letter code of DNA, but how the sequence of letters controls the formation of larger architectures in the nucleus remains unclear. These architectures, however, are important; they structure the inside of the cell nucleus to allow the letters to be read out. Our interdisciplinary approach will shed new light on this old unsolved problem, shedding light on how our DNA works and how changes in DNA sequence might cause disease.”

In 2017, Stephan Grill already received an ERC Advanced Grant for his research project on “Chiral Morphogenesis,” and in 2011, he received an ERC Starting Grant.

Congratulations, Stephan!

The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe program. A record of 3,329 proposals was submitted to this competition, up 31% from 2,534 last year. 9.6% of proposals were selected for funding. Estimates show that the grants will create more than 3,000 jobs in the teams of new grantees. The new grantees will be based at universities and research centers in 24 EU Member States and associated countries, notably in the UK (62 grants), Germany (46), Switzerland (32), Spain (29), and France (26). Among the winners are 52 Germans, 45 Britons, and 29 Italians, as well as researchers of 30 other nationalities.

Besides Stephan Grill, two other Saxon researchers also received an ERC Advanced Grant: Beate Escher (Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung UFZ in Leipzig) and Anton Wallner (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf).

Saxony's Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow congratulates,

Congratulations to the awardees on this tremendous success! Securing one of the EU’s most competitive research grants is a remarkable achievement. This award is not only a milestone in their individual scientific careers but also a significant gain for Saxony as a location for research.

Angela Rösen-Wolff, Vice Rector Research and Technology Transfer at TU Dresden, also shares her congratulations,

The ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Professor Stephan Grill is a tremendous recognition of his achievements, to which he has contributed for many years, including his work in the ‘Physics of Life’ Cluster of Excellence. I congratulate him on this great success.

About the ERC

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organization for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialization. A new ERC Plus Grants scheme has been open for applications since June 2026.

ERC Press Release

Press Release of the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (in German)

News Article of the Max Planck Society

TU Dresden Press Release

Two awardees this year accomplished their PhD thesis at or in connection with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG). One awardee is now researching at MPI-CBG and did his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MIS) in Leipzig. 

Kristin Böhlig, one of the awardees, did her PhD in the group of André Nadler at MPI-CBG. She receives the medal for her PhD thesis on “Diacyl and ether lipid probes for mechanistic analysis of lipid transport, metabolism and lipid-protein interactions.” Kristin says: “During my PhD, we developed a new technique to image single lipids in cells. Using a new chemical labeling strategy, we were able to see where specific lipids are located and how they are transported in cells. With the new imaging method, we were able to answer the question of how cells transport specific lipids to their target organelle membranes, and we could show that non-vesicular lipid transport by proteins is the primary mechanism that maintains the membrane composition of specific organelles. I am very grateful to receive the Otto Hahn Medal for my work and want to especially thank my supervisor, Dr. André Nadler, for his outstanding support and my colleagues for great teamwork during my PhD.” As next career step, Kristin works now as postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Chemical Biology in the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry at TU Dresden. 

Alison Kickuth, the second awardee, worked in the group of Jan Brugués, research group leader at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life at TU Dresden and fellow at MPI-CBG. For her PhD thesis on “The Physical Mechanism of Unilateral Cytokinesis,” Alison received one of this years’ Otto Hahn Medal. She says, “During my PhD, I found it fascinating how embryonic cells manage to divide reliably even when the geometry of life seems to work against them. I had the opportunity to use biophysical tools to investigate how an incomplete contractile ring, a temporary cellular structure that “pinches” a dividing cell into two daughter cells, can still drive cell division in early zebrafish embryos. We were able to uncover a mechanical ratchet mechanism, in which the cytoplasm alternates between stiff and fluid states, enabling a contractile ring without loose ends to progressively divide the cell. Our work solves a fundamental physical problem in vertebrate development.” Alison now works as a postdoctoral researcher in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. 

