Molecular nanodiamonds (NDs) from nanographene with built-in quantum color centers We report a breakthrough in the scalable, bottom-up synthesis of ultrasmall & structurally uniform NDs. Many thanks to all the authors! www.nature.com/articles/s41... @mpip-mainz.mpg.de @yingkewu.bsky.social

A truly wonderful event! Thank you to everyone involved in the organization, all the speakers and all participants for making this symposium such a memorable experience! @beilstein-institut.bsky.social @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Beilstein-Institut@beilstein-institut.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The 📷 photo gallery of the Beilstein Organic Chemistry Symposium “Designing dynamic matter: Frontiers in supramolecular systems” is online ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/5n955x5u Thanks to all our speakers and participants for making #BeilsteinDesigningMatter2026 an amazing event! @weilgroup.bsky.social

Join us for PSA 2026! We are excited to announce the Peptide Self-Assembly Conference — From Dynamic Structures to Functional Materials — hosted by MPIP & JGU Mainz. 📍 Mainz, Germany | Aug 10–12, 2026 📅 Abstract deadline: June 10 🔗 Register here: www.psacon2026.com #PSA2026 @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Yesterday, we were delighted to host Prof. Guosong Chen and Associate Prof. Long Li from Fudan University at MPIP. We sincerely thank Prof. Chen for sharing fascinating insights into the non-covalent synthesis of saccharide-based macromolecules and their bioapplications! @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Looking forward to presenting at the ACS150 JACS Symposium Series: IACS Kolkata. I’ll be sharing insights from my research in my talk titled “From Molecular Design to Material–Cell Communication”. 📍 Kolkata, India | 📅 1 July 🔗 Find out more about this event: shorturl.at/SbPvF

Excited to co-organize the Beilstein Symposium “Designing Dynamic Matter – Frontiers in Supramolecular Systems”! Join the livestream to explore how supramolecular design enables synthetic cells, molecular machines, adaptive biomaterials & much more! #BeilsteinDesigningMatter2026 @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Beilstein-Institut@beilstein-institut.bsky.social · 3mo ago

You are cordially invited to join the FREE livestream 🎬 of the Beilstein Organic Chemistry Symposium “Designing dynamic matter: Frontiers in supramolecular systems” in Rüdesheim, Germany. 📅 May 5–7, 2026 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4dumwbnu #BeilsteinDesigningMatter2026  @weilgroup.bsky.social

Congratulations to Jiaqi Xing for defending her PhD today! 🎉👏 Excellent work and a great defense, very well deserved!

Congratulations to Bellinda on her successful PhD defence! One key development in the multidisciplinary work is to use modular design to improve biomacromolecular therapeutics, as well as gain better understanding of the impact of ligand density on a nanocarrier.

Save the date 📅 May 5–7, 2026 Beilstein Organic Chemistry Symposium “Designing dynamic matter: Frontiers in supramolecular systems” in Rüdesheim, Germany.  🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4dumwbnu Follow #BeilsteinDesigningMatter2026 for updates on registration, speakers, etc. @weilgroup.bsky.social

More great news for the holidays🎄 Our new review on "Functionalizing Nucleic Acids: Synthesis and Purification Strategies for Bioconjugates as Biomaterials" is out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Many thanks to Nico Alleva, Jian Zhang and Torsten John!

Functionalizing Nucleic Acids: Synthesis and Purification Strategies for Bioconjugates as Biomaterials

Nucleic acid-ligand conjugates combine the distinct properties of macromolecular ligands with the versatility of DNA/RNA nanotechnology. In biomaterial and nanomedicine applications, highly purified ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Great news for the holidays🎄 Our new paper is out in @jacs.acspublications.org pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... Thanks to Lifan Hu from @seahling.bsky.social's team, all co-workers & our wonderful collaborator Stephen Mann!

Bioactive Artificial Cells as Autonomous Metabolic Actuators Enable Bidirectional Communication with Tumor Cells

Artificial cells (ACs) offer a powerful platform to reprogram metabolic signaling in complex tissue environments by replicating key biological functions without the full complexity of living cells. However, achieving autonomous metabolite exchange and stable integration with living tissues remains a major challenge. Here, we report the development of proteinosome-based ACs equipped with a minimal metabolism to mediate bidirectional communication with glycolytic tumor cells. These tumors accumulate lactate, a metabolic byproduct that promotes immunosuppression and metastasis. Although lactate oxidase (LOx) can degrade lactate, its oxidation product, pyruvate, may inadvertently fuel tumor growth. To overcome this limitation, we engineered dual-processor ACs coencapsulating LOx and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), enabling selective conversion of lactate into cytotoxic acetaldehyde while suppressing pyruvate and hydrogen peroxide accumulation. These ACs demonstrate sustained catalytic activity, maintain reactive oxygen species homeostasis, and remain functional when integrated in 3D tumor spheroids. Crucially, they engage in autonomous, bidirectional metabolite exchange, preferentially with cancer cells over normal cells, dynamically rewiring important metabolites of the tumor microenvironment and suppressing cell viability. This work establishes synthetic metabolic biointerfaces as programmable actuators capable of reshaping pathological signaling in cancer tissues.

pubs.acs.org

Congratulations to Jiyao for defending her PhD today! 🎉👏 Excellent work and great defense!

Early Christmas Present #3! 🎁 Our paper "Single-Cell Hyperthermia: Diamond Quantum Thermometry Reveals Thermal Control of Macrophage Polarization" was just published in Advanced Materials: advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Many thanks to Kaiqi Wu, our whole team & our collaborators!

