Tanja Weil

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

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 ...

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!

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.

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!

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

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...

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!

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...

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!

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🎉👏

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

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"

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...

Lecture hall with a large group of people watching a presentation

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

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

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

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...

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

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

Our cover for “Intracellular assembly of supramolecular peptide nanostructures controlled by visible light” by Yong Ren from David Ng's group was selected for the current Nature Synthesis issue!
Many thanks to the team & collaborators!
www.nature.com/natsynth/vol...
@natsynth.nature.com

Congratulations, Kübra! 🎉
Well-deserved for your excellent research work!

Many stimulating talks & discussions @rsc.org Bioorthogonal & Bioresponsive 2025 last week!
www.rsc.org/events/detai...
Congratulations to Gonçalo Bernardes, who won the 2024 Corday-Morgan Mid-Career Prize for Chemistry & gave an excellent talk!
www.rsc.org/prizes-fundi...

@lujuanxu.bsky.social @mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Chemoselective dual functionalization of proteins via 1,6-addition of thiols to trifunctional N-alkylpyridinium - Nature Communications Chemoselective dual functionalization of proteins is an invaluable tool to introduce two distinct payloads to proteins. Here, the authors present N-alkylpyridinium reagents as soft electrophiles for c...

Excited to share our latest research published in @natcomms.nature.com, where we explore a 1,6-addition of thiols to N-alkylpyridinium for site-selective dual modification of proteins. Congratulations to the team!
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#Bioconjugation
@seahling.bsky.social

Intracellular Formation of Synthetic Peptide Nanostructures Causes Mitochondrial Disruption and Cell Death in Tumor Spheroids Synthetic peptide nanostructures, formed within cancer cells in response to glutathione, lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. The nanostructures significantly damage mitochondrial networ...

Our team has just published exciting work on intracellular peptide assembly to induce mitochondrial dysfunction & cell death in both 2D cell culture and 3D tumor spheroids.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project!
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
@mpip-mainz.mpg.de

Congratulations to Yong (@yongren111.bsky.social) for winning an outstanding poster award at the recent Fudan-ACS Publications Symposium (OPBIS 2025)!
Yong presented his recent work with David on light-controlled supramolecular peptide assembly in cells.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...