FancyFence @CuP

There’s currently a construction fence in front of our building – but instead of a dull brown wall, we’re showcasing the creative side of our research! Under the motto “FancyFence”, we’re decorating the fence with artistic visuals and projects from our institute. This way, the construction site becomes a small open-air gallery.

Together with local art associations (e.g. Kulturaggregat e.V., Huji Maja e.V., Delphi e.V.), we’re organizing workshops where we collaboratively develop concepts and explore (street art) techniques. Around 15 participants from the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy will take part, turning the project into a joint learning and creative experience.

These are our current artists and their work:

Name: Güney Baspinar
Affiliation: Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry

Description:
In our research, we focus on Chaetomorpha, a green, spaghetti-like seaweed, as a source of potentially valuable polysaccharides. We cultivate Chaetomorpha in a small tank inside our lab. With adequate light and basic nutrients, this resilient algae can proliferate rapidly, and quickly spreads throughout the entire tank. The picture represents this green spaghetti, inside water and under a bright light.

Name: Juliane Breiltgens
Affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Description:
SAM-dependent methyltransferases are versatile enzymes found across all domains of life. Sharing a highly conserved Rossmann fold architecture, they catalyze a wide range of methylation reactions, including the selective C-methylation of aromatic compounds.

Name: Francis William Dávila Marcial
Affiliation: Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry

Description:
Gadolinium (Gd³⁺) is a heavy metal widely used as a contrast agent in MRI scans.
The catch? Exposure to Gd³⁺, especially in people with kidney issues, can lead to serious conditions like nephrogenic systemic fibrosis or gadolinium deposition disease. And the tough part: there’s currently no effective treatment that targets the root cause.
That’s where chelator-loaded liposomes come in. These tiny carriers can latch onto Gd³⁺ ions and help remove them from the body, potentially lowering toxicity.

Name: Fiona Gehring
Affiliation: Romanesque Seminar

Description:
My painting depicts the Pyrenees and symbolises the diversity of languages spoken along the mountain range from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. In my PhD project, I am investigating why people learn three of these languages – Catalan, Occitan and Basque – and how they use them in the linguistic community in France and in Spain.

Name: Tian Zhou
Affiliation: Department of Psychology

Description:
Spaziergang with life gossips? – Count me in! 😀 Yet cognitive and motor fighting every second like tiny little angels and demons for our attentional resources. To keep a harmony is no easy game, especially when we have less and less resourses with aging. So be patient with Oma and Opa when they halt while talking to you, they just really want to listen closely how is your life going.

Name: Tobias Butelmann
Affiliation: Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry

Description:
Spheroids are three-dimensional cell clumps that represent processes from the body in the laboratory more precisely than common cell culture methods. In order to analyze those clumps, they can be sliced to learn something about their composition. Here, you see a cross section through one of those spheroids, which was inspired by a microscopy image taken in the laboratory.