Pavel A Levkin

Pavel A Levkin
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | KIT · Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems - Functional Molecular Systems (IBCS-FMS)

PhD

About

215
Publications
53,621
Reads
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8,568
Citations
Introduction
Surface science, functional materials, superhydrophobicity, patterning, miniaturization, biological HT screenings
Additional affiliations
May 2007 - May 2009
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2012 - present
Heidelberg University
January 2011 - December 2012
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Publications

Publications (215)
Article
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Miniaturization in life sciences and chemical sciences offers substantial advantages to experimental workflows, such as increased throughput, reduced costs, and lower environmental impact. While microtiter plates are effective, further miniaturization is necessary to enhance efficiency and throughput. However, microtiter plates cannot be easily min...
Article
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The transition from two‐dimensional (2D) to physiologically relevant three‐dimensional (3D) cell models has revolutionized biomedical research. Hydrogels are frequently used to produce 3D models for tissue engineering, disease modeling, and high‐throughput screenings (HTS). However, integrating 3D cultures into HTS workflows presents challenges, in...
Preprint
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Therapies based on mRNA technology have offered hope to millions of patients worldwide by disrupting the way we treat diseases. The safe and functional delivery of the delicate mRNA molecules to the target tissue is a crucial step in the development of effective vaccines and therapeutic interventions. Lipid nanoparticles (LNP) are the most clinical...
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Two‐photon lithography (TPL) enables the fabrication of complex 3D structures with sub‐micrometer precision. Incorporation of new functionalities into TPL‐printed structures is key to advance their applications. A prevalent approach to achieve this is by directly adding functional nanomaterials into the photoresist (called “pre‐doping”), which has...
Article
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Single‐cell MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of lipids and metabolites >200 Da has recently come to the forefront of biomedical research and chemical biology. However, cell‐targeting and metabolome‐preserving methods for analysis of low mass, hydrophilic metabolites (<200 Da) in large cell populations are lacking. Here, the PRISM‐MS (PRescan I...
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While the accessible pores render an enormous variety of functionalities to the bulk of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), the outer surfaces exposed by these crystalline materials also offer unique characteristics not...
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The droplet microarray (DMA) platform is a powerful tool for high‐throughput biological and chemical applications, enabling miniaturization and parallelization of experimental processes. Capable of holding hundreds of nanoliter droplets, it facilitates the screening and analysis of samples, such as cells, bacteria, embryos, and spheroids. Handling...
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Drug‐induced differential gene expression analysis (DGEA) is essential for uncovering the molecular basis of cell phenotypic changes and understanding individual tumor responses to anticancer drugs. Performing high throughput DGEA is challenging due to the high cost and labor‐intensive multi‐step sample preparation protocols. In particular, perform...
Preprint
Single-cell MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of lipids and metabolites >200 Da has recently come to the forefront of biomedical research and chemical biology, but fast metabolome-preserving methods without paraformaldehyde fixation for analysis of low mass, hydrophilic metabolites (<200 Da) in large cell populations are lacking. Introducing gi...
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Label‐free real‐time monitoring of cellular behavior using impedance spectroscopy is important for drug development and toxicological assessments. Parallelization and miniaturization of such experiments are essential for increasing throughput and enabling experiments with low abundant stem or primary cells. Traditional methods are not miniaturized...
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Patterning of various surface properties, including roughness, wettability, adhesiveness, and mechanical properties, can markedly enhance the functionality of test systems. Thus, porous polymethacrylates prepared by polymerization‐induced phase separation (PIPS) represent a promising class of functional materials for the construction of miniaturize...
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Remote manipulation of microcargo is essential for miniaturized automated experiments in fields such as biology, chemistry, and diagnostics, allowing efficient use of scarce, expensive, or hazardous materials. Current methods for manipulating microcargo are generally limited to droplets as cargo and rely on reduced substrate‐cargo friction and spec...
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Materials with ultra‐fast responsive properties are essential for various applications. Among the responsive materials, poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) stands out due to its well‐studied temperature‐responsive properties. Improving the kinetics of the responsive properties of PNIPAM is, however, still essential for advancing its practical use....
Article
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Correction for ‘3D printing of reactive macroporous polymers via thiol–ene chemistry and polymerization-induced phase separation’ by Nikolaj K. Mandsberg et al. , Chem. Commun. , 2024, https://doi.org/10.1039/d4cc00466c.
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Organogels are polymer networks extended by a liquid organic phase, offering a wide range of properties due to the many combinations of polymer networks, solvents, and shapes achievable through 3D printing. However, current printing methods limit solvent choice and composition, which in turn limits organogels' properties, applications, and potentia...
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Using thiol–ene chemistry, polymerization-induced phase separation, and DLP 3D printing, we present a method for manufacturing reactive macroporous 3D structures. This approach enables the fabrication of structures with tunable physicochemical properties and compressibility. Moreover, it facilitates post-functionalization through thiol-Michael addi...
