Martina Delbianco

Dr. Martina Delbianco serves as an Associate Professor and Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, directing the Carbohydrate Materials research group since 2018. Her pioneering work challenges the paradigm that glycans lack folding capacity by designing synthetic carbohydrate foldamers that form stable secondary structures and programmable supramolecular architectures.

Education:

• Chemistry, University of Milan (Italy)
• PhD, Durham University (UK) under Prof. David Parker
• Postdoctoral Research, Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces with Prof. Peter Seeberger

Her research integrates carbohydrate chemistry with materials engineering to create glycan-based structures including hairpins, fibers, particles, and hydrogels. These innovations bridge fundamental molecular design with applications in biomaterials, catalysis, and biological systems, demonstrating how synthetic glycans can achieve programmable 3D architectures previously thought impossible for flexible sugar molecules.

Scientific Awards:

• ERC Starting Grant

Dr. Delbianco's research program is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Research Council. She leads the Carbohydrate Materials group focused on developing next-generation glycan-based materials with tunable properties for biomedical and industrial applications.