NWO Vidi grant for the lab!

[1 July 2022] Peter has been awarded a NWO Vidi Grant. Vidi is a funding instrument of the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO). This grant allows researchers to develop an innovative line of research and build up their own research group for the next five years.

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Molecular information processing in self‐organised networks - Dr. Peter Korevaar (RU)
Living matter is entirely driven by chemistry, and acts as a “chemical computer” where chemical signals are exchanged and processed to direct the spontaneous build‐up of organisms. In synthetic materials, this enables fundamentally new potential where functions – motion, growth, shape‐transformation – are directed via molecular information processing, rather than traditional electronics. The researchers will demonstrate this principle in networks of self‐assembling wires, which spontaneously grow, transfer chemical signals between sender and receiver agents and thereby – via a cascade of input‐output steps – direct the self‐organization of patterns. This might lead to e.g. neuromorphic sensors or self‐adapting lab‐on‐a‐chip applications.

The research grant covers two 4-yr PhD position as well as equipment costs. The vacancy for the first PhD position can be found here

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NWO Science M-grant for our lab!

[18 November 2021] The NWO Domain Board Science has approved our grant application in the Open Competition Domain Science-M programme. M-grants are intended for innovative, high-quality, fundamental research and/or studies involving matters of scientific urgency.

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Emergent organization of connectivity in active matter networks - Dr. Peter Korevaar (RU)
Most synthetic materials are inactive and limited to just one function, in contrast to living matter which can adapt itself to changing circumstances. The researchers will, by using molecular self-assembly and chemical reactions, mimic this behaviour in networks of wires that spontaneously grow, organize, and adapt to changes in their environment. This will provide new insights into the emergence of life-like behaviour from simple molecular building blocks. Furthermore, self-organizing networks provide unprecedented potential in applications where connections (e.g. wires or channels) can reorganize themselves, for example in lab-on-a-chip technologies where the right connections emerge spontaneously. The research grant covers one 4-yr PhD position as well as equipment costs.

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ChemRxiv pre-print on Self-organization of Myelin networks.

[12 October 2021] We posted our Mitch' newest pre-print on the self-organization of our myelin-networks at air-water interfaces. Typically, self-organization relies on the emergence of gradients, e.g. in concentration, surface tension, or meniscus curvature at air-water interfaces. However, the spreading of these gradients is non-directional. Mechanisms by which self-organization is mediated through specific connections, where some elements attract each other while others are repelled, are seldom reported. In this new manuscript, we show that the directional growth of our myelin filaments enables directional attraction in self-organizing systems at air-water interfaces: the self-assembled filaments establish connections that can selectively attract floating droplets via Marangoni and elastocapillary effects. Read the pre-print here.

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Paper on "Self-sustained Marangoni flows driven by chemical reactions" published in ChemSystemsChem

[17 June 2021] Anne's paper is now published in ChemSystemsChem.  Congratulations!

Furthermore, this publication includes a cover profile and a journal cover with beautiful artwork made by Anne.

 

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ChemRxiv pre-print on Self-sustained Marangoni flows driven by chemical reactions.

[5 May 2021] We posted our newest pre-print on self-sustained Marangoni flows at ChemRxiv. This manuscript introduces the concept of Marangoni flow to supply reagents to a chemical reaction that –in turn– maintains the surface tension gradient that drives this flow.

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Peter presents at Online Chemical Systems Meeting.

[22 March 2021] Peter presents a lecture entitled "Mesoscale organization emerging from chemical systems" at the online Chemical Systems Meeting, hosted by nanoge.org, and organized by Ivan Aprahamian and Larissa von Krbek.

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Publication in Nature Communications on self-organization

[23 September 2020] We published a paper in Nature Communications, showing how interconnected filament-droplet networks spontaneously emerge at air-water interfaces, based on amphiphile self-assembly, Marangoni flow and self-sustained gradients. The paper can be found here.

Furthermore, our work was featured by NEMO Kennislink (in Dutch).

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Meeting report on Systems Chemistry in Nature Chemistry

[17 August 2020] We contributed to a Meeting report on the Virtual Symposium on Systems Chemistry, which was hosted by the Advanced Science Research Center (City University New York, USA), 18-20 May 2020.  The Meeting report, co-authored by Helena Azevedo, Sarah Perry and Dibyendu Das, describes the highlights of the online conference, together with the major challenges of the field. The paper can be found here.

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Peter presents at Virtual Symposium on Systems Chemistry.