Giulio Zucal, an ELBE postdoctoral fellow mentored by Türkü Özlüm Çelik and Stephan Grill at MPI-CBG and the Center for Systems Biology, also received an Otto Hahn Medal for his PhD work. He accomplished his thesis with the title “Continuous methods for discrete structures” at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MiS) in Leipzig. Giulio works in mathematics and its applications to biology and data science. In his PhD he developed rigorous mathematical tools to explore the structure and underlying geometry of networks, drawing on ideas at the intersection of the continuous and discrete worlds. At MPI-CBG his research focuses on random discrete structures, network dynamics, spectral hypergraph theory and the study of protein sequence space. “I would like to thank all the amazing people who helped me through my PhD journey: my family, friends, supervisors, mentors and collaborators. Their constant support, combined with the inspiring environment at MPI MiS, made this award possible,” says Giulio.
The medals was awarded on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society on June 17, 2026, in Frankfurt a. M.

Congratulations from all of us!

The Max Planck Society honors up to 30 young scientists and researchers each year with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements since 1978. The award is named after the German chemist and Nobel laureate Otto Hahn (1879–1968), who was president of the MPG from 1948 to 1960.

News article from MPI MiS

Full list of awardees

With its new slogan, “Wo Neugier Wissen schafft,” (Where curiosity creates knowledge) and a refreshed design, the Dresden Science Night invites you on a journey of discovery. With 35 organizers and over 700 program items, Dresden once again becomes a stage for research and innovation in 2026.

At MPI-CBG, we offer experience for all ages. You can explore our institute’s pond, collecting water samples to discover its diverse life with guidance from our scientists. Learn about the essential role of microscopes in research. Kids have the possibility to pipette liquids, observe fruit flies under microscopes, and go on a tour to our zebrafish aquariums. 

Learn about animal welfare in research at the "Fur, Feathers & Co" station and join us for “From Cells to Molecules,” where you can observe the journey of life from a single cell and see how lasers make proteins visible. Discover the liver's vital functions at the “Building Livers, One Cell at a Time” station, visit the “Wondrous Miniature Pancreas” exhibit to see how organoids (miniature organ models) help understand this complex organ.

Engage hands-on at “Proteins: Come and Explore Nature’s LEGO Box,” where you can isolate proteins and test their functions through experiments and explore molecular repair processes at “How Cells Hold DNA Together with Molecular Glue,” observing proteins at work in DNA repair.

We show the intersection of math and biology at “Mathematics for Biology and Fun!” with interactive activities, including a mini-chess game against an AI. What is biophysics? Learn about it at the “Forces in Action: From Embryos to Molecules” station and experience the “Smallest Pong Game in the World” to learn about optical trapping and nanoscopic forces. At the TU Dresden, Faculty of Physics, we offer a biophysics talk “Keine schale Sache: Im Wurm live dabei, wenn Leben entsteht.”

We also offer guided tours in Russian and Ukrainian to our science stations. Interested people can ask at the reception desk for a guide.

We are looking forward to your visit!

The full program at the MPI-CBG for 2026 is available here.

The program of the Dresden Science Night 2026 can be found here.

Maria is specifically interested in developing mathematical models for biological and industrial applications. In the past, she worked with the vacuum cleaner company Dyson Ltd. on how to optimize filters in air purifiers and vacuum cleaners. “In these filters, you have billions of fibers that interact with dust particles when dirty air flow goes through,” Maria explains. “Which also means you would need billions of equations to describe the system,” she adds. Maria’s team managed to break down this complex problem and derive an effective model of the filtration process, which allowed Dyson engineers to speed up the design and development time of optimized filters.

In Dresden, she wants to strengthen collaborations with groups working on biological problems. “Being among mathematicians all the time is honestly quite boring,” Maria says with a smirk. So far, she has been discussing project ideas with the groups of Stephan Grill and Heather Harrington.

In the past, she worked with entomologists to describe the collective traffic behavior of foraging ants. “And I really didn’t know anything about ants!” Maria admits. They discovered that some ants stop and act as dynamic obstacles, concentrating the traffic into narrower lanes to improve overall flow. “When we introduced pillars in the experiments, we observed the same effect,” Maria says. The findings could also inspire new strategies for managing pedestrian traffic in crowded environments.

Maria found her first month in Dresden in April already very stimulating. Now, she is eager to visit more labs and open to discussing biomedical and biophysical research questions where crowding or excluded-volume effects may be important. She is looking forward to connecting and collaborating with interested groups at MPI-CBG in June and July. “And I really don’t care whether it’s ants, proteins, or cells,” Maria says. “For me, they are all interacting particles!”

Nine participants were judged on content, clarity, and charisma. Taking home the 1st prize and the Audience Award was Artem Govorukhin from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Govorukhin won with his presentation, “No Oxygen + FLASH = Bye-Bye, Tumor!” which explored innovative approaches in cancer therapy.

