Three Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) researchers have been awarded Swiss National Science Foundation grants to investigate novel color particles, hidden chemical reactions, and the forces generated by living cells.

Prof. John Abendroth (Quantum Sensing and Spin Chemistry), Dr. Andrea Dodero (Soft Matter Physics), and Dr. Linlin Deng (Polymer Chemistry and Materials) are the recipients of over CHF 2.1 million in total, covering up to four years of research.

Deng was awarded a highly competitive Ambizione grant. These grants are designed to help early-career researchers establish themselves and lead independent projects at Swiss research institutions. Her project involves developing molecules that light up or change color when subjected to mechanical force. These force-sensitive molecules, known as mechanophores, have mainly been used in solid synthetic materials. Deng aims to make variants that dissolve in water and function in biological environments.

The molecules would convert forces generated by cells directly into changes in fluorescence. This could allow researchers to observe cellular forces continuously and across many samples simultaneously, rather than estimating them indirectly from the deformation of a supporting surface. Such tools could improve our understanding of how mechanical forces influence cell behavior and diseases associated with abnormal tissue mechanics such as certain types of cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, or developmental defects.

Color through structure

Dodero’s two-year project will investigate soft particles that produce color through their internal structure rather than conventional dyes, building on his previous research. The particles are made from block copolymers, long molecules composed of chemically distinct, linked sections. Inside microscopic droplets, these molecules can organize themselves into ordered nanoscale structures that reflect specific colors. Similar structural color is found in nature, including in butterfly wings and beetle shells.

Dodero and his team will investigate how the polymer composition and confinement within droplets govern internal structure and resulting color. They will also work to make the colors brighter and purer and develop particles that change color reversibly in response to external conditions. The project aims to establish reliable design rules for adaptable optical materials.

A quantum chemical camera

Abendroth’s project will investigate the chemistry of extremely thin, biologically inspired coatings. Materials such as polydopamine, a synthetic polymer modeled after the adhesive proteins secreted by mussels, can adhere to many different surfaces and are being studied for applications ranging from medicine to environmental technologies. However, researchers still do not fully understand how these coatings form or how highly reactive chemical species known as radicals influence their properties. Abendroth’s team will build a microscope that uses tiny defects in diamond, called nitrogen-vacancy centers, as quantum sensors. These defects can detect very weak magnetic signals and enable magnetic resonance measurements at extremely small scales.

The coatings will be grown directly on the diamond sensor, allowing the radicals within to be mapped. The goal is furthermore to observe how they change under ultraviolet light, during film growth, and when exposed to flowing liquids, oxidants, or metal ions. These experiments should provide the first direct spatiotemporal observation of the hidden paramagnetic networks responsible for polymerization and redox chemistry in biomimetic thin films