With our background in single-molecule detection and superresolution microscopy, we develop new methods and molecular tools to study biomolecular processes, structures and dynamics. It is our ultimate vision to use fluorescence for recording movies of the molecular processes that are the basis of life.
With the progress of using DNA as a nanomaterial (DNA nanotechnology), we also got excited about building modular molecular devices with a variety of functions including molecular signal amplifiers, force sensors, and nanorulers. Such devices are the basis of a fundamental new approach to biosensing and molecular robotics.
Our NanoBioSciences group brings together unique interdisciplinarity creating synergy from molecular biology, physical chemistry, biophysics and nanophotonics.
Research
News
8. November 2024
A new article is out in Nature Methods titled- ‘Single-molecule dynamic structural biology with vertically arranged DNA on a fluorescence microscope’. Check it out here. Congratulations to all the authors!
7. November 2024
A new article is out in Nature Nanotechnology titled- ‘Engineering modular and tunable single-molecule sensors by decoupling sensing from signal output’. Check it out here. Congratulations to all the authors!
28. October 2024
Congrats to Lorena and the team for their new paper published in Advanced Materials titled- ‘2D Titanium Carbide MXene and Single-Molecule Fluorescence: Distance-Dependent Nonradiative Energy Transfer and Leaflet-Resolved Dye Sensing in Lipid Bilayers’. Check it out here.
9. October 2024
Join Prof. Tinnefeld’s presentation, ‘Sub-Nanometer Resolution of Protein-DNA Interactions Enabled by pMINFLUX and Graphene ‘ at the BioPhotonics Conference 2024 on October 15 at 14:40 CEST.
©PhotonicsMedia
18. September 2024
Check out the LMU press release highlighting our recent publications in Angewandte Chemie and Nature Communications.
©LMU
10. September 2024
A new article is out in Nature Communications titled- ‘Controlled mechanochemical coupling of anti-junctions in DNA origami arrays’. Check it out here. Congratulations to all the authors!
9. September 2024
A new article is out in Angewandte Chemie titled- ‘DNA Origami Vesicle Sensors with Triggered Single-Molecule Cargo Transfer’. Check it out here. Congratulations to all the authors!
26. June 2024
A new article is out in Nanoscale titled- ‘Expanding the range of graphene energy transfer with multilayer graphene’. Check it out here. Congratulations to all the authors!
20. June 2024
🎂
Happy birthday to Philip! 🎈
The lab came together and organized a celebration for Philip’s 50th birthday with yummy cakes and refreshing fruit punch.
We wish you a great year ahead!
12. June 2024
Congratulations to Viktorija for receiving the ‘Zellner-Wissenschaftspreis für Physikalische Chemie 2024’, for her contributions to the development of optical sensors with the help of single-molecule microscopy and DNA nanotechnology. She had a wonderful visit to the
University Duisburg-Essen, and was honoured to receive the award and meet Prof. Zellner.
Check out the LMU press release here!
16. May 2024
Chenyuan and Jakob represented our lab at the 2024 retreat from the Center of Nanoscience, held at Kleinwalsertal. They presented posters and connected with people all while discussing the latest science. Jakob received the best poster award for his topic- ‘Investigation of DNA and protein interactions on the nanometer scale using Graphene Energy Transfer.’ Congratulations! 🎉
8. May 2024
Viktorija was elected as one of the Elisabeth Schiemann Fellows for the year of 2024. Congratulations! 🎉
Read more here.