The 2nd prize was awarded to Urša Uršič, representing both the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and the Excellence Cluster Physics of Life at TUD Dresden University of Technology. Urša’s talk, “How to be at the right place just in time? A story of a dividing embryo,” offered a glimpse into developmental biology.

Congratulations!

Both winners will participate in a two-day communication and media training course to prepare them to compete in the FameLab Germany final on July 1, 2026, in Bielefeld.

FameLab is an international competition for science communication initiated by the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK and has also been held annually in Germany since 2011. In over 20 countries, FameLab brings scientists to the stage under the motto “Talking Science.” Dresden was the venue for the East German preliminary round. The 2026 event was organized by DRESDEN-concept and Dresden Marketing.

Launched in 2013, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences recognizes “transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life.” A $3-million cash award accompanies the Breakthrough Prize, making it the richest prize in the life sciences. In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics Prizes, up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes, and up to three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes are given out to early-career researchers each year. The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki.

Research group leader Agnes Toth-Petroczy and the two postdoctoral researchers Ina Hollerer and Carlotta Langer discussed their professions in the area of computational biology, molecular biology and mathematics. They addressed questions such as, What is it like to be a scientist? Can you do research while raising a family? Why did you choose to be a scientist? What are your role models? The girls visited the research labs of Eric Geertsma and the Antibody Facility, visited the electron microscopy facility, and the zebrafish facility. The MPI-CBG encourages discussion with interested girls because, even today, female scientists often experience a more challenging time in the science world than their male colleagues.

Girls' Day, an initiative of the Federal Ministries for Education and Research (BMBF) and Family Affairs, the Elderly, Women, and Youth (BMFSFJ), is a German-wide campaign that introduces schoolgirls to a variety of careers and activities. Girls are especially encouraged to pursue technical careers in fields where women are still underrepresented, such as "MINT" (mathematics, engineering, natural sciences, and technology).

Embedded ethics in human stem-cell-based embryo model research: An interdisciplinary and international team of ethicists, lawyers, and scientists, including Jesse Veenvliet from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, proposes an embedded ethics framework to facilitate responsible research and governance with human stem-cell-based embryo models. In that way, the field could move forward while maintaining public trust.

Continuous dialogue: Fast scientific developments in the field of human stem-cell-based embryo models pose a challenge to the slower, traditional approaches of ethics evaluation. Embedded ethics constitutes a dynamic, iterative, and integrative approach where scientists, ethicists, and regulators engage in continuous dialogue to ethically assess ongoing research. This could help ethical oversight to keep up with scientific progress.

Building trust and responsibility: An embedded ethics approach can build trust and serve as a public policy tool to ensure that research with human stem-cell-based embryo models serves both scientific and societal values. It can turn ethical reasoning into a shared, evolving tool that guides innovation while maintaining public trust in science, especially in sensitive areas.

In science, ethical guidelines ensure that research takes place in a way that respects public trust and is conducted responsibly. Traditional ethics approval procedures work well for projects following established practices, but they offer little flexibility when unexpected challenges, novel approaches, unanticipated research directions, or unforeseen results arise. For research exploring uncharted ethical ground, such as studies with human stem-cell-based embryo models (hSCBEMs), conventional ethical approval approaches are therefore no longer suitable.

Human stem-cell-based embryo models (hSCBEMs) generated from pluripotent stem cells are a powerful new tool for studying early human development and advancing biomedical research. These models are becoming more complex with increasing similarity to real human embryos. The rapid advances in this field challenge the speed with which traditional ethical oversight bodies typically act and how fast law and regulation might adapt.

The key challenge is one central to all emerging pioneering technologies: that long-term societal impacts are still unknown, because we can’t anticipate all applications and consequences. For hSCBEM research, public trust is at stake if certain developments are perceived as ethically troubling, while premature or unnecessary strict regulation driven by speculative fears or concerns could put a hold on promising scientific progress before its biomedical benefits are realized. Finding the right balance by supporting innovation while being thoughtful about ethics and public trust is therefore essential.

