Dr. Laura Hartmann becomes a full professor of Preparative Polymer Chemistry at the University of Düsseldorf

Prof. Hartmann surrounded by her colleagues on the day of her habilitation at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.

Prof. Hartmann´s expertise lies in design and synthesis of sugar-polymers on immobilized surface. This artificial, sequence- and structure defined sugar macromolecules have an enormous potential in biomedicine: they are used as building blocks for creation of various new classes of biomolecules. In basic research these biomolecules may be used for deciphering the role of sugar in cell signaling and immune response. In pharmacology and medicine, their potential is explored for targeted drug delivery (glycomimetics), as a new class of drugs, in tissue engineering (sugar hydrogels as tissue scaffolds) or as biosensors.

Until receiving a full professorship at the University of Düsseldorf, Prof. Hartmann was Emmy Noether junior research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Dpt. of Biomolecular Systems in Potsdam-Golm. She received her postdoctoral training at the Stanford University in the groups of Prof. Dr. C. Frank (Chemical Engineering) and Prof. Dr. C. Ta (School of Medicine). Her recent success includes endorsement of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation (“Plus 3” Programme), the Young Investigator Prize of the Expert Group Macromolecular Chemistry of the German Chemical Society and several publications in high-ranking journals (Pussak et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013 and Ponader et al. JACS 2014). Prof. Hartmann´s self-published book: The Glycopolymer Code will be out later in 2014.

For BMS Blog Prof. Hartmann opened up about the challenges and opportunities of an upward science career.
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Dr. Gregor König, Kinderkrebsstiftung and Melanie Leddermann, MPIKG BMS ; Photo credits: Dr. Dana Kikic

The Glycobiology Group of the MPI-KG BMS (Prof. Peter H. Seeberger, Dr. Chakkumkal Anish, Mr. Geißner), Kinderkrebsstiftung (Dr. Gregor König), sphingotec GmbH (Dr. Andreas Bergmann) and University Klinikum Essen (Dr. Petra Temming and Prof. Johannes Schulte) joined their expertise to identify novel glycan-based tumor markers or tumour associated carbohydrate antigens (TACA) for potential diagnosis and prognosis of the retinoblastoma disease. ...

Ms. Jessica Schulze ; Photo credit: Dr. Dana Kikic

In her young years Jessica Schulze has already traversed world and crossed disciplines. Before landing a PhD position in the Structural Glycobiology Group at the MPIKG BMS, Schulze performed a study in the Molecular Cell Physiology Group of the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, participated in a dual degree program funded by DAAD in Busan, South Korea, nailed down her Diploma thesis at Bayer HealthCare in Berlin and received her Dipl.-Ing. in Medical Biotechnology in 2013 from the Technical University Berlin. In the Structural Glycobiology Group she will be tackling carbohydrate/lectin interactions and cell-based validation of targeted-delivery via liposomes.

Prof. Jan van Hest ; Photo credits: Dr. Dana Kikic

Prof. Jan van Hest from the Radboud University, Netherlands, likes combining business and pleasure. Once a year he goes to a group retreat with his students, but makes sure they come back with a bunch of new ideas in their young, curious heads. To this purpose he organizes daily seminars with the carefully selected research groups worldwide. After Cambridge, London and Gent, the van Hest Group visited our Department in Berlin and joined us for a day of scientific talks and inspirational get-together. Here are some impressions: ...