26. April 2024
Viktorija and Cindy attended the Open Readings Conference in Vilnius Lithuania. Viktorija was invited as a keynote speaker and Cindy’s student talk was awarded a prize for best oral presentation in chemistry and chemical physics. They visited a few labs of Vilnius University and the company ‘Light Conversion’ and found the scientific exchange with highly motivated students and researchers very inspiring. Congratulations again to Cindy! 🎉
27. February 2024
We are excited to share that Lennart successfully defended his PhD thesis on “DNA origami-based tools for the investigation of biomolecular interactions”
Congratulations! 🎉
We wish you all the success and good luck on your journey forward. 🍷
20. February 2024
Martina successfully defended her thesis, with Xaverl and Luna by her side. 🐾
Congratulations! 🎉
We wish you all the success and good luck on your journey forward. 🍷
14. February 2024
Check out the LMU press release highlighting our recent paper- ‘Super-resolved FRET and co-tracking in pMINFLUX‘ published in Nature Photonics.
pMINFLUX multiplexing can enhance super-resolution microscopy by leveraging fluorescence lifetimes to localize multiple biomolecules simultaneously without the need for blinking. The method allows precise investigation of dynamic processes at the nanoscale, offering new insights into biological phenomena. Congrats to Fiona, Jonas and the team! 🎉
©LMU
2. February 2024
Congratulations to Merve-Zeynep for winning the best presentation award at the single-Molecule Biophysics conference at Les Houches. She talked about studying AP endonucleases with the method of GETvNA. 🎉
24. January 2024
Congrats to Lennart and the team for their new paper published in JACS titled- ‘Single-Molecule FRET at 10 MHz Count Rates’. By employing DNA nanoantennas, they achieve a substantial increase in photon count rates, enabling the observation of rapid biomolecular dynamics with significantly improved temporal resolution and photostability, thus opening new possibilities for studying ultrafast biophysical processes.
29. December 2023
Congrats to Julian and the team for their new paper published in ACS Nano titled- ‘Kinetic Referencing Allows Identification of Epigenetic Cytosine Modifications by Single-Molecule Hybridization Kinetics and Superresolution DNA-PAINT Microscopy’. They introduce a referencing system that corrects for environmental influences (e.g. temperature, pH) on the DNA hybrid binding kinetics. Their method reveals subtle, position-dependent effects of epigenetic modifications on the binding kinetics, demonstrating its potential for detecting disease markers.
14. December 2023
🎄 Lab Christmas Party Highlights! 🎉
A huge shoutout to our Christmas party elves Merve, Jakob, and Chenyuan for organizing a fantastic Christmas party! The evening featured delicious food🍽️, heartwarming Feuerzangenbowle and Glühwein🍷, lively karaoke sessions🎤, and non-stop dancing💃🕺. A perfect blend of fun and festivity, making it a night to remember!
12. December 2023
We are thrilled to share that Ece successfully defended her PhD thesis! 🎉
It’s been an incredible journey of research, discovery, and lots of learning. Ece is amazed by her PhD hat and often refers it to as a ‘masterpiece’. ❤️ We wish her good luck for the new beginnings and the exciting adventures ahead!
7. December 2023
Dear Lorena,
It’s time to say a bittersweet ‘au revoir’, as you are off to France to sprinkle your scientific magic as a professor! We’re not sure if France is ready for your humour, but we’re excited for you! Best of luck, and don’t forget to visit!
p.s. : Venezuelan arepas are the best! ❤️
4. September 2023
Izabela and Melanie attended this year’s Graphene Week held in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was an exciting exchange where Iza talked about “Graphene Energy Transfer (GET) and DNA Nanotechnology for single-molecule biosensing and biophysics” and Melanie presented a poster titled- “Graphene-based biosensing using an SSM-based technology”.
4. September 2023
How does the study of single fluorescent molecules and 2D materials potentially profit from each other? A new perspective article entitled ‘Exploring the Synergies of Single-Molecule Fluorescence and 2D Materials Coupled by DNA‘ aims at answering this question. Check it out here. Congrats to Lars, Alan and the team!
30. August 2023
Cindy, Michi and Philip attended this year’s Single Molecule Localization Microscopy Symposium (SMLMS 2023), held in Vienna. Philip talked about ‘Fluorescence lifetime benefits in p-MINFLUX’ as an invited speaker. Cindy gave an elected talk and Michi presented a poster on ‘photostabilization for superresolution and single-molecule imaging’.