In a recent article published in Nature Cell Biology, an international group of leading experts in stem-cell-based embryo models and their ethical and legal implications propose a new framework for integrating ethical evaluation directly into hSCBEM research. The publication was spearheaded by a European Innovation Council-supported Engineered Living Materials consortium including scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, and the University of Oslo, Norway. Rather than treating ethical assessment as a ‘box-checking’ exercise or as an external judgment, the authors advocate for an embedded ethics approach. This ethics model takes the form of active society-facing discussions among researchers, ethicists, policymakers, and the public throughout the research process. Such embedded ethics approaches have been established for research fields of comparable high societal relevance and ethical sensitivity, such as Artificial intelligence (AI).

One of the lead and corresponding authors of the current article is Jesse Veenvliet, research group leader at the MPI-CBG, whose “Stembryogenesis” research group reconstructs development in a dish to understand how embryos build themselves.

Our embedded ethics framework benefits everyone involved. It helps ethicists and legal experts to learn about the science firsthand and understand the promises and limitations of the research. It helps researchers to navigate ethical questions and contribute their voice to policy and societal debates. For society, it ensures that pioneering research is conducted responsibly, building public trust while supporting an innovative and competitive, yet responsible, research ecosystem.
-Jesse Veenvliet

To foster scientifically strong and ethically responsible research with hSCBEMs, embedded ethics provides a flexible, ongoing framework for scientists, ethicists, and legal experts. Unlike traditional ethics approval procedures, it encourages early and open dialogue, helping to anticipate challenges, guide decision-making, and balance innovation with caution. Importantly, the proposed framework provides a practical way to operationalize the iterative, responsive oversight and approval process recommended in the newest International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) hSCBEM guidelines. By integrating continuous ethical reflection into the design and conduct of experiments, embedded ethics makes ethical reasoning transparent and shared to support responsible research, build public trust, and ensure that science can advance in line with societal values.

Bringing together over 50 participants from different universities and backgrounds, the conference explored what mathematical research can look like, how academic paths develop, and which possibilities a mathematics degree can open in industry and other fields. Panel discussions addressed questions such as “What is mathematics research like?” “What to do with a PhD in mathematics?” or “How to apply for a PhD in mathematics?” Networking and mentoring sessions completed the program.

The conference organizers came from different institutes and included Anita Behme, dean of studies of the Faculty of Mathematics at TU Dresden; Türkü Özlüm Çelik, research group leader at MPI-CBG and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD); Heather Harrington, director at MPI-CBG and CSBD; Andreas Thom, chair of geometry at TU Dresden; Paula Truöl, postdoctoral fellow at the School of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Glasgow; and Oana Padurariu, researcher and outreach coordinator at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn.

"We were glad to contribute to the GROW initiative by helping to create a supportive space where students of underrepresented gender identities in mathematics could explore research and career paths, both within and beyond academia. It was wonderful to see the engagement of participants as they openly asked questions, discussed ideas, and shared experiences,” say Heather Harrington and Türkü Özlüm Çelik, reflecting on the conference.

This event was part of the GROW conference series, which takes place every year in different locations. Stay tuned for GROW 2027.

Congratulations, Heather!

Through their various contributions, SIAM Fellows form a crucial group of individuals helping to advance the fields of applied mathematics, computational science, and data science. The new fellows will be recognized during a reception at the 2026 SIAM Annual Meeting in Cleveland, USA, in July 2026. In addition to raising the visibility of applied mathematics, computational science, and data science, the SIAM Fellows Program enhances the prospects of SIAM members for receiving awards and honors and securing leadership positions in the broader society.

News article of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM): https://www.siam.org/publications/siam-news/articles/siam-announces-2026-class-of-fellows/

The event was organized by BioWissKomm, a company specializing in science communication, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TU Dresden, and TU Dresden.

At the MPI-CBG, in addition to guided tours of the facility, the discussion forum “You Ask – We Explain” took place on March 28 at 7:00 p.m. Following a brief introduction to the CRISPR-Cas methodology and its potential applications, a panel of experts answered and discussed questions from the audience.

During the roadshow, additional events took place at the COSMO Science Forum, TU Dresden, and the CRTD, among other locations, as well as a theater performance of the TU Dresden theater DIE BÜHNE.

Thanks to funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and donations from Roche, DRESDEN-concept, the VBIO, the Society for Genetics, and the Society for Developmental Biology, all events were free of charge.

Roadshow Webseite: https://www.crispr-whisper.de/2025/10/01/die-genschere-in-dresden/

In his project, Isaac Siu-Shing Wong will investigate a chain-forming diatom, a microscopic unicellular algae, as a simple system for studying collective behavior between cells.

