Assistant Professor

MS: Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (1998)

PhD: Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2003)

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Biomineralization: (reverse) Engineering Biological Composite Materials Synthesis

For more than 500 million years, “simple” sea urchins have used fiber-reinforced gradient ceramic materials to build self-sharpening teeth. This may be astonishing; it is, however, by no means unique. Organisms from all domains make use of the materials properties of crystalline and amorphous solids (e.g. inorganic minerals) to provide physical integrity and sense gravity, to guide light and even perceive the earth’s magnetic field.

Evolutionary optimization has led to organic-inorganic composite structures of amazing complexity, ordered across many levels of hierarchy and on length scales between the nano- and the macro scale. One very impressive feature of biominerals is that the organisms freely sculpt single-crystalline material into smoothly and continuously curving shapes, seemingly overriding the thermodynamic control of crystal morphology.

My group is driven by the desire to understand not only the design, i.e. the structure and functional organization of biominerals, but also their integrated synthesis. On a cellular level, these two, design and its execution, are inextricably linked. Our highly interdisciplinary approach reflects this complexity and rests on both the engineering of biomaterials synthesis in cell culture and the biologically inspired in vitro synthetic (re)construction of artificial mineralizing systems. In this way, we hope to find ways to create new materials of functional and architectural sophistication that rival that of biominerals.

Associations and Awards

Full Scholarship at the GEM4 Summer School, 2006.

JSP Fellow at the Bürgenstock Conference on Stereochemistry, 2006

Minerva Fellow, 2005 - 2007

Friends of the Weizmann-Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2003 - 2005

ETH-Scholarship, 1999 - 2000

Fulbright-Scholarship, 1994 - 1995

Dr. Nathorff-Einstein Award, 1992

Biogen-Rentschler Award, 1992

Award of the Fonds of the German Chemical Industry, 1992

Member of ACS and MRS.

Publications

M. Guillot-Nieckowski, D. Joester, M. Stöhr, M. Losson, M. Adrian, B. Wagner, M. Kansy, H. Heinzelmann, R. Pugin, F. Diederich, J.-L. Gallani. Langmuir 2007, 23, 737-746. “Self-assembly, DNA complexation, and pH response of amphiphilic dendrimers for gene transfection”.

M. Cohen, D. Joester, B. Geiger, L. Addadi. Soft Matter 2007, 3, 327-332. “Hyaluronan in the pericellular coat: an additional layer of complexity in early cell adhesion events.”

D. Joester, E. Klein, B. Geiger, L. Addadi. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 1119-1124. “Temperature-sensitive micrometer-thick layers of hyaluronan grafted on microspheres”.

L. Addadi, D. Joester, F. Nudelman, S. Weiner, Chem. Eur. J. 2006, 12, 980-987. “Mollusk shell formation: A source of new concepts for understanding biomineralization processes”.

D. Joester, V. Gramlich, F. Diederich, Helv. Chim. Acta. 2004, 87, 2896-2918. “Amphiphilic dendrimers with heteroleptic bis([2,2': 6',2"]terpyridine)-ruthenium(II) cores”.

M. Cohen, D. Joester, B. Geiger, L. Addadi, ChemBioChem 2004, 5, 1393-1399. “Spatial and temporal sequence of events in cell adhesion: From molecular recognition to focal adhesion assembly”.

C. Minelli, N. Blondiaux, M. Losson, M. Liley, S. Jeney, C. Hinderling, R. Pugin, D. Joester, F. Diederich, J. Vancso, M. Hempenius, H. Heinzelmann, Chimia 2004, 57, 646-650. “Nano-structuring by molecular self-assembly”.

D. Joester, M. Losson, R. Pugin, H. Heinzelmann, E. Walter, H. P. Merkle, and F. Diederich, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 1486-1490; Angew. Chem. 2003, 115, 1524-1528. “Amphiphilic dendrimers: Novel self-assembling vectors for efficient gene delivery”.