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200 Mesh Grid with Drosophila Samples
Helmholtz Munich | Stefanie Winkler

Bioengineering Center Institute for Synthetic Biomedicine

ISBM develops and deploys next-generation biotechniques for molecular sensing and actuation of distributed cellular processes to reverse engineer cell-circuit function and guide future cell therapies.

ISBM develops and deploys next-generation biotechniques for molecular sensing and actuation of distributed cellular processes to reverse engineer cell-circuit function and guide future cell therapies.

The research of ISBM focuses on three synergistic areas: 

©Barth-Jan van Rossum

Biomolecular Engineering of Sensors and Actuators

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©Barth-Jan van Rossum

Genetic and Cellular Engineering of Model Systems

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©Barth-Jan van Rossum

Multiscale Interrogation of Cell-circuit Function

Scientists at ISBM

Felix Sigmund

Dr. Felix Sigmund

Group Leader
Jeffery Truong Dong-Jiunn

Dr. Dong-Jiunn Jeffery Truong

Group Leader

MD Silviu-Vasile Bodea

Group Leader
Karin Ganea

Dr. Karin Ganea

Scientific manager

Anja Ammer

Laboratory manager

Alberto Piovesan

Ph.D. student

Niklas Armbrust

Ph.D. student

Oleksandr Berezin

Ph.D. student
Portrait Martin Grosshauser

Martin Grosshauser

Ph.D. student
Portrait Julian Geilenkeuser

Julian Geilenkeuser

Ph.D. student
Tobias Santl

Tobias Santl

Trainee
Stefanie Winkler

Stefanie Winkler

Technical Assistant

Selected Publications

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2023 Nature Biotechnology

Felix Sigmund, Oleksandr Berezin, Sofia Beliakova, Bernhard Magerl, Martin Drawitsch, Alberto Piovesan, Filipa Gonçalves, Silviu-Vasile Bodea, Stefanie Winkler, Zoe Bousraou, Martin Grosshauser, Eleni Samara, Jesús Pujol-Martí, Sebastian Schädler, Chun So, Stephan Irsen, Axel Walch, Florian Kofler, Marie Piraud, Joergen Kornfeld, Kevin Briggman & Gil Gregor Westmeyer

Genetically encoded barcodes for correlative volume electron microscopy

While genetically encoded reporters are common for fluorescence microscopy, equivalent multiplexable gene reporters for electron microscopy (EM) are still scarce. Here, by installing a variable number of fixation-stable metal-interacting moieties in the lumen of encapsulin nanocompartments of different sizes, we developed a suite of spherically symmetric and concentric barcodes (EMcapsulins) that are readable by standard EM techniques. Six classes of EMcapsulins could be automatically segmented and differentiated. The coding capacity was further increased by arranging several EMcapsulins into distinct patterns via a set of rigid spacers of variable length. Fluorescent EMcapsulins were expressed to monitor subcellular structures in light and EM. Neuronal expression in Drosophila and mouse brains enabled the automatic identification of genetically defined cells in EM. EMcapsulins are compatible with transmission EM, scanning EM and focused ion beam scanning EM. The expandable palette of genetically controlled EM-readable barcodes can augment anatomical EM images with multiplexed gene expression maps.

2021 Nature Cell Biology

Truong, D.-J.J., Phlairaharn, T., Eßwein, B., Gruber, C., Tümen, D., Baligács, E., Armbrust, N., Vaccaro, F.L., Lederer, E.-M., Beck, E.M., Geilenkeuser, J., Göppert, S., Krumwiede, L., Grätz, C., Raffl, G., Schwarz, D., Zirngibl, M., Živanić, M., Beyer, M., Körner, J.D., Santl, T., Evsyukov, V., Strauß, T., Schwarz, S.C., Höglinger, G.U., Heutink, P., Doll, S., Conrad, M., Giesert, F., Wurst, W., Westmeyer, G.G.

Non-invasive and high-throughput interrogation of exon-specific isoform expression

2018 JACS

Roberts, S., Seeger, M., Jiang, Y., Mishra, A., Sigmund, F., Stelzl, A., Lauri, A., Symvoulidis, P., Rolbieski, H., Preller, M., Deán-Ben, X.L., Razansky, D., Orschmann, T., Desbordes, S.C., Vetschera, P., Bach, T., Ntziachristos, V., Westmeyer, G.G.

Calcium Sensor for Photoacoustic Imaging.

Latest Publications

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2021 Scientific Article in Nature Cell Biology

Truong, D.J.J. ; Phlairaharn, T. ; Eßwein, B. ; Gruber, C. ; Tümen, D. ; Baligács, E. ; Armbrust, N. ; Vaccaro, F.L. ; Lederer, E.-M. ; Beck, E.M. ; Geilenkeuser, J. ; Göppert, S. ; Krumwiede, L. ; Grätz, C. ; Raffl, G. ; Schwarz, D. ; Zirngibl, M. ; Živanić, M. ; Beyer, M. ; Körner, J.D. ; Santl, T. ; Evsyukov, V. ; Strauß, T. ; Schwarz, S.C. ; Höglinger, G.U. ; Heutink, P. ; Doll, S. ; Conrad, M. ; Giesert, F. ; Wurst, W. ; Westmeyer, G.G.

Non-invasive and high-throughput interrogation of exon-specific isoform expression.

Director Contact

Karin Ganea

Dr. Karin Ganea

Scientific manager

35.37, Building 35.37