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Dr. Maria Hoernke

ORCID: 0000-0003-2008-411X

Our interdisciplinary team in biophysical chemistry addresses several biochemically and therapeutically relevant topics, namely the search for alternatives to classical antibiotics, improving drug delivery, and structural changes in membrane‑associated proteins. We investigate synthetic biomimetic or natural molecules designed for therapeutic use, or important in biological processes, such as peripheral membrane proteins, peptide analogues or polymers, and lipid membranes.

Based in the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Martin‑Luther‑Universität Halle, we collaborate with groups in Freiburg, Halle, Prague, Leipzig, Jena, Erlangen, Bayreuth, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Vienna, and Shanghai.

Contact Maria Hoernke if you are interested in doing research with us. We welcome motivated colleagues on all levels and ideas for collaborations.

NEWS

04-2026   We helped with the new work of the Hertweck lab: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2026.103034    in press

03-2026   We all spend a great International Membrane Biophysics Meeting in Drübeck. With a presentation, 3 posters and discussions.

There are a few new papers originating from collaborations:

Daptomycin in equilibrium with lipids and ions: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamem.2025.184452   

Antimicrobial peptides: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamem.2026.184519   

Nanoplastics and microplastics from thracheal tubes: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazmp.2026.100051   

02-2026   Annika and Maria present and network at the Annual Biophysics Meeting in San Francisco, and Maria also gets to meet the Wimley lab in New Orleans.

12-2025   Julian joins to explore archaeal membranes and proteins for his PhD project. Welcome!

10-2025   Congratulations Dr. Katharina! Well done! Especially considering finalizing the PhD besides your new job.

09-2025   Mehriddin leaves us with his MSc degree.

08-2025   Amanda joins for her PhD project. She will work with elastin-like polymers. Welcome!

07-2025   517 k €! the EU and Saxony-Anhalt fund our research on       archaea lipid membranes. https://www.uni-halle.de/forschung/esif_2021-2027/3599451/

06-2025   Maria and Katharina present at the Kalorimetrietage in Leipzig

04-2025   Annika wins a poster prize at the GEM Meeting in France.

03-2025   Mehriddin starts his MSc project. Welcome!

We attend the Beam Conference 2025.

02-2025   Our paper about the loss of selectivity in antimicrobial activity is out: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c05019   

02-2025   Welcome Nguyen and good luck with your BSc project!

12-2024   We will have a project as part of the AGRIPoly II graduate school.

09-2024   Maria presents at the German Biophysical Society Meeting and Annika shows her poster.

05-2024   Annika defends her MSc thesis. Great success! And welcome as a PhD candidate!

04-2024   Bjarne finishes his Diploma Thesis. Congratulations.

Katharina wins one of the Poster prices at the WE-Heraeus-Seminar and Maria presents

02-2024   Maria is invited to the german meeting of the Controlled Release Society and also presents at the Freiburg Macro Colloquium.

01-2024   Habilitation presentation: the last step to venia legendi.

11-2023   Annika wins one of the Poster Flash Talk Awards and Maria presents at the czech Biophysics and Electrochemistry meeting in Prague.

11-2023   Katharina presents at the FAF meeting in Freiburg.

10-2023   Annika and Maria travel to Prague for GUV miscroscopy. Let's hope for conclusive data.

10-2023   Welcome to Bjarne for his Diploma project about archaeal lipids.

08-2023   Welcome to Annika for her MSc project about pH-sensitive polymers.

08-2023   Katharina and Maria present posters at the EBSA meeting in Stockholm

06-2023   The   group has now two afiliations: Freiburg and Halle Univeristy. The Halle team is associated to the RTG 2670 BEAM Beyond Amphiphilicity.

2023   The DFG funds our project about pH-sensitive membrane permeabilization

03-2023   Our paper about the bias of PG/PE model membranes towards leaky fusion is out: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/sm/d2sm01691e    

03-2023   Maria presents at the GEM meeting.

09-2022   A talk and posters at the german biophysics meeting.

09-2022   Shuai defends her PhD thesis! 3 papers. Great success. Congratulations Dr. Shi!

09-2022   Our paper on Leaky membrane fusion is out. Including a Leakage Protocol. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/NA/D2NA00464J     Maria contributes to a review about calcein-based assays for endosomal escape https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mabi.202200167    

05-2022   Katharina and Maria talk at the Biomembrane Meeting in Drübeck

05-2022   Shuai and Maria talk at the AC21 Meeting in Strasbourg

02-2022   Our paper on a fusogenic antimicrobial polymer is out. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03445     Our paper about antimicrobial polycations is out. More than Leakage. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/cp/d0cp05651k    

04-2021   Stefanie defends her Diploma project very succesfully. Congratulations. A manuscript is planned.

04-2021   Our 3 posters are discussed lively at the European Membrane Meeting EJTEMM.

01-2021   Janina joins us for a project. Welcome!

10-2020   Anja joins us for a project. Welcome!

09-2020   Stefanie joins us for her Diploma project. Welcome!

06-2020   Kartharina joined us for her PhD project. Welcome!

03-2020   The German Membrane Biophysics Meeting was a success! Thank you everyone who contributed.

12-2019   Anja defends her PhD Thesis very succesfully. Congratulations Dr. Stulz!

11-2019   Our paper on lipid selectivity appears in Lagnmuir. pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b01849    

10-2019   Ndjali finishes his Master: Models for Vesicle Leakage and Binding Experiments on Lipid Vesicles

1-2019   Ndjali joins us for a project. Welcome!

11-2018   DFG funds our project about Selectivity in Membrane Permeabilization for 3 years.

9-2018   We are happy to welcome Shuai for her PhD project and Annika for her practical term!

5-2018   Anja wins another Poster Award. Well done!

3-2018   Anja wins a Poster Award. Congratulations!

1-2018   Our paper about Quantified Membrane Permeabilization is out.
ACS Nano    

3-2017   The Daimler & Benz Foundation supports our research on lipid clustering for two years.

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