9. August 2023
Viktorija and Michi together with Amelie’s group organised a yummy cold beet soup from the Lithuanian kitchen to celebrate the recent publication, “Full Site-Specific Addressability in DNA Origami-Templated Silica Nanostructures” and to thank the group for their continuous support. Congratulations again! 🤩
4. August 2023
Cindy, Michi, and Jonas represented the lab at this year’s International Physics of Living Systems (iPoLS 2023), held in Atlanta. Jonas talked about his latest work on pMINFLUX, Michi and Cindy shared current developments in photostabilization for superresolution and single-molecule imaging. One of the highlights for our team was the opportunity to interact with students from across the United States. The warmth and curiosity shared made our experience genuinely memorable.
4. August 2023
The European biophysics community had its biannual meeting (EBSA) in Stockholm. Lars represented the lab at the meeting with a talk and a poster. There was a lot of interest for our newly introduced, and astonishingly simple strategy for immobilizing DNA on graphene. Lars’ poster was selected as one of the winners of this year’s EBSA 2023 poster prize.
3. August 2023
Izabela received the CeNS Investment Fund for her project “Graphene Energy Transfer with Vertical Nucleic Acids for Functional Biosensing“.
Congratulations, Iza!
14. July 2023
Today we welcomed a lot of curious students to our world of science and research 🧬 for the Schüler Info Tag 2023 at our campus. The event included very interesting interactions through posters and various lab tours. Thank you to all the group members who organised and made this a successful event. 🤩
30. June 2023
The first PhD defense of this year took place today! Jonas successfully defended his thesis and enjoyed a beautiful evening with friends and family. Congratulations and all the best for the future! 🥳
12. June 2023
Dear Alan,
Good luck and congratulations on your new journey in Argentina! You’ll be greatly missed in the lab, but we know you’ll do amazing things in your next position. Keep in touch and farewell! ❤️
25. April 2023
A new paper “Full Site-Specific Addressability in DNA Origami-Templated Silica Nanostructures” is now out! The paper is the result of collaborative work with the lab of Amelie Heuer-Jungemann at the Max Planck Institute for biochemistry. Check it out here. Congrats to Michael, Viktorija and the team!
24. April 2023
So proud of our lab’s contributions at FNANO23 in Snowbird, UT! Renukka gave a talk on DNA origami nanoantennas, Ece presented a poster on DNA origami curvature sensors, and Viktorija shared insights on tunable single-molecule DNA origami sensors. The conference ended on a high as Renukka was selected for the ‘Best student talk’. Congrats!
6. April 2023
Happy faces at FOM2023. Viki and Giovanni represented the lab at this year’s FOM. They participated with a talk and a poster and had a great time in sunny Porto nerding out on latest developments in microscopy.
21. March 2023
The ‘curvature sensor crew’ organised a yummy Manti lunch from the Turkish kitchen to celebrate the recent publication and to thank the group for their continuous support. Congratulations again! 🤩
17. March 2023
Giovanni’s hands-on workshop on how to make Orecchiette in the Italian way: Fun and delish! 🤩
10. March 2023
A new paper “Combining pMINFLUX, graphene energy transfer and DNA-PAINT for nanometer precise 3Dsuper-resolution microscopy” is now out! Check it out here. Congrats to Jonas and the team!
3. February 2023
Introducing an innovative solution in particle characterization! Ece’s new paper “DNA Origami Curvature Sensors for Nanoparticle and Vesicle Size Determination with Single-Molecule FRET Readout” is now out! Check it out here. Congratulations all!
18. January 2023
How to optimally and model-free combine FCS with fluorescence lifetime? Tim’s new paper “Shrinking gate fluorescence correlation spectroscopy yields equilibrium constants and separates photophysics from structural dynamics” is now out! Check it out here. Kudos to the team!