[18 May 2020] Peter presents a lecture entitled "Programmable life-like materials that organize at mesoscopic scale", at the online symposium on Systems Chemistry, hosted by Advanced Science Research Center (CUNY) and organized by Gonen Ashkenasy, Rafal Klajn, David Lynn, Sijbren Otto, Rebecca Schulman and Rein Ulijn.

 

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First paper on Autonomous Mesoscale Positioning posted as ChemRxiv pre-print

[25 February 2020] We posted our first pre-print, describing a self-organizing system based on amphiphile self-assembly, Marangoni flow and self-sustained gradients on ChemRxiv. The manuscript describes how a spontaneous organization of droplets and self-assembling filaments emerges on the interface of an aqueous solution, mediated by a spatiotemporal controlled coupling of self-assembly and gradient-driven molecular fluxes.

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Publication on non-equilibrium signal integration in hydrogels in Nature Communications

[20 January 2020] Together with the group of Joanna Aizenberg at Harvard, and Nadir Kaplan (Virginia Tech), we published a paper in Nature Communications which introduces the idea that hydrogels, previously just thought to shrink and swell in time with the presence or absence of a specific stimulus, can generate fascinating new classes of non-equilibrium responses. Thereby, hydrogels can act as complex chemical signal integrators – a universal feature of living materials but currently absent from synthetic systems. The paper can be found here.

Read more on the story behind this paper in this Nature Research Chemistry Community blog post.  Furthermore, our work was featured in by Kennislink.nl (in Dutch).

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International Conference on Molecular Systems Engineering (ICMSE 2019) in Nijmegen

[20 August 2019] We co-organized the ICMSE 2019 conference in the Stadsschouwburg in Nijmegen (17-20 August). This conference, focussed on Functional Molecular Systems, was attended by ca. 200 chemists, biologists, and physicists, working in the areas of supramolecular chemistry, systems chemistry, molecular materials, and synthetic biology.

During the conference, Prof. Chad Mirkin (Northwestern Univeristy) received the Netherlands Award for Supramolecular Chemistry, and Prof. Helma Wennemers (ETH Zurich) the Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry.

The ICMSE 2019 is organized by the Dutch Research Center for Functional Molecular Systems (FMS), and supported by the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering. More information here.

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Peter highlights research of the group in KNCV Eye-openers movie

[10 December 2018] Eye-openers is an online stage for talented young scientists. Here they tell (in Dutch - but with subtitles) about their research, what's it about, what inspires them and what they're dreaming of in one minute only. Especially if you're interested in science (and realize, of course, that things are much more complicated).

Eye-openers is an initiative of the KNCV - the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society.

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NWO Start-up Grant for Life-like Materials group

[1 February 2018] Sandra Brünken, Peter Korevaar and Evan Spruijt, all three researchers within the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) at Radboud University, have been granted the NWO START-UP Grant. The purpose of this grant is to support recently appointed professors, assistant professors and tenure trackers in physical and chemical research fields to further build on their research projects and strengthen their new research groups... read more

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Chemical communication strategies in life-like materials - Dr. Peter Korevaar (RU)
Living matter has many fascinating properties that offer a great source of inspiration to the development of functional materials. A particular interesting feature of living matter is the capability to selectively pick-up stimuli from its environment and process this information into appropriate behaviour. In our Life-like Materials group, we try to implement these life-like properties into synthetic materials, and thereby provide new functionalities to a next generation of smart materials.

The research supported by this NWO Grant focusses on chemical communication strategies in life-like materials. Like electric signals are transported through wires and transistors on a chip, we will develop a chemical system that grows dynamic wires on a substrate, enabling the transfer of chemical stimuli from A to B. By combining molecular self-assembly with physicochemical phenomena as diffusion and surface tension, these wires can grow and disassemble again, resulting – ultimately – into autonomous systems combining transfer of information to logic operations with input of multiple chemical stimuli.

This 332.6 k€ research grant covers one 4-yr PhD project as well as equipment costs.

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NWO Veni Grant for Peter

[19 July 2016] Seventeen researchers from Radboud University and Radboud university medical center, and two researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics have been awarded a Veni grant by NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. These grants of up to €250,000 are offered to highly-promising researchers who have recently completed a PhD... read more

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Synthetic materials in life-like motion - Dr. Peter Korevaar (RU)
The assembly of molecular building blocks into dynamic materials that grow, move and self-regulate is one of the most fascinating processes in living matter. The researchers will develop new strategies to apply the underlying principles in artificial, “smart” materials that display controlled motions and exert forces at the micro-scale.