17.11.2025
Heidelberg physicist Prof. Peer Fischer, Director at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials (IMSEAM) and co-opted professor at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, is part of an international team that has been awarded a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant. Approximately 2.4 million euros of the total funding will support the research conducted in Heidelberg.
Together with Jeremy Baumberg (University of Cambridge) and Tim Liedl (LMU Munich), Fischer’s team will develop light-controlled opto-mechanical systems at the nanoscale. The consortium relies on DNA nanotechnology, which enables the bottom-up construction of complex, molecularly precise structures. These systems are designed to be atom-efficient, fully reconfigurable, and capable of exhibiting new forms of interaction between their nanoscale components.
In the long term, the researchers aim to harness sustainable self-assembly to achieve technological innovations – for example artificial muscles or highly precise force sensors small enough to be embedded in living tissue.
“DNA nano-opto-mechanical devices promise many applications beyond nanomachines, including sensors, and uses in low energy computing. This way of constructing functional materials is also a key part of our sustainable future, as the DNA can be disassembled and reconfigured, unlike other technologies so far,” says Prof. Fischer.
The ERC-funded project, DNA4RENOMS – DNA for Reconfigurable Nano-Opto-Mechanical Systems, is coordinated at the University of Cambridge. The ERC has approved a total of nine million euros for the project.
PEER FISCHER