3. January 2023
Kateryna’s new paper “Gold Nanorod DNA Origami Antennas for 3 Orders of Magnitude Fluorescence Enhancement in NIR” is now out! Check it out here. Congrats, the team!
1. December 2022
Season’s Greetings everyone!
The new members of the Tinnefeld lab had to follow the traditions of organizing our annual Xmas party. We celebrated Christmas with a huge buffet, “Glühwein” and “Feuerzangenbowle”, a chocolate fountain and crappy secret Santa. Renukka and Ece took the opportunity to wear their awesome Christmas sweaters. Thanks to the diligent Christmas elves – it was the perfect get-together during the holiday season!
9. November 2022
As one of four scientists from physics and chemistry Andrés received the CeNS Investment Fund for his project “A Graphene Energy Transfer assay to study DNA repair“. The CeNS Investment Fund supports postdoctoral researchers on their way to independence. Felicitaciones!
©CeNS
25. – 28. September 2022
Andrés visited the German Biophysical Society (DGfB) Meeting Conference at the University of Konstanz and gave a talk on “Heterogeneous assembly of the cohesin-dockerin interaction and its modulation by isomerization of a single proline”.
25. September 2022
The Munich classic is finally back after two years!
Our annual Oktoberfest visit was the perfect get-together after the conference season and also a first for some of our international group members. Prost!
12. – 16. September 2022
LMU-Cambridge Junior Nanotech Network exchange part 2!
Julian, Karina and Patrick visited the Keyser Lab at the University of Cambridge. The program was kick-started with the symposium “From Polymers to Biomolecules – Retirement Conference for Dame Athene Donald” at the IoP. Lab rotations at the Cavendish lab gave insights into the research of the Keyser Group. A formal dinner at Christ’s College (picture), pub nights and punting provided the perfect British experience. Thanks for the very distinguished time – it was a pleasure!
11. – 14. September 2022
The Tinnefeld lab is part of the MAF2022 (Methods and Aplications in Fluorescence) at the Chalmers University of Technology in the beautiful city of Göteborg. Alan, Ece, Iza, Jonas, Lennart, Lorena, Renukka and Viktorija shared their most recent research in the form of oral and poster presentations. Big congratulations go to Lennart and Viktorija, who won poster prizes!
7. – 9. September 2022
Bosong, Cindy and Viktorija traveled to Berlin to participate in the 27th international workshop on “Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Super-resolution Microscopy (PicoQuant)”. We are delighted to share that Cindy won the student award for the best talk and Viktorija was awarded the “best invited speaker”. Congrats!
©PicoQuant
29. – 31. August 2022
Jonas, Julian and Michi visited the Single Molecule Localization Microscopy Symposium 2022 (SMLMS) in Paris to get inspiring insights into the field of single-molecule localization microscopy. They also shared their most recent research in the form of poster presentations. The conference was rounded off at a dinner-cruise on the Seine. C’était formidable!
22. July 2022
Tim won the 3rd price of the CeNS Nano Innovation Award 2022! Outstanding PhD students at Bavarian research institutions are honored annually by CeNS for their excellent research in nanosciences. Congrats Tim, the group is very proud!
©CeNS
22. July 2022
The annual “Schülerinfotag” took place today. Our faculty welcomed hundreds of pupils from all over Bavaria to offer an insight into the world of chemsitry and pharmacy. Many helpers were needed to give lab tours, show experiments, create posters, and prepare snacks. For example, Lennart guided interested pupils through our poster and explained the magic of DNA nanotechnology.
1. July 2022
Cindy’s new paper “Maximizing the Accessibility in DNA Origami Nanoantenna Plasmonic Hotspots” is now out! Check it out here. Congrats, Cindy and the team!
20. June 2022
Happy birthday, Prof. Dr. Tinnefeld!
Today we celebrated Philip’s birthday with coffee and cake. The strawberry and banana cakes made by the dean himself were very delicious – thank you, Philip!