Single‐Cell Hyperthermia: Diamond Quantum Thermometry Reveals Thermal Control of Macrophage Polarization

Photothermal nanodiamonds with quantum sensing capabilities generate lysosome-confined hyperthermia, enabling simultaneous temperature and radical detection via diamond sensing. This localized therma...

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Early Christmas present #2! 🎁 Our new paper “Co-Assemblies Regulate the Catalytic Activity of Peptide Fibrils” is out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Big thanks to Albin Lahu, our fantastic team, and all collaborators who made this possible!

Co‐Assemblies Regulate the Catalytic Activity of Peptide Fibrils

Catalytic self-assembling peptides (cSAPs) form fibrils that catalyze the retro-aldol reaction of Methodol. Co-assembly with inactive peptides tunes catalytic efficiency by altering substrate accessi...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Early Christmas present #1! 🎁 Our paper “Photoswitchable Peptides as Molecular Tools to Encode Structural Order and Disorder in Intracellular Assemblies” is out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Thanks to Julian Link, our team & the Ravoo group at Uni Münster!

Congratulations on your wonderful work and your excellent defense, Qi🎉👏

Qi Lu@qi-lu.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I’m happy to share that I’ve successfully defended my PhD and graduated magna cum laude. My deepest thanks to Prof. Tanja Weil for her guidance and support, and to Dr. Yingke Wu for invaluable mentorship throughout my research. @weilgroup.bsky.social @yingkewu.bsky.social @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

A chemist, a biologist, and a physicist walk into a symposium… Check out our recap of this year's #mattertolife Fall Days! 👉 mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/426906/mtl-f... @graeterlab.bsky.social @landfesterdept.bsky.social @weilgroup.bsky.social

Warmest congratulations to my JACS editor colleague Omar Yaghi on receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025! I also congratulate the laureates Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson. Their work on metal–organic frameworks has opened new horizons in chemistry. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemi...

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 was awarded jointly to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi "for the development of metal–organic frameworks"

nobelprize.org

Our #mattertolife Fall Days have just started 👏🏻 Thank you @mpip-mainz.mpg.de for hosting us! @graeterlab.bsky.social @landfesterdept.bsky.social @weilgroup.bsky.social

This is a fantastic opportunity for students who want to pursue an integrated MSc/PhD Program! Our group is currently hosting two excellent Matter to Life students and we can only recommend this program! @mattertolife.bsky.social

Max Planck School Matter to Life@mattertolife.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Integrated MSc/PhD Graduate Program applications are now open! mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/application Get an impression about our program and science: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ni1.... Apply now and become part of our vibrant student body. Spread the word!

Wonderful Symposium! Thank you so much for the great organization by @giulialavarda.bsky.social. It was great to spend time with our wonderful guests from @tue.nl and @unimainz.bsky.social @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Giulia Lavarda@giulialavarda.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Great talks and discussions at yesterday’s MPIP-JGU-TUe Mini Symposium hosted by @weilgroup.bsky.social at @mpip-mainz.mpg.de with colleagues from @tue.nl and @unimainz.bsky.social It was a pleasure to bring our communities together for a day of science and exchange!

We are very excited for today's Mini Symposium together with our guests from TU Eindhoven and JGU Mainz! www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de/events/43038... Looking forward to interesting talks and many nice interactions! Many thanks to @giulialavarda.bsky.social for organizing this event!

Today, Dr. Yingke Wu, group leader of our Nanodiamond group, gave a wonderful lecture on Carbon Materials as part of the MPIP Lecture Series "Advanced Soft Matter Science." Many thanks to Yingke for sharing his knowledge on these fascinating materials! @mpip-mainz.mpg.de @yingkewu.bsky.social

The new science outreach chapter highlights the unsung contributions of polymers to everyday life. Honored to be part of this meaningful project and many thanks to the brilliant team who made this possible! #ScienceCommunication #Polymers #Teamwork

SFB 1551 - Collaborative Research Centre 1551@sfb1551.bsky.social · 12mo ago

✨ Polymers: The Hidden Heroes of Life ✨ Thrilled to share that our science outreach chapter has just been published in the Springer Series "Science for a Better Tomorrow"! A true example of how collaboration and curiosity can drive meaningful science communication! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

We developed an AND-gated chemiluminescent photosensitizer that only generates light inside tumor cells, activating under 2 cancer cell-specific conditions. Many thanks to Wenwu Peng @pengww.bsky.social from Seah Ling Kuan's group @seahling.bsky.social & our collaborators! shorturl.at/uXTg3

Autonomous Activation of a Gated Chemiluminescent Photosensitizer Enables Targeted Photodynamic Therapy in Tumor Cells

Chemiluminescence-based photodynamic therapy (CLPDT) offers a promising solution to the light penetration limits of traditional PDT. However, it lacks spatiotemporal control. Intracellularly activated...

pubs.acs.org

Two in one day: Congratulations to Raphael Meyer for defending his PhD today! 🎉 🥳

Congratulations to Yu-Liang Tsai for successfully defending his PhD today! 🎉🥳

We had a great time at our group retreat last week in Cochem on the Mosel! Good talks, fun activities, and plenty to explore. So lucky to work with such an awesome team!

Thrilled to be selected as a young scientist for the Lindau Nobel Meeting 2025! It's been an inspiring week meeting Nobel Laureates and brilliant young researchers. Many thanks for the support @weilgroup.bsky.social @maxplanck.de #LINO25 #NobelLaureates #LindauMeeting

Weil group goes Teufelsschlucht! 🏞️🦕 Braving the heat and having an amazing time on our group retreat with a paleontology crash course and a scenic hike through the woods with team-building games! #Teufelsschlucht #ScienceAndNature #GroupRetreat