Group Members

Lucas Caire da Silva earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Campinas (Brazil) in 2010. In 2011, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Kenneth Wagener at the University of Florida to perform his PhD research on the synthesis of precision polyolefins and the study of polymer dynamics by solid-state NMR. In 2016, Lucas began his postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Dr. Katharina Landfester at the MPI for Polymer Research. His research interests included the development of nested nanoparticle-in-vesicle systems for hierarchical catalysis. Since 2020, he has been conducting research as a group leader on bioinspired cell-like systems with a focus on the development of multicompartment microreactors, adaptive colloidal systems, and artificial organelles.

Thao P. Doan-Nguyen received her BSc in Pharmacy from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Hochiminh City (Vietnam) and her MSc in Nanomedicine from the University of Angers (France). She joined Prof. Daniel Crespy's group at Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (Thailand) in 2019 as a PhD student working on colloidal nanocarriers for biomedical applications. Thao P. Doan-Nguyen is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Dr. Lucas Caire da Silva at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, working on artificial cell development.

Shoupeng Cao received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Biology from Northwest A&F University (China). He then joined the group of Prof. Jan van Hest at the Eindhoven University of Technology as a Ph.D. student in the EU Marie-Curie ITN Nanomed program. His thesis focused on the engineering of well-defined biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles for tailored biomedical applications. He is currently a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in the group of Dr. Lucas Caire da Silva and Prof. Dr. Katharina Landfester. His research interests include polymeric nanocompartments for biomedical applications and biomimicry microcompartments with adaptive and life-like features.

Tsvetomir Ivanov graduated from the Technical University of Hamburg and the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy Sofia in 2019 with a double M.Sc. degree in Chemistry. During his undergraduate studies, he developed his diploma thesis in the group of Prof. Kai Sundmacher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg. His research focus was on the development of a microfluidics-based method for the generation of lipid giant unilamellar vesicles and their subsequent use as cell-like compartments. In 2020 he joined the group of Dr. Lucas Caire da Silva at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research as a PhD student. There he is currently developing artificial cell-like systems that mimic the structure and functionality of living cells.

Heloísa Bremm Madalosso received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil) in 2018 and is a PhD student in chemical engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). Her research interests focus on the synthesis of polymeric biomaterials by ring-opening polymerization and the study of biobased monomers. Through polymer functionalization and bioconjugation with biomacromolecules such as peptides and proteins, her work aims to develop a novel and versatile biomaterial platform that meets the needs of biomedical applications, such as the development of scaffolds for tissue engineering and nanocarriers for drug delivery.

Leonhard Paul Seufert is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in biomedical chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Since 2023 he is a bachelor student in the group of Dr. Lucas Caire da Silva at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. His research focuses on the development of novel multiphase complex coacervate systems capable of sequestering macromolecules in a controlled and adaptable manner. In addition, his goal is to develop artificial organelle models capable of performing enzymatic cascade reactions in the field of synthetic biology, bridging the gap between materials and life.

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