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The development of miniaturized high‐throughput in situ screening platforms capable of handling the entire process of drug synthesis to final screening is essential for advancing drug discovery in the future. In this study, an approach based on combinatorial solid‐phase synthesis, enabling the efficient synthesis of libraries of proteolysis targeti...
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Polymer gel‐based pressure sensors offer numerous advantages over traditional sensing technologies, including excellent conformability and integration into wearable devices. However, challenges persist in terms of their performance and manufacturing technology. In this study, a method for fabricating gel pressure sensors using a hydrophobic/hydroph...
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The rising costs of pharmaceutical research are currently limiting the productivity of drug discovery and development, but can potentially be diminished via miniaturization of the synthesis and screening of new compounds. As droplet microarrays already present themselves as a versatile tool for highly miniaturized biological screening of various ta...
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Superabsorbers based on crosslinked sodium polyacrylate polymers cannot be easily recycled, resulting in 2 million tons of superabsorbers being landfilled or burned every year. A fast and efficient strategy to recycle superabsorbers would significantly alleviate environmental pollution and promote a sustainable use of these polymers. Herein, the ra...
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Label-free fluorescence-based chemosensing has been increasingly brought into focus due to its simplicity and high sensitivity for intracellular monitoring of molecules. Currently used methods, such as conventional indicator displacement assays (IDAs), pose limitations related to dissociation upon dilution, random diffusion of the released indicato...
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Abstract Immobilization of oligonucleotides on solid surfaces is an important step in many experimental workflows in biology, such as gene expression analysis, genotyping, and drug discoveries. Capturing oligonucleotides in a highly efficient miniaturized format is still challenging. In this work, preparation of functionalized miniaturized acrylami...
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3D‐printed conductive structures are highly attractive due to their great potential for customizable electronic devices. While the traditional 3D printing of metal requires high temperatures to sinter metal powders or polymer/metal composites, low or room temperature processes will be advantageous to enable multi‐material deposition and integration...
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To address the challenge of drug resistance and limited treatment options for recurrent gliomas with IDH1 mutations, a highly miniaturized screening of 2208 FDA‐approved drugs is conducted using a high‐throughput droplet microarray (DMA) platform. Two patient‐derived temozolomide‐resistant tumorspheres harboring endogenous IDH1 mutations (IDH1mut)...
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Surfaces with special wettability properties, such as omniphobicity or omniphilicity, are essential for functional devices that use both aqueous and organic media. Micropatterning of omniphobic and omniphilic properties can provide a wide range of applications, including miniaturized experiments using both aqueous and organic media. Herein, an appr...
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Polymer gels, consisting of cross‐linked polymer network systems swollen by a solvent, show great potential in biomedicine, flexible electronics, and artificial muscles, due to their tissue‐like mechanical properties. Due to the presence of a large amount of solvent, the improvement of the mechanical properties of the polymer gel is a challenge. Mo...
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Organogels are an important class of gels, and are comparable to hydrogels owing to their properties as liquid‐infused soft materials. Despite the extensive choice of liquid media and compatible networks that can provide a broader range of properties, relatively few studies are reported in this area. This review presents the applicability of organo...
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Cancer is a devastating disease and the second leading cause of death worldwide. However, the development of resistance to current therapies is making cancer treatment more difficult. Combining the multi-omics data of individual tumors with information on their in-vitro Drug Sensitivity and Resistance Test (DSRT) can help to determine the appropria...
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Liquid super‐repellent surfaces, characterized by a low liquid–solid contact fraction, allow various liquids to bead up and freely roll off. Apart from liquid repellency, these surfaces feature several unique properties, including inter alia, self‐cleaning, low‐friction, anti‐icing, and anti‐biofouling, making them valuable for a vast array of appl...
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In the current drug discovery process, the synthesis of compound libraries is separated from biological screenings both conceptually and technologically. One of the reasons is that parallel on‐chip high‐throughput purification of synthesized compounds is still a major challenge. Here, on‐chip miniaturized high‐throughput liquid–liquid extraction in...
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Most of the biological processes, including cell signaling, cancer invasion, embryogenesis, or neural development, are dependent on and guided by the complex architecture and composition of cellular microenvironments. Mimicking such microenvironments in cell coculture models is crucial for fundamental and applied biology investigations. The ability...
Article
Ionically conductive elastomers are necessary for realizing human-machine interfaces, bioelectronic applications, or durable wearable sensors. Current design strategies, however, often suffer from solvent leakage and evaporation, or from poor mechanical properties. Here, we report a strategy to fabricate ionic elastomers (IHPs) demonstrating high c...
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The fabrication of complex 3D structures composed of micrometer‐sized features made of different functional materials is an immensely important and yet highly challenging task. Here, a method is developed to fabricate multimaterial 3D structures with micrometer precision by combining macroscopic 3D printing (digital light processing), with two‐phot...
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Superhydrophobic Surfaces Researchers have designed a new type of superhydrophobic surfaces with chemical reactivity. In article number 2203619, Wenqian Feng and co‐workers demonstrate living photolithography on such superhydrophobic surfaces to graft functional moieties with controlled the densities and species. The distinctive properties of this...
