Kerstin Göpfrich
@kgoepfrich.bsky.social
Excited to engineer a synthetic cell from scratch with lipid vesicles and DNA/RNA origami-based molecular hardware. Professor @ZMBHh @UniHeidelberg
🚨 New preprint! From protein & RNA condensates to synthetic coacervates and DNA nanostars, vacuoles (dilute pockets inside droplets) show up everywhere. 🫧 We explain when and why they form. 🔬🧫 📄 arxiv.org/abs/2607.25743 w/ @boekhovenlab.bsky.social sky.social @kgoepfrich.bsky.social
🔊 Paper Alert 🗞️ from the group of MtL Fellow @kgoepfrich.bsky.social A Kiss from a Loop! 🌹 These alpha kissing loops greatly expand the repertoire of RNA architectural motifs available for programmable, sequence-defined nanostructure assembly. pubs.acs.org/ancac3/artic...
Programmable Edge-to-Edge Assembly of RNA Nanostructures
Abstract. Building complex RNA nanostructures requires precise molecular connectors for controlled self-assembly. Existing connectors, such as kissing loop
pubs.acs.org
So excited to have James as a new colleague!
James Saenz@jamessaenz.bsky.social · 4mo agoThrilled to be joining the ZMBH, where my lab will continue to explore the evolution and engineering of living membranes. Farewell @bcube-tud.bsky.social...I couldn't imagine a better place to have started my lab! I'm perpetually grateful to my lab group for making this such a successful adventure!!
Mechanically Programmable DNA Hydrogel Microparticles for 3D Cellular Systems - h/t @kgoepfrich.bsky.social
Mechanically Programmable DNA Hydrogel Microparticles for 3D Cellular Systems
DNA hydrogel microparticles are designed to exhibit controllable viscoelasticity and stiffness across three orders of magnitude from 30Pa$30 \,\mathrm{Pa}$ to 6.5kPa$6.5 \,\mathrm{kPa}$. They are upt...
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with IBEC. Congratulations to recent PhD graduate and lead author @towalther.bsky.social!
Tobias Walther@towalther.bsky.social · 4mo agoNew paper in Advanced Materials! We present DNA hydrogel microparticles for 3D tissue engineering, showing programmable material properties and cell-material interactions! Special thanks to Eleni Dalaka @gflaesch.bsky.social @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @xaviertrepat.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/adma...
Recent highlights: Received seed funding from the SynGen Center to explore synthetic genomes in bottom-up synthetic biology. 🚀 The first work of my PhD is now published: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Huge thanks to Franziska Gießler, Tobias Abele, Stefan Maurer, and @kgoepfrich.bsky.social
Growth, Dissolution and Segregation of Genetically Encoded RNA Droplets by Ribozyme Catalysis
Ribozymes enable sequence-encoded turnover of RNA droplet material, resulting in transiently active droplets that selectively segregate based on their genotype. This establishes a direct link between...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Next up, the great Kerstin Göpfrich @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de on her long-term vision of synthetic cells, and very concrete approaches using RNA origami. #gfv2026
We are recruiting a tenure track professor in the broader area of molecular biology @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de at Heidelberg University! www.nature.com/naturecareer... Please share and apply!
Tenure Track Professorship (W1 with Tenure Track to W3) in “Molecular Biology" (f/m/d) - Heidelberg job with Universität Heidelberg | 12850668
The Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) and the Faculty of Biosciences invite applications for a Tenure Track Professors...
nature.com
New to RNA design? Please try pyFuRNAce! Looking forward to your feedback 🧬
Qian Cheng@qchengx1e3.bsky.social · 10mo agoPyFuRNAce is an intuitive browser-based RNA design tool. @monari-luca.bsky.social @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social realized the largest cotranscriptionally folded RNA nanostructures to date. #BiotechNatureComms www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Is it possible to engineer new cellular life from the bottom up? The Göpfrich group @kgoepfrich.bsky.social @mpi-mr.bsky.social have designed an RNA origami nanotube 🟡 to mimic the cytoskeleton: www.nature.com/articles/s41... It was a fun challenge to animate T7 RNA polymerase 🔵 #blender #b3d
Welcome, Dana!
SigSynCell MSCA DN@sigsyncell.bsky.social · 11mo ago[Meet our doctoral candidates 🫧] Dana Venkert is our DC working at the Heidelberg University under the supervision of @kgoepfrich.bsky.social. Dana, who completed her M.Sc. in Molecular, Cellular, and Systemic Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, will now explore the RNA design world in SigSynCell
Curious about RNA, aptamers, lipid membranes, molecular dynamics simulations, synthetic cells - and how these topics come together? Join @floppleton.bsky.social's talk in the unano webinar blogs.ed.ac.uk/unanowebinars
RNA droplets that grow and segregate by ribozyme catalysis. Check out our latest preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673008v1
@tranmai.bsky.social handed in her PhD thesis! Celebrating in style with egg coffee from Hanoi, Mai's place of birth. P.S.: Mai is looking for a PostDoc position! Check out her latest RNA nanostructures for synthetic cells @natnano.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415...
DNA hydrogels as mechanical sensors in cell-culture systems by @towalther.bsky.social 🧬🧬🧬 If you catch him at a conference bar, ask him the story, it’s an adventure and a half!
