Her work will focus on understanding the microenvironment within biomolecular condensates, liquid-like droplets within a cell that form without membranes and are used by cells to organize many of their internal processes. Smita aims to investigate how microenvironmental conditions vary within condensates, how they differ across different types, how they are established and maintained, and how they influence protein structure, activity, and ultimately condensate function. To address these questions, she will primarily use fluorescent sensors, which are small-molecule sensors to track specific molecules, building on her expertise in sensor development acquired during her PhD. This technique will be complemented by other orthogonal techniques - measurements that use different physical principles to measure the same property of the same sample in order to reduce bias and uncertainty.

Smita comes from Kolkata (India), and she recently obtained her PhD in chemistry at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. She joined MPI-CBG in March 2026, where she will continue her research for the next two years.
She says,

With a chemistry background, I didn’t have the opportunity so far to explore biological perspectives, but I think it’s important to understand the complexity beyond the chemistry applications, so I decided to shift to the biology field. In the Hyman lab, I am getting this new view, and I am learning a lot. Also, I always lived in big cities, so I like Dresden because it is small, pretty, and everything is nearby.

Congratulations, Smita!

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports researchers from all over the world through the Humboldt Research Fellowship. It enables postdoctoral researchers to conduct long-term research in Germany for 6 to 24 months.

The aim of the Discrete Laplacians workshop was to bring together different research communities that work on the Laplace equations and their many applications, ranging from topology and graph theory to data science and numerical analysis.

Discrete Laplacians appear broadly throughout mathematics and the applied sciences. They are a key concept in connecting continuous methods and theories to their discrete analogs and underlie many of the modern tools in applied mathematics and data analysis, with numerous applications in biology, physics, social sciences, and other disciplines.

The organizers of this workshop included Karel Devriendt (former postdoc in the group of Türkü Özlüm Çelik), Otto Sumray (postdoc in the group of Daniela Egas Santander, Ivo Sbalzarini, and Anne Grapin-Botton), Yu Tian (postdoc in the group of Carl Modes and Anne Grapin-Botton), and Giulio Zucal (postdoc in the group of Türkü Özlüm Çelik and Stephan Grill).

The organizers explain the term “Laplacian” as a reference to the 18th-century French mathematician and scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace. He studied the diffusion of heat and the mathematical properties of the equations that describe this diffusion, which are now called the Laplace equations. In time, these equations turned out to have a much broader applicability beyond just heat diffusion and can be used, for instance, to describe the structure of biological networks or even to analyze the PageRank algorithm that underlies Google’s search engine.

One of the participants said, “The workshop was great because we could have different angles of view on this topic, and the organization was very nice. Looking forward to the next one. Also, Dresden is terrific! I really enjoyed the city center!”

Event website: https://plan.events.mpg.de/event/617/

More upcoming events of the MPI-CBG Math community

Countess Bettina Bernadotte, President of the Council, opened this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which marks its 75th anniversary. “Science is, ultimately, a shared human endeavor, as also mentioned in Alfred Nobel’s will. And that is the reason why our anniversary motto reads: ‘Science Transcending Borders.’ For 75 years, Lindau has shown that curiosity travels farther than borders can draw lines. Science does not ask where we come from. It asks what we can discover together.”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany, addressed participants and guests during the Opening Ceremony on June 28th and said, “As researchers, you are also breaking down barriers between people from different countries and generations, scientific cultures, traditions, and disciplines.”

Ramesh Adakkattil says, “I am incredibly happy and privileged to have attended the 75th Nobel Laureate meeting on the beautiful island of Lindau. I very much enjoyed interacting with Nobel Laureates from across the disciplines of science, learning about their scientific endeavors and life experiences, and also deriving inspiration to pursue a career in science. What was so special to me is the time I spent with the many outstanding and dedicated young scientists from different parts of the world, who all shared a similar passion and excitement for science. I take home that science, by the nature of itself, may not be rewarding every day, but when it does prevail at the end of hard work, perseverance, and careful observation, the good days will feel really good. All we have to do is to believe in the process!”

Since their foundation in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have developed into a unique international scientific forum. The annual meetings provide an opportunity for an exchange between different generations, cultures, and disciplines. Once every year, around 30 Nobel Laureates convene in Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: 600 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The theme of the Lindau Meetings alternates between the three Nobel Prize scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, and physiology and medicine. Every five years an interdisciplinary meeting takes place, while the Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences is held every three years.

Press Release of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Three short, illustrative presentations focused on research at MPI-CBG. In her presentation, Katrin Boes—who grew up in Kaltwasser—explained, among other things, what basic research is and why it is so important. Eric Geertsma's presentation featured a video he created himself to demonstrate what proteins are and how their function contributes to human health and disease—for example, in hearing or how defective proteins can lead to cerebral edema. Ina Hollerer asked in her presentation whether science contradicts itself and used the atomic model to show that science can only ever create models based on the knowledge available at the time and that these models continue to evolve over time.

After the presentations, the guests asked many questions, and there was time for in-depth discussions. Using a microscope, the guests were able to observe the nematode C. elegans. The guests showed great interest not only in the scientific content but also in learning more about how scientists think and work.

Katrin Boes, Ina Hollerer, Eric Geerstma (from left to right). © Evelin Bergmann

“Heimspiel Wissenschaft” was funded by the BMBF as part of the Science Years initiative between 2022 and the end of 2024 as a joint project of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), the science communication agency con gressa GmbH, and the #WisskommLab at Heidelberg University. The project is continuing with con gressa as the organizing partner in consultation with the HRK.

“Heimspiel Wissenschaft – Max Planck Edition” is exciting for the Max Planck Society (MPG) as a non-university research institution. The MPG is primarily dedicated to basic research, which can be challenging to communicate to a broad public. The “Heimspiel” format offers an exciting approach that creates opportunities for direct exchange and brings science closer to audiences in rural areas. After all, this format is not primarily about traditional academic lectures. Rather, the focus is on personal interaction: Who are the people behind the research? What is their daily life like? What brought them to the MPG?

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.”