Dr. Karen Lienkamp – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Dr. Karen Lienkamp

University of Freiburg
Chemistry

Junior Fellow
FRIAS School of Soft Matter Research
December 2010 – October 2014

Last Update: 31.08.2014

Curriculum Vitae

Karen Lienkamp studied Chemistry at the University of Cambridge/UK, and the Freie Universität Berlin/Germany, where she graduated ‘with distinction’ in 2003. She then joined Prof. Gerhard Wegner’s group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz/Germany, where she studied cylindrical polyelectrolyte brushes as a synthetic model system for cartilage. In 2006, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Mainz. Until 2007, she worked as a project leader at MPI-P and was responsible for an industrial cooperation with CIBA SC, Basel. She then moved to the U.S. and joined Prof. Gregory N. Tew’s lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst/MA to work on antimicrobial polymers. In 2010, she returned to Germany and started a junior research group at IMTEK, which is focusing on the synthesis and characterization of polymer-functionalized surfaces, especially for biomedical applications.

She has received numerous competitive scholarships from various organizations, including the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), Funds of the German Chemical Industry, The Medical Foundation, and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Next to her FRIAS Fellowship in December 2010 Karen Lienkamp was also awarded a DFG Emmy Noether grant.

Selected Publications

A. E. Madkour, A. H. R. Koch, K. Lienkamp (corresponding author), G. N. Tew. End-functionalized ROMP-Polymers for Biomedical Applications. Macromolecules 2010, 43, 4557
K. Lienkamp, G. N. Tew. Synthetic Mimics of Antimicrobial Peptides – A Versatile ROMP-based Platform for the Synthesis of Selective Antibacterial and Cell Penetrating Polymers. Chem. Eur. J., 2009, 15, 11784
K. Lienkamp, A. E. Madkour, A. Musante, C. F. Nelson, K. Nüsslein, G. N. Tew, Antimicrobial Polymers Prepared by ROMP with Unprecedented Selectivity: A Molecular Construction Kit Approach. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 9836
K. Lienkamp, L. Noé, M.-H. Breniaux, I. Lieberwirth, F. Groehn, G. Wegner. Synthesis and Characterization of End-functionalized Cylindrical Polyelectrolyte Brushes from Styrene Sulfonate. Macromolecules, 2007, 40, 2486
K. Lienkamp, C. Ruthard, G. Lieser, R. Berger, F. Groehn, G. Wegner. Polymerization of Styrene Sulfonate Ethyl Ester and Styrene Sulfonate Dodecyl ester by ATRP: Synthesis and Characterization of Polymer Brushes. Macromol. Chem. Phys. 2006, 207, 2050

FRIAS Project

Micro- and Nanostructured Materials – Combining Shape, Size and Chemical Functionalit

The aim of our research is to use micro- and nanostructuring techniques to create polymer surfaces with defined topologies for biomedical applications. Using methods like colloidal lithography, electron beam lithography, dip-pen lithography or contact printing, we first generate micro- and nanopatterns on surfaces. These are then used as selective anchoring sites for polymers or initiating sites for polymerization reactions. We use numerous techniques for the characterization of such surfaces, among them atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and surface plasmon resonance. Further, biological assays are used to investigate the biocompatibility of our materials.