Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering

As interdisciplinary research group, the AG Thiele is interested in mimicking, manipulating and optimizing cellular functions and their environment utilizing multiscale polymer systems. A particular focus is on the tailored buildup of functionality, stimuli-sensitivity and adaptivity on the nanoscale by synthesizing monomers and macromers linked to biomacro- or sensor molecules. Followed by translating this molecule basis via innovative material processing strategies like high-resolution additive manufacturing and microfluidics into micro- and mesoscale materials, multiscale control over physicochemical and mechanical properties comes to live. Polymer structures emerging from this approach serve as reaction volume for cell-inspired drug synthesis, to study protein crowding linked to gene expression or act as force sensors, and multiparametric cell cultures. On this account, the AG Thiele has become part of the European Synthetic Cell community, which is based on the idea to build cells from their basic components.

In the future, by linking life sciences, polymer synthesis and processing as well as physicochemical-mechanical characterization methods, the AG Thiele aims to provide an in-depth understanding of structure-function relations in cellular life, and also push forward the system integration of functional polymer materials. For that, concepts are required that do not merely control material properties on a single length scale. Instead, for a comprehensive discussion of processes and interactions in a synthetic and natural environment, several length scales and the time axis have to be considered. Examples of such materials from the AG Thiele’s research include cell-sized polymer microgels that enable sustained operation of complex enzymatic cascades (e.g., for producing polyketides) and cell-free protein synthesis derived from E. coli.