Many simple organisms exhibit neural-like behaviors despite lacking neurons, suggesting that complex, coordinated dynamics may emerge through alternative biological mechanisms.
- Isaac Siu-Shing

His work will examine how coordinated behavior emerges from interactions between individual cells with the aim to identify general principles by which simple cellular systems produce organized, collective dynamics.

Selected and fully supported by The Grass Foundation, fellows join the dynamic MBL scientific community, working in the Grass Laboratory. During their residency, they pursue original research projects while engaging in the collaborative intellectual environment that has defined the program for more than seven decades. 

The 2026 Grass Fellows represent a diverse set of research interests and experimental systems, from cephalopods and zebrafish to butterflies and water striders, and will investigate a wide range of neuroscience questions.

Congratulations, Jesse!

This year, the HFSPO awarded research grants to 117 of the most pioneering scientists from 31 nations, supporting the top 3% of the HFSP research grant applicants. “HFSP Research Grants provide the world’s top scientists with the means to collaborate across borders and explore new frontiers and discover whole new worlds of possibilities,” said Pavel Kabat, HFSPO Secretary-General.

HFSP is truly unique in supporting bold projects that push across traditional boundaries to tackle key outstanding questions in biology. I’m delighted that the reviewers and committee were as enthusiastic about our ambitious ideas as we are. It’s an honor to be part of the HFSP community, and I’m really looking forward to carrying out this dream project with an amazing team.
-Jesse Veenvliet

Jesse Veenvliet shares his award with two international colleagues: Eric Glowacki (Central European Institute of Technology CEITEC, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic) and Berna Sozen (Yale University, USA). With their joint project, the team of researchers want to investigate the role of metabolic gradients in embryonic development – a complex and precisely coordinated process, influenced by a combination of genetic instructions and signals from the environment surrounding the developing cells. Building on a revived early 20th-century concept that metabolic activity can generate spatial patterns guiding development, the researchers aim to find out whether oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, a byproduct of oxygen metabolism, act as signaling cues that shape and pattern the embryo. Using a combination of experimental embryology, quantitative microscopy, stem-cell-based embryo models, and cutting-edge electrochemical tools, they seek to systematically measure and manipulate these molecules to reveal how metabolic signals work in concert with genetic instructions to guide the formation of the body plan, such as the head-to-tail axis.
Research Grants-Program and Research Grants-Early Career provide three years of support for international teams involving at least two countries. All team members are expected to broaden the character of their research compared to their ongoing research programs and interact with teams bringing expertise that is very different from their own so as to create novel approaches to problems in fundamental biology. 

This year, 6 Research Grants - Early Career and 28 Research Grants - Program were awarded from a total of 1121 letters of intent, 81 of which were selected for a full proposal and submitted their application. 

Congratulations to all 2026 winners!

Press Release HFSP

3D visualization of lipids with a new technique (Lipid-CLEM): Combining two imaging techniques, the researchers developed a correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) workflow to visualize and quantify individual lipids in cellular membranes at ultrastructural resolution.

Lipid organization and distribution in nanoscale clusters: Specialized regions in various cellular membranes, called nanodomains, are important for key cellular functions like signaling and transport. The new imaging workflow revealed that the lipid, sphingomyelin is distributed differently in various parts of the membrane of early endosomes, showing that lipids must be sorted in this organelle. So far, this sorting has been demonstrated only for proteins at this detail.

New possibility to study complex membrane systems: The Lipid-CLEM technique provides the first reliable way to map the distribution of lipids in 3D within complex cellular structures. This will allow researchers to build a comprehensive model of biological membranes in the future that includes both lipids and proteins.

Biological membranes of cells and its subunits (organelles) are organized into tiny regions (nanodomains) made up of fats (lipids) and proteins. Those specialized regions carry out important tasks for the cell, such as signaling, sorting, or transport. While proteins in these domains are well understood, the lipid distribution and behavior within them remain a bit of a mystery, as lipids move very quickly and existing methods struggle to visualize individual lipid species at high resolution.

To localize lipids, researchers use "bifunctional lipid probes," which are very small, slightly modified lipids that act like molecular GPS tags. These probes can be added into living cells, then “frozen in place” with light (photo-crosslinking), and later labeled with fluorescence using a chemical reaction (click chemistry). In this way, researchers can track where specific lipids are and not alter and disturb the cell too much.

