Profile

Growing societal expectation of long lasting health and high mobility in combination with an increased life span and fastidious life style led to an increase in implant operation. To increase the durability of an implant (e.g. artificial hip) or to develop new metallic but nevertheless biodegradable materials (e.g. magnesium materials) which are substituted over time by body own tissue, we elucidate the structure-function relation in materials, we optimize implant surface by coating with biomimetic layers, and we characterise the in vitro corrosion mechanism of magnesium materials. Beside the broad use of neutron and synchrotron radiation (e.g. small angle scattering, reflectivity, diffraction and tomography) for the structural characterisation of the materials special emphasis lays on the biochemical and molecular biological elucidation of the cell response with respect to the various materials.

Here an important aspect is the interaction of molecules and surfaces with the cell membrane which is a central barrier for signalling processes. Our investigations range from the structural characterization of peptide or peptidomimetic driven bio-membrane alterations to the coating of metallic implant surfaces by bio-membrane mimics. The mechanism of these interactions, as well as the membrane composition and its biophysical properties of healthy and erroneous cells are of substantial interest to our research.

Investigations of our membrane systems but also other materials which are summarized as "soft matter” (e.g. colloidal systems or micro emulsions and biological (macro)molecules) can be performed in the frame of our user program at the EMBL instrument BioSAXS at PETRA III (DESY, Hamburg) which is build and operated jointly by EMBL and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht.