Rhineland-Palatinate Science Minister at “CoM2Life”
On his summer trip this year, Rhineland-Palatinate Science Minister Clemens Hoch visited Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and learned about the joint cluster project “CoM2Life” of TU Darmstadt, JGU Mainz and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
Wissenschaftsminister Clemens Hoch (l.), Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch (3.v.l.) und Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller-Stach (5.v.l.) mit Forschenden des Exzellenzprojekts CoM2Life, darunter dessen Sprecher, Prof. Dr. Andreas Walther (4.v.l.) (Foto: Stefan F. Sämmer)
With this highly innovative project in biomaterials research, the partners are applying in the current phase of the Excellence Strategy and have already been successful: “CoM2Life” was one of 41 out of 143 draft proposals submitted throughout Germany to receive a positive evaluation. The decision on which Clusters of Excellence will then be funded from 2026 will be made on May 22, 2025.
“CoM2Life” aims to develop a fundamentally new generation of soft biomaterials that are able to enter into permanent and reciprocal communication with biological systems such as cells and tissues by integrating the principles of living systems. The researchers follow an approach that combines the chemistry-centered design of biomaterials with the design of regulatory circuits in synthetic biology. This enables the development of intelligent biomaterials that are capable of selectively detecting signals from their environment, processing them internally and then controlling actuators and effectors as required.
Text: JGU/bjb