However, light microscopy alone is not enough to visualize small details in the cell membrane. Higher details can be captured by electron microscopy. Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) combines the strengths of both techniques. Together with the bifunctional lipid probes, Lipid-CLEM shows where labeled lipids are and makes the fine structure of the membranes visible.

Previous CLEM methods, though, either damaged the membrane structure, only worked on the outer surface of the cell, or couldn’t distinguish individual lipid species. To fix these issues, Mathilda Lennartz and a team of researchers in the group of André Nadler, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, and the group of Ori Avinoam at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have now developed a new method that they call Lipid-CLEM.

Novel 3D imaging of lipids

Mathilda Lennartz, co-corresponding and lead author of the study, explains, “To study lipid sorting in early endosomes – a key sorting station inside the cell – cells must be rapidly frozen to stop lipids in their tracks and to preserve the membrane of the cells. Later, these lipids can be labeled on very thin slices of the sample, termed "sections," of cells using click chemistry. These sections are what we then image using the Lipid-CLEM approach.”

“With Lipid-CLEM, we observed that a specific lipid called sphingomyelin is more common in small vesicles inside the endosome and less common in tubular membrane domains. This separation has already been observed for some proteins,” says Mathilda. “What we concluded from this is that at least some lipids, just like proteins, must also be sorted in the endosome. Interestingly, in our study, sphingomyelin and a protein cargo arrive at the same time in the early endosome but separate into different domains, indicating that lipid and protein trafficking routes can diverge during this sorting.”

The power of team work

Ori Avinoam’s team at the Weizmann Institute brought in their expertise in correlative light and electron microscopy to this study. Ori says, “This study highlights how essential collaborations are for driving research forward. Bringing together complementary expertise allowed us to establish a method that made it possible to uncover fundamental principles of lipid sorting that were previously inaccessible.”

André Nadler, corresponding author, summarizes, “Our Lipid-CLEM workflow enables 3D visualization of lipid densities in membrane nanodomains, offering a new way to study lipid organization in complex cellular structures. We finally can look at lipid sorting in membranes with the resolution we need. We believe that our new method Lipid-CLEM will help us to better understand how lipids work in cells, as it allows us to study both lipids and proteins together during membrane organization and function. This may also contribute to a better understanding of membrane dysfunction-related diseases.”

In her groundbreaking scientific research, she has contributed to the understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development of epithelial cell polarity in the fruit fly Drosophila. Genes characterized by her group are highly conserved and control fundamental mechanisms, which are also relevant to humans and of great biomedical importance for the understanding of tumors and other pathologies.

Elisabeth Knust held the award lecture with the title “From phenotypes to function—or—the privilege to do curiosity-driven research” on March 12th, 2026. © Mahsa Hosseinalipour

Some of these genes control important signaling pathways, for example, the conserved Notch pathway. They can prevent retinal degeneration both in flies and in humans, where their loss can lead to blindness. I am very grateful for this recognition, which also highlights the importance of curiosity-driven research.
-Elizabeth Kunst

Since 2017, the Society for Developmental Biology (GfE) has been awarding the Klaus Sander (1929-2015) Award to honor the Freiburg developmental biologist, who became known primarily for his studies on the processes of embryonic pattern formation. He coined the term ”phylotypic stage," a developmental stage typical of an animal phylum. Klaus Sander also revived the legacy of his Freiburg predecessors, August Weismann, Hans Spemann, and Hilde Mangold, and developed it further. In addition, the GfE, together with the SEDB, also awarded the José Campos-Ortega Prize to recognize outstanding research and activity in the field of developmental neurobiology and the Hilde Mangold Prize, aimed at young scientists.

Elisabeth Knust, born in 1951, completed her PhD in biology at the University of Düsseldorf in 1979 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Clinical Virology at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (1980–1983). She was an assistant professor at the Institute of Developmental Biology at the University of Cologne from 1983 to 1988 and a Heisenberg Fellow at the University of Cologne and the University of Boulder, Colorado (1988–1990). She became a full professor for developmental biology at the University of Cologne in 1990, then moved on to the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf as a full professor and head of the Institute of Genetics in 1996. She became one of the Directors at the MPI-CBG in 2007. Elisabeth Knust received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 1997. She became Director Emerita in 2019.