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Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are crucial for disease modeling, drug discovery, and personalized medicine. Animal‐derived materials hinderapplications of hiPSCs in medical fields. Thus, novel and well‐defined substrate coatings capable of maintaining hiPSC pluripotency are important for advancing biomedical applications of hiPSCs. H...
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Insufficient binding selectivity of chemosensors often renders biorelevant metabolites indistinguishable by the widely used indicator displacement assay. Array-based chemosensing methods are a common workaround but require additional effort for synthesizing a chemosensor library and setting up a sensing array. Moreover, it can be very challenging t...
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Multidrug‐resistant (MDR) bacteria is a severe threat to public health. Therefore, it is urgent to establish effective screening systems for identifying novel antibacterial compounds. In this study, a highly miniaturized droplet microarray (DMA) based high‐throughput screening system is established to screen over 2000 compounds for their antimicrob...
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Desorption/ionization (DI)-mass spectrometric (MS) methods offer considerable advantages of rapidity and low-sample input for the analysis of solid biological matrices such as tissue sections. The concept of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) offers the possibility to ionize compounds from solid surfaces at atmospheric pressure, without the...
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In vitro cell‐based experiments are particularly important in fundamental biological research. Microscopy‐based readouts to identify cellular changes in response to various stimuli are a popular choice, but gene expression analysis is essential to delineate the underlying molecular dynamics in cells. However, cell‐based experiments often suffer fro...
Article
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The inverse vulcanization produces high sulfur content polymers from alkenes and elemental sulfur. Control over properties such as the molar mass or the solubility of polymers is not well established, and existing strategies lack predictability or require large variations of the composition. Systematic design principles are sought to allow for a ta...
Article
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Polymer gels, such as hydrogels, have been widely used in biomedical applications, flexible electronics, and soft machines. Polymer network design and its contribution to the performance of gels has been extensively studied. In this study, the critical influence of the solvent nature on the mechanical properties and performance of soft polymer gels...
Article
Full-text available
The inverse vulcanization produces high sulfur content polymers from alkenes and elemental sulfur. Control over properties such as the molar mass or the solubility of polymers is not well established, and existing strategies lack predictability or require large variations of the composition. Systematic design principles are sought to allow for a ta...
Article
Full-text available
Grid structures are common in high-throughput assays to parallelize experiments in biochemical or biological experiments. Manual analysis of grid images is laborious, time-consuming, expensive, and critical in terms of reproducibility. However, it is still common to do such analysis manually, as there is no standardized software for automated analy...
Preprint
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Recent research in the field of computer vision strongly focuses on deep learning architectures to tackle image processing problems. Deep neural networks are often considered in complex image processing scenarios since traditional computer vision approaches are expensive to develop or reach their limits due to complex relations. However, a common c...
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Actuated structures are becoming relevant in medical fields; however, they call for flexible/soft-base materials that comply with biological tissues and can be synthesized in simple fabrication steps. In this work, we extend the palette of techniques to afford soft, actuable spherical structures taking advantage of the biosynthesis process of bacte...
Article
Simple and rapid imaging and analysis of 2D and 3D cell culture compatible with miniaturized arrays of nanoliter droplets are essential for high-throughput screening and personalized medicine applications. In this study, we have developed a simple one-step, cost-effective and sensitive colorimetric method for the analysis of cell viability in 2D an...
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The capacity of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) for indefinite self-renewal warrants their application in disease modeling, drug discovery, toxicity assays and efficacy screening. However, their poor proliferation ability, inability to adhere to surfaces without Matrigel coating and tendency to spontaneously differentiate in vitro hin...
Article
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The rapid development of 3D printing (or additive manufacturing) technologies demands new materials with novel properties and functionalities. Superhydrophobic materials, owing to their ultralow water adhesion, self-cleaning, anti-biofouling, or superoleophilic properties are useful for myriad applications involving liquids. However, the majority o...
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Polydopamine coating is a unique, simple, and substrate-independent surface functionalization strategy. Techniques for secondary functionalization, patterning, and re-functionalization of polydopamine modified materials are important to broaden the scope of applications of such materials in a variety of fields. Here, a facile and substrate-independ...
Article
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Organogels (hydrophobic polymer gels) are soft materials based on polymeric networks swollen in organic solvents. They are hydrophobic and possess a high content of solvent and low surface adhesion, rendering them interesting in applications such as encapsulants, drug delivery, actuators, slippery surfaces (self-cleaning, anti-waxing, anti-bacteria...
Article
Droplet wetting on a solid substrate is affected by the surface heterogeneity. Introducing patterned wettability on the solid substrate is expected to engender anisotropic wetting morphologies, thereby manipulating droplet wetting behaviors. However, when the droplet size is comparable with that of the surface heterogeneity, the wetting morphologie...