The merging of two worlds
Dr. Andrea Belluati, early career researcher in the cluster project “CoM2Life”, in an interview
2024/12/20
As part of the “CoM2Life” research project, TU biotechnologist Dr. Andrea Belluati is working on combining artificial and living cells. In the interview, he explains where the resulting hybrid systems could be used in the future, what particularly motivates him and what he would be particularly pleased about if funding for excellence were granted. This is the first in a series of videos featuring early career researchers in the planned clusters of excellence involving TU Darmstadt.
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CoM2Life aims to develop a revolutionary generation of soft biomaterials that are based on the principles of living systems and are able to enter into permanent and reciprocal communication with living systems, i.e. cells and tissues. To this end, the scientists are pursuing an approach that combines the chemistry-centered design of biomaterials with the design of regulatory circuits in synthetic biology. This will create the conditions for the development of intelligent biomaterials that are capable of selectively sensing signals from their environment, processing them internally and then controlling actuators and effectors as needed.
This should enable groundbreaking advances in medical research, including the development of feedback-controlled materials for the targeted release of drugs and biological effectors for cancer immunotherapy or tissue regeneration, for new tissue models that can replace animal testing, and, in the long term, the development of artificial organs. The highly interdisciplinary project also involves the communication sciences in order to meet the challenge of misinformation about this innovative field of research.
About Dr. Andrea Belluati
Andrea Belluati joined TU Darmstadt in 2022 as a Marie Curie Fellow. In 2024, he was selected as an Athene Young Investigator (AYI) at TU Darmstadt. The AYI program supports outstanding researchers in their career development and gives young scientists the opportunity to qualify for a university professorship by leading an independent junior research group. From the beginning of 2025, Belluati will also lead a new Emmy Noether research group at TU Darmstadt on his project “Polymer Incorporation for the Engineering of Symbiosis”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for six years with 1.8 million euros.
Belluati obtained his master's degree in “Industrial Biotechnology” from the University of Turin in 2015 and his doctorate from the University of Basel, followed by postdoctoral positions in Prague and Glasgow. In 2021, he became a member of the research team of Professor Nico Bruns at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and followed him when Bruns moved his team to TU Darmstadt in 2022.
Belluati is an associated PI at the Center for Synthetic Biology at TU Darmstadt and is involved in the planned Com2Life cluster as an associated PI. Com2Life is one of three projects with which TU and its partner universities are currently applying for funding in the line of Clusters of Excellence as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.
About the excellence strategy of the federal and state governments
To further strengthen the international competitiveness of research at German universities, the federal and state governments have established the Excellence Strategy as a funding programm e. The key objective of the Excellence Strategy is to strengthen top-level research in areas that are internationally competitive, to institutionally strengthen German universities, and to advance the development of the German higher education system.
To this end, the Excellence Strategy comprises two separate but intertwined funding lines. The “Clusters of Excellence” funding line, coordinated by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG) provides project-based funding for internationally competitive research areas at German universities. The “Universities of Excellence” funding line, coordinated by the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat – WR), is designed to fund institutional strategies that promise to strengthen universities as a whole and create outstanding framework conditions for excellent research.