A major part of the human liver is composed of two cell types, namely hepatocytes and ductal cells (also called cholangiocytes). During cases of severe liver injury, cholangiocytes, which exist in several cellular states, can even replenish hepatocytes, making them a key contributor towards liver repair. However, previously developed organoid models have been unable to capture this property of cholangiocytes, hindering the understanding of the different types of cholangiocytes and corresponding liver diseases.

Recently, the research group of Meritxell Huch, director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and honorary professor at the Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden, together with collaborators at University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus and University Hospital Rostock, has developed an improved human liver cholangiocyte organoid model, which allows the cholangiocytes to display their adaptability and regenerative potential in vitro. Expanding on their previous work of growing cholangiocytes in a dish, the authors optimized culture conditions to allow these cholangiocyte organoids to display the full range of cell states observed in the human liver.

“One general limitation of studying organoids is maintaining the balance between cellular expansion capabilities and the vast number of diverse cell types found in the actual organ,” says Javier Bregante, a doctoral student in the Huch group and one of the lead authors of the study, published in Cell Reports. “We tackled this problem by developing organoid growth conditions that better mimic the natural environment of the tissue,” explains Flaminia Kaluthantrige Don, a former doctoral student of the same group and the other lead author of the study.

Flaminia emphasizes that the new model captures the full spectrum of cholangiocyte diversity, enabling mechanistic studies of liver repair and regeneration and precise analysis of signaling pathways that regulate growth and differentiation. Meritxell Huch adds,

The system bridges descriptive knowledge of human liver cells with functional studies of physiology and could be extended to patient-derived material to investigate disease-specific alterations in cholangiocyte function. The platform allows, for the first time, analysis of transitions between distinct human cholangiocyte states, providing new insight into their roles in homeostasis and disease.

As space missions grow longer and new space stations emerge, medical research in space is becoming increasingly important. The question arises as to how the human body adapts to weightlessness and cosmic radiation over the long term. These changes are relevant not only to the health of astronauts but also to our understanding of stress reactions, tissue aging, and regeneration processes.

The Cellbox missions were developed to study the impact of space conditions on cells and organoids. These missions involve mini-laboratories the size of a smartphone that orbit Earth in a spacecraft for several weeks and are exposed to weightlessness. Eight teams from German research institutions will conduct biological and biomedical experiments for the Cellbox-4 and Cellbox-5 missions.

A CellBox experiment chamber. The Cellbox-4 and Cellbox-5 missions are supported by the young biotech company @yuri. © yuri GmbH

Nils Cordes, head of the Radiation Biology Department at OncoRay, is leading a subproject investigating the effects of real and simulated microgravity on mouse liver organoid functionality. The project will examine changes in the cell environment (extracellular matrix), gene activity, and the structure of genetic information (chromatin structure).

A key innovative component of the project is the first-ever use of ATAC sequencing in space. This method allows researchers to identify the regions of a cell’s genetic material that are currently “active,” making it possible to study them under conditions of microgravity and cosmic radiation. The goal is to understand precisely how quickly tissue changes in space and the underlying biological processes of these adaptations. The resulting data should provide insight into short- and long-term tissue changes in space and contribute to the development of protective strategies for organs during long-term missions.

The project is being carried out in close cooperation with several partner institutions. Meritxell Huch at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden is providing the liver organoids. The bioinformatic analyses are supported by the DRESDEN-concept Genome Center at TU Dresden. Experiments under artificial weightlessness are being conducted in collaboration with Francesco Pampaloni at Goethe University Frankfurt and Christian Liemersdorf at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at DLR.

“Space biology research has an enormous transformative character that goes far beyond basic science. For our team, it is truly special that an idea we developed is actually flying into space and contributing to a better understanding of the fundamentals of tissue biology,” says Cordes.

Through its participation in the ILLUMINATE project and the Cellbox mission, TU Dresden is strengthening its commitment to space biology research. This field is becoming increasingly important, offering novel perspectives on astronaut well-being and providing impetus for medical breakthroughs on Earth. For instance, a better understanding of the effects of mechanical and radiation-induced stresses on tissue could accelerate the discovery of new drugs and enable new biotechnological applications.

"The Cellbox program vividly showcases the interplay between basic research and applied science. The participation of the Dresden University Medicine in this project provides us with a valuable opportunity to better understand the adaptability of the human body and gain new insights for the healthcare sector,” emphasizes Esther Troost, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden.