Kerstin Göpfrich@kgoepfrich.bsky.social · last yr.Preprint by @towalther.bsky.social at al! We design DNA hydrogel microparticles with sequence-controlled stiffness from 30 Pa to 6.5 kPa. They are remodelled in fibroblast spheroids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thanks @ibecbarcelona.eu @xaviertrepat.bsky.social @pcusachs.bsky.social
EMBL Cell Biology and Biophysics department is searching for a new director. A major position to lead this field in Europe and beyond. embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...
Head of the Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s flagship life sciences organisation, and one of the world’s leading research institutions. An intergovernmental organisation of 29 Member S...
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com
So excited to finally be able to share this manuscript!! Thanks to all collaborators for making this possible! Special thanks to @kgoepfrich.bsky.social and @xaviertrepat.bsky.social for their guidance and supervision in this!
Kerstin Göpfrich@kgoepfrich.bsky.social · last yr.Preprint by @towalther.bsky.social at al! We design DNA hydrogel microparticles with sequence-controlled stiffness from 30 Pa to 6.5 kPa. They are remodelled in fibroblast spheroids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thanks @ibecbarcelona.eu @xaviertrepat.bsky.social @pcusachs.bsky.social
Preprint by @towalther.bsky.social at al! We design DNA hydrogel microparticles with sequence-controlled stiffness from 30 Pa to 6.5 kPa. They are remodelled in fibroblast spheroids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thanks @ibecbarcelona.eu @xaviertrepat.bsky.social @pcusachs.bsky.social
Leben aus toter Materie zu erschaffen ist ein zentrales Thema der Synthetischen Biologie. @kgoepfrich.bsky.social et al. liefern dazu RNA-Origami-Strukturen, die sich selbst organisieren und eine cytoskelettartige Architektur aufbauen. Holger Dill berichtet mehr: www.laborjournal.de/rubric/journ...
📢Conference alert📢 Only one week left to register for the Engineering Life 2025 Symposium at Dresden September 1-3. This year's edition focuses on the function of mechanical forces in biology. engineering-life-dresden.de
Engineering Life 2025: ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF MECHANICAL FORCES IN BIOLOGY
Engineering Life 2025, biological forces, force spectroscopy, measuring forces, developmental forces, molecular motors, forces in morphogenesis, cytoskeleton, DNA mechanics, bionanotechnology
engineering-life-dresden.de
#SCNAC2025 we are looking forward to hear about your thoughts on our RNA design tool #PyFuRNAce pyfurnace.streamlit.app developed by @monari-luca.bsky.social
pyFuRNAce
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pyfurnace.streamlit.app
I am excited to be talking to @neildegrassetyson.com soon! What should I tell him from his German fan community?
News on clusters of excellence in Germany. The DFG has announced the continuation of 45 projects already funded and 25 new clusters Congrats to the SynCellEU community members - Kerstin Gopfrich, Tobias Erb and more - whose applications have been successful and who will receive funding for 7 years
Kerstin Göpfrich@kgoepfrich.bsky.social · last yr.#SynthImmune is getting real! Super excited that our excellence cluster got funded today @dfg.de Thanks to everyone involved @uniheidelberg.bsky.social, especially @dimichelelab1.bsky.social and Oliver Fackler!
A nice thread on our recent paper in Nature Nanotechnology by the first author and PhD student from the group @tranmai.bsky.social 👇
Mai Tran@tranmai.bsky.social · last yr.🧬 Thrilled to share that our work is featured on the cover of @natnano.nature.com (May issue)! We genetically encoded RNA origami that self-assembles into cytoskeletal nanotubes inside synthetic cells. 📄 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇
#SynthImmune is getting real! Super excited that our excellence cluster got funded today @dfg.de Thanks to everyone involved @uniheidelberg.bsky.social, especially @dimichelelab1.bsky.social and Oliver Fackler!
New technology challenges communication inside and outside the classroom, as my recent paper explains. Fingers crossed we get to explore this question soon for emerging synthetic biotechnology within SynthImmune www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
Moral education and the psychology of moral discourse: Journal of Moral Education: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access
tandfonline.com
Our PIs Kerstin (@kgoepfrich.bsky.social) and Michael (@meineckelab.bsky.social) joined Wolfgang Heim to talk about scientific CVs, engaging in public outreach and the wonders of cellular membrane remodelling. Don’t miss the SFB1638 edition of Überlebensstrategien — now streaming!
SFB 1638 Umbau von zellulären Membranen – wie veränderte Form Funktion schafft
YouTube video by UniHeidelberg
youtube.com
On the show, we also talk about the potential of bottom up synthetic biology approaches for immunology - the aim of our excellence cluster SynthImmune (in German). We hope to get funded!
SFB1638@sfb1638.bsky.social · last yr.Our SFB1638 PI Kerstin Göpfrich (@kgoepfrich.bsky.social) joined Gert #Scobel and Tobias Erb to explore the future of synthetic biology—its promise, challenges, and big ideas. Catch the super interesting discussion on @3sat (@3sat.bluesky.com.de) www.3sat.de/wissen/scobe...