September 7, 2026
Olga Lyraki receives an Onassis Foundation Fellowship
A PhD student from the Barriga group receives a prestigious fellowship to study how electrochemical signals drive development.
News
© Marina Sanaki-Matsumiya / EMBL
Publications Ebisuya Group
September 3, 2026
Bovine Stem Cells Offer New Approach to Future Cultivated Steak Research
Physics of Life and EMBL Barcelona researchers develop self-organizing bovine tissues that contain muscle, nerve, and blood vessel cells.
© Daniela Velasco / EMBL
Publications Ebisuya Group
August 19, 2026
Protein Degradation Rate Helps Explain Why Humans Develop More Slowly Than Mice
Physics of Life and EMBL researchers have uncovered differences in protein degradation rates between humans and mice that could underlie their different developmental tempos.
© Hagen Gebauer / PoL
Society Science
August 18, 2026
A New Speaker for the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life
Prof. Helmut Schießel will take over as Speaker and Managing Director of the Cluster.
© TUD / Magdalena Gonciarz
Education Society
June 30, 2026
Bringing biophysics to life at the Long Night of Science 2026
PoL interactive demonstrations, virtual reality, and hands-on experiments impressed over 1,400 visitors at the 'Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften' event at the CRTD on June 26.
Society Science Awards
June 24, 2026
The Inaugural Suzanne Eaton Awards for Physics of Life
New international Physics of Life Awards will recognize outstanding contributions in the field and honor the visionary researcher Suzanne Eaton posthumously.
© Katrin Boes / MPI-CBG
Society Awards
June 23, 2026
ERC Advanced Grant for PoL PI Stephan Grill
The European Research Council will fund a 2.5 million euros research project on the physical foundation of sequence-guided genome organization.
© Bettina Ausserhofer / MPG
Awards Brugués Group
June 18, 2026
PoL PhD student is awarded the Otto Hahn Medal
Alison Kickuth, formerly in the group of Jan Brugués, receives a prestigious award from the Max Planck Society for gifted young researchers.
Science
May 4, 2026
Apply Now: New PoL Visitors Program!
This new program invites applications for short- to medium-term research visits by outstanding scientists from around the world.
© heinlewischer, Partnerschaft freier Architekten mbB
Society
April 27, 2026
New Building for Research into the Physics of Life
TUD will receive its first grant for a new research facility as part of a program for projects of national significance, funded by the Federal and State governments.
© Stefan Golfier
Publications
April 23, 2026
Stiff But Agile: Researchers Uncover a Central Mechanism of Diatom Steering
An interdisciplinary team led by PoL PI Stefan Diez and Nicole Poulsen at the B CUBE has revealed a novel mechanism for how diatoms steer across surfaces.
© AVANGA Filmproduktion GmbH
Education Society Science
April 22, 2026
The Physics of Life Film Project: Bringing Biophysics to the Big Screen
After several months of shooting, post production, and final touches, the first film from our project is now live!
© Ryan Henne / PoL
Awards Elias Barriga Group
April 9, 2026
HFSP Research Grant Awarded to Elias H. Barriga
Dr. Elias H Barriga will coordinate a group of international collaborators to investigate how electrical and chemical signals interplay to guide tissue morphogenesis.
Education Science
March 23, 2026
Apply Now: PoL Excellence Postdoctoral Fellows Program 2026!
Our next application window for early career researchers to join PoL through an Excellence Postdoctoral Fellowship will open from April 1. until May 20!
Society Science
March 13, 2026
Physics of Life at the DPG Spring Meeting 2026!
PoL attended this year's DPG Spring Meeting in Dresden with an exhibition booth, showcasing biophysics to scientists from across Germany.
© Javier Bregante, Flaminia Kaluthantrige Don et al. Cell Reports, 2026 / MPI-CBG
Publications RA6
March 6, 2026
A stride towards a better liver model
By altering the growth environment, the Huch lab at MPI-CBG has developed a liver model that extensively mimics the heterogeneity of the real organ.
© Elisa Nerli
Publications Mateus Group
February 4, 2026
New insights into the mechanisms of organ growth and repair
Researchers discover how electrical signals promote cell proliferation, an essential feature to successfully repair organs.
© Melissa Rinaldin
Publications Brugués Group
January 28, 2026
New perspectives on how physical instabilities drive embryonic development
A Nature study reveals how embryos harness a physical instability in the cytoskeleton, together with precise cell-cycle timing, to reliably self-organize their cytoplasm
© Karolina Kuodyte/ Rashmiparvathi Keshara et al. / MPI-CBG
Publications RA1 RA6
January 22, 2026
Making human pancreatic acinar cells
Dresden researchers develop novel methods to create acinar cells, which are involved in the formation of pancreatic cancer.
© Fischer-Friedrich Group
Publications Fischer-Friedrich Group
January 12, 2026
A Signature of Life: Time Irreversibility and Amplified Fluctuations in Living Matter
A new publication in PRX by the Fischer-Friedrich group at PoL challenges a long-held belief about what characterizes activity in living systems.
© Byung Ho Lee et al. / MPI-CBG / Nature 2025
Publications RA6
January 9, 2026
Engineering the development of the pancreas
Researchers found that the shape of the fluid-filled cavities in the developing pancreas is controlled by pressure and the rate cells divide.
© Alison Kickuth, Brugués Lab
Publications Brugués Group
January 7, 2026
The Mechanical Ratchet: A New Mechanism of Cell Division Uncovered
Scientists from the Brugués group at PoL have discovered a new mechanism for how early embryos with large yolks undergo cell division, altering our view of the process.
© Lei Yuan, Sagarika Dawka, Yohan Kim, Anke Liebert et al. / Nature (2025) / MPI-CBG
Publications RA6
December 18, 2025
Patient-specific human liver model to understand disease mechanisms
A Dresden research team has developed a human modular “LEGO-like” model that lays foundation for a new era in liver research.
© PoL
Society Events
December 1, 2025
The Return of PoL Day: Celebrating Achievements in our Community
The PoL community gathered in the CRTD in November to celebrate PoL Day 2025 after a two-year hiatus.