Fruitful combination of life sciences and engineering

The graduate school Life Science Engineering broadly links the natural and engineering sciences. Researchers from the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, electrical engineering and information technology as well as civil and environmental engineering are committed to this.

“The aim of the international graduate school is to attract outstanding graduates with a degree in natural sciences or engineering to the TU Darmstadt and to create an attractive interdisciplinary research environment in the field of applied life sciences,” said Professor Harald Kolmar, Founding Member of the graduate school. "We offer excellent networking opportunities and numerous additional offers such as tailor-made courses as part of the doctoral program Ingenium or the financing of research stays abroad.

Open positions for interested applicants can be found here.

Basic research in the life sciences is advancing at a fast pace – the gains in knowledge are enormous. Chemical and biological molecules are designed and produced on the basis of engineering principles, and interventions in cells, cell populations and organisms are possible in order to control function, regulation or multidimensional behaviour in biological systems. This opens up new application options through the development of bioinspired drugs, materials, machines or processes.

Several research teams at the TU Darmstadt have been making essential contributions to this for a long time – for example in the fields of Synthetic Biology and Molecular Medicine. Darmstadt University of Technology is internationally visible and well known in the fields of Synthetic Genetic Circuits and the functionalization of ion-conducting nanopores – not least on the basis of two research priorities funded within the framework of the Hessian Excellence Program LOEWE. Other research groups are working on tailor-made biomolecules and chemical compounds in order to specifically modify their cellular and organismic functions. Interdisciplinary research is being conducted into how adapted biocatalysts can be used to store or convert energy and generate new active substances. Teams from environmental engineering, biology and physics will analyse how ecological networks can be controlled, for example in bodies of water.

Finally, the university, together with its strategic partner Merck KGaA, operates a joint research cooperation laboratory on campus – among other things, it is involved in the development of cost-effective diagnostics.