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Dr. Elisha Krieg and Team Receive 2024 Innovation Award for Programmable DNA Hydrogels
Dr. Elisha Krieg and his research team—Dr. Krishna Gupta, Yu-Hsuan Peng, Syuan-Ku Hsiao, and Sarah Speed—have been honored with the 2024 Innovation Award by the Association of Supporters of the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (abbrev. IPF in German) for their work on “Using DNA to create programmable soft materials for biomedical applications”.
Modern medicine and life sciences urgently require synthetic materials that can seamlessly interact with living systems. While traditional polymer materials are relatively static and composed of only a few components, biological tissues are extraordinarily complex and adaptive, carrying molecular “instructions” that determine how they self-organize and respond to their environment. Replicating these properties in fully synthetic materials could unlock transformative biomedical applications, from regenerative therapies to advanced diagnostic tools.
Dr. Krieg and his team have addressed this challenge by leveraging synthetic DNA molecules to create soft hydrogel materials with precisely tunable and dynamic properties. These materials incorporate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of different DNA components that self-organize and interact in predictable ways. Recently, the team introduced DyNAtrix—a dynamic DNA-crosslinked hydrogel matrix designed to host living cells and organoids. Its unique molecular programming enables precise switching of key cell-instructive properties to actively guide cells in their development. With its adaptivity, biocompatibility, and suitability for bioprinting, DyNAtrix shows promise for applications in tissue engineering, drug testing, and disease modeling.
Dr. Elisha Krieg studied chemistry at the University of Cologne and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rechovot, Israel, where he received his PhD in 2013. His doctoral research focused on the development of stimuli-responsive and recyclable supramolecular polymers. In 2014, he became an HFSP Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, where he conducted research in the field of DNA nanotechnology. He joined the IPF and TU Dresden as an independent research associate in 2018 and was awarded the “TUD Young Investigator” status at TU Dresden in 2021. Dr. Krieg currently leads the “DNA Nanotechnology” research group within the IPF’s Division of Polymer Biomaterials Science.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner: Dr. Elisha Krieg, krieg@ipfdd.de
Originalpublikation: Peng, Y.-H., Hsiao, S.-K., Gupta, K., Ruland, A., Auernhammer, G. K., Maitz, M. F., Boye, S., Lattner, J., Gerri, C., Honigmann, A., Werner, C. & Krieg, E. Dynamic matrices with DNA-encoded viscoelasticity for cell and organoid culture. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 1463–1473 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01483-3
14.04.2025