22. – 25. May 2022
The JNN exchange 2022 was rounded off at the CeNS Retreat Kleinwalsertal with scientific talks and posters, career talks, workshops and social activities. Ece Büber deservedly won the award for the best poster, and Max Earle (UCam) for the best talk, congratulations!
©CeNS
17. – 25. May 2022
We are happy to participate in the Junior Nanotech Network (JNN) exchange 2022 with the University of Cambridge at CeNS!
The Tinnefeld lab welcomed grad students from the Keyser lab to introduce them to our everyday lab life, the beautiful city Munich, and Bavarian traditions. Thanks for the very distinguished time – full of scientific and cultural exchange! We are looking forward to our visit at University of Cambridge in September!
05. May 2022
The fourth PhD defense of this year took place today! Tim successfully defended his thesis and calls himself Dr. Schröder from now on. Congratulations and all the best for the future!
28. April 2022
Today the Tinnefeld lab opened the doors for Girls’ Day 2022, organized by CeNS. Cindy showed the students how DNA origami nanoantennas and fluorescence enhancement simplify the detection of single molecules. Instead of sophisticated optical equipment, it is possible to detect individual biomarkers on a smartphone camera. Let’s empower girls and women in science!
24. March 2022
First BBQ of the year!
Today we welcomed spring with self-made burgers for lunch and enjoyed the sunny time-out during lab work. This kind of lunch break has much potential to become a new tradition.
23. March 2022
Snapshots of today’s farewell party!
We said goodbye to Hildegard, who took over Mrs Steger’s secretary job during the last months. We appreciated her support through all the organizational challenges and will miss her cordial nature. We wish her all the very best for her future!
10. March 2022
We present our third PhD grad this year: Johann! Congratulations for this successful PhD defense on “Expanding the Scope of Single-Molecule Energy Transfer with Gold Nanoparticles and Graphene” and all the best for the future!
03. February 2022
Kristina defended her PhD thesis on “Designing Single-Molecule Assays towards Directed Emission with DNA Origami Nanoantennas” with great success today. We wish her all the best for the future. Congratulations!
28. January 2022
Sarah’s new paper “Quantitative Single-Molecule Measurements of Membrane Charges with DNA Origami Sensors” is now published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Check it out here! Congrats again, Sarah!
20. January 2022
We are delighted to share that Sarah has defended her PhD thesis on “Optical Single-Molecule Biosensors Assembled by DNA Origami” successfully. We wish her all the best for the future. Big big Congratulations!
There are many more defenses to come this year!
14. December 2021
Andrés’ article “A simple and general approach to control the activity of DNA processing enzymes” is now online in Nucleic Acids Research. This new approach is also featured in the LMU newsroom. Kudos to the team!
26. November 2021
The Tinnefeld group won amongst others the CeNS Publication Award 2021 in the category “Scientific Breakthrough” for their publication on NACHOS in Nature Communications. Check out the announcement and the paper.
Congratulations to all the winners!
November 2021
The Römer-Prize was awarded to Patrick for his Master thesis and to Viktorija in the postdoc category for outstanding achievements. Check it out here. Congratulations!
1. October 2021
Today Prof. Dr. Philip Tinnefeld takes over the office from Prof. Dr. Angelika Vollmar as the dean of the faculty of chemistry and pharmacy. We wish him lots of success in his new role!
29. September – 1. October 2021
The 26th international workshop on Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Super-resolution Microscopy took place in Berlin. We are delighted to share that Jonas was awarded “best talk by a young researcher” for his presentation on “Exploiting Fluorescence Lifetime in Pulsed Interleaved MINFLUX”. Check it out here!
10. June 2021
Scientists from LMU have unlocked the full potential of graphene for fluorescence microscopy. The study shows a microscopy resolution world record of 3 nanometer. This might turn graphene into the new standard platform for state-of-the art microscopy. Check out the LMU Newsroom!