Further project information

Press Release of the TU Dresden

Researchers from the group of Rita Mateus at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL) at TU Dresden, harnessed the power of zebrafish larvae, whose tail fins can regrow rapidly following injury. Their findings, now out in Science Advances show how organs heal based on changes in membrane potential, which along with intracellular signaling, activate tissue-wide cell proliferation.

Electrical and Chemical Signals in Response to Injury

“We had an interest in combining a physics framework with biology in the context of organ injury. By cutting the tail fin of a larval zebrafish, we aimed to understand what electrical signals are generated, and how do these signals facilitate repair?” said Jinghui Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Mateus group, and one of the lead authors of the study. Alongside Elisa Nerli, a fellow postdoctoral researcher in the Mateus group and the study’s other co–first author, they used cutting-edge live imaging coupled to laser microdissection to map the sequence of electrical and biochemical events following injury of larval fins. The larval zebrafish tail fin model offers a unique window into this phenomenon: its thin structure and optical transparency allow researchers to precisely injure the full organ, while quantifying cell behavior at the single cell scale. Surprisingly, already at 100 milliseconds after injuring the fin, the researchers detected a collective change of the cells’ membrane potential: cells across 200 microns of the fin became ‘more positive’, their membrane potential was depolarized. This electrical signal was followed by a tissue-wide intracellular calcium wave that propagated over a few seconds. Interestingly, the calcium wave’s progression slowed down as it moved away from the injury, following the same progression dynamics as expected for the ion flux exchange between inside of the fish and freshwater medium outside.

Understanding the Origin of Electrical Signals in Tissues

The team combined experiments with physical theory by developing a new electro-diffusive model, in tight collaboration with Charlie Duclut (Sorbonne Université) and Amit Vishen in the group of co-corresponding author Frank Jülicher at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), revealing how ion flows and electric potentials interact across the tissue’s interstitial space. The epithelium acts like a leaky capacitor, allowing ions to move and creating complex electrical environments that regulate signaling. By manipulating the ionic environment, immersing fish in high potassium solutions or using genetic mutants with altered ion channel conductance, the researchers could remodel the fin wound currents and change its regenerative response. These experiments confirmed that bioelectric signals are not only necessary but can be modulated to influence organ healing and growth.

Electrical signals, chemical signals, and their interpreter: Voltage Sensing Phosphatase

But how do cells relay the electrical signal to trigger proliferation? A key discovery was the identification of the transmembrane protein Voltage Sensing Phosphatase (VSP) as the sensor that detects the injury-induced changes in membrane potential. When activated by the electrical signal at the cell membrane, VSP changes conformation and triggers intracellular pathways that promote widespread cell proliferation, fueling tissue regrowth. “We wondered whether this protein was necessary and/or sufficient to trigger cell proliferation in response to membrane depolarization. Being widespread across the animal kingdom, it could point to a common growth and repair mechanism among different species” said Elisa Nerli, co-first author of the study.

Using CRISPR technology, the team generated zebrafish mutants lacking VSP, which fail to relay the electric signal inside cells, resulting in impaired fin regeneration. Remarkably, overexpressing VSP was sufficient to lead to larger organs, highlighting its pivotal role in translating electrical cues into organ growth. “Altogether, we found that the rapid onset of proliferation upon damage is a direct consequence of spatiotemporal electrochemical coupling. This opens exciting new frontiers into thinking how membrane potential mechanistically contributes to regulating organ size and scaling”, said Rita Mateus, the co-corresponding author of the study and joint group leader at MPI-CBG and PoL.

“Altogether, we found that the rapid onset of proliferation upon damage is a direct consequence of spatiotemporal electrochemical coupling. This opens exciting new frontiers into thinking how membrane potential mechanistically contributes to regulating organ size and scaling”
Rita Mateus

Implications for Regenerative Medicine

Bridging physics and biology, this collaborative study reveals how global electrical signals and specific chemical molecules are intertwined to coordinate organ repair. The findings provide a new general framework for understanding wound healing and organ growth – suggesting that bioelectric modulation could become a powerful tool in tissue engineering. By characterizing the hidden electrical language of injured organs, this study opens avenues to rationally employ new therapies harnessing bioelectric signals to enhance tissue and organ healing.

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