Welcome to the Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems – Functional Molecular Systems (IBCS-FMS)
IBCS-Functional Molecular Systems is an interdisciplinary institute combining fundamental research in Biology and Chemistry.
Our aim is to improve our understanding of biological processes (e.g. cellular communication or disease progression) using advanced materials and chemical processes.
We focus on developing new smart materials, miniaturized high content screening methods as well as design of novel biomedical tools for the treatment of diseases.
Specific Focuses of IBCS-FMS:
Biology: Cell adhesion molecules, Wnt signaling
Chemistry: Combinatorial chemistry, surface chemistry, polymer chemistry
Technology Transfer at IBCS-FMS:
Several aspects of our research at IBCS-FMS have been transferred into Start-Ups:
Orian-Rousseau Group:
EURIdoc: Eucor Upper Rhine Immunology doctoral programme (Marie Curie Action- COFUND)
The Orian-Rousseau group is part of the EURIdoc program focused on immunology. The project will tackle the immune components participating in the development of pancreatic tumors.
A new Nature Communication article from the Levkin Group: “3D printing of inherently nanoporous structures". Collaboration with Martin Wegener and Britta Nestler.
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Pavel Levkin accepts an invitation to join the editorial advisory board of Advanced Materials Interfaces (Wiley).
Have a look at our newest Advanced Materials paper on "Assembly of Multi‐Spheroid Cellular Architectures by Programmable Droplet Merging".
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Biology meets chemistry: Interdisciplinary research on 5 800 square meters. The new building was officially opened on October 29, 2020.
MoreTitle: “Decoding astroglial CD44 function in neuroinflammation”
Title: “Proteomics-on-c-Chip: Combining Droplet Microarrays and Mass Spectrometry for Single-Cell Proteomics”
With their decision to fund nine consortia, the Federal Government and the Federal States have set a further course for the establishment of NFDI in the Joint Science Conference (GWK). Based on a funding recommendation by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the NFDI4Chem (National Research Data Infrastructure for Chemistry) consortium was also selected for funding.
The Compound Platform team contributes, among other things, the developments in the field of software development and is pleased to be able to contribute to the establishment of a sustainable infrastructure as part of NFDI4Chem.

Congratulations to Maximilian Benz for winning the Carl-Roth-Förderpreis of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) for his work on the miniaturization of chemical synthesis and biological experiments.
MoreNew EUCOR Seed Money funding for the project “Exploiting the CXCR4-CD44 axis for cancer treatment”
MoreThree of our projects have been funded by the Ministry of Science and Art of Baden-Württemberg (MWK).
Congratulations to the ITG Spin-Off Aquarray GmbH. Aquarray has received the highly competitive award of the European Commission "Seal of Excellence" and is supported by the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument.
Check out our paper in Nature Communications: “Marrying chemistry with biology by combining on-chip solution-based combinatorial synthesis and cellular screening”. Great paper highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary research. Congrats Max and all co-authors!
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