Institut für Röntgenphysik - Salditt Gruppe
Research group "Structural biophysics and X-ray physics"
Our group "Structure of biomolecular assemblies and x-ray physics" studies biological matter, from the molecular level all the way up to cells and tissues, in some cases even to entire organs or organisms.
We seek to describe biomolecular structure and self-assembly in quantitative physical terms using model systems, helping us to understand how functional properties of biomolecular assemblies depend on their nanoscale structure and dynamics. To access the required length and time scales, we adapt and develop x-ray based methods for structure analysis in non-crystalline, hydrated states, and in the native functional environments. Since diffraction methods are restricted to large ensembles and relatively homogeneous structures, we extend x-ray diffraction to x-ray diffractive imaging. To this end, the development of high resolution holographic X-ray imaging is a primary research focus of the group.
Starting with nano-focused synchrotron radiation, we aim to translate 3D imaging methods also to advanced laboratory sources and setups, and to extend the windows of resolution and field of view. In our experiments, we want to get a maximum of information from a minimum of photons. This entails significant efforts in optics, including optimized focusing, wave-front control, coherence, phase retrieval, reconstruction algorithms, information theory and image processing.
Some of this work can be directly applied to biomedical imaging. We therefore collaborate with
Neuroscientists SFB1286 , MBEXc , medical experts of cardiovascular HBCG , DZHK Göttingen and infectious diseases RWTH Aachen, Prof. Dr. Danny Jonigk , oncology as well as clinical teams to apply these methods, see QUADRANT for the latest project funded.
For more details, please proceed to the research page.
Jobs
PhD position open in the field of biophysics / x-ray physics / neuro sciences. more details under JOBS, or download pdf
Highlights
12/2025
Synchrotron Innovation Prize 2025 awarded to Tim Salditt, Danny Jonigk and Max Ackermann for the development of histological tomography
Synchrotron Innovation Prize
12/2025 PETRA IV on the horizon
how it could help to redraw maps of the brain
11/2025
Tim Salditt receives: Silberne Ehrennadel des Deutsches Elektronensynchrotron (DESY), "honoring his significant contributions to the development of DESY"
09/2025 Collective excitation of atomic nuclei probed in X-ray waveguides by L.M. Lohse et al. , published in Physical Review Letters,
Press release
09/2025
IRP spin-off company Histomography GmbH is awarded Best science start-up Niedersachsen 2025 Durchstarterpreis
09/2025
two times in a row: Congratulations to Charlotte Neuhaus and Paul Meyer for their highly successfull Ph.D. defense, merely a week apart !
8/2022-8/2025
many unregistered highlights ....
07/10/2022
Marina Eckermann receives the Academic Award of the Universitätsbund Göttingen e.V. for her doctoral thesis at the Institute for X-ray Physics. She combined high-resolution three-dimensional X-ray imaging with modern mathematical and statistical analysis methods to identify changes in nerve tissue as a result of neurodegenerative disease. For example, Marina discovered previously undescribed changes in the cell structure of the hippocampus of our brain that occur in Alzheimer’s disease.
09/04/2020
Publication on phase contrast X-ray tomography of lung tissue from Covic-19 patients (Eckermann, Frohn, Reichardt et al., eLife (2020), 9:e60408) featured in press release
and in NDR mediathek (both in German only)
09/04/2019
Freundeskreis des Forschungszentrums Karlsruhe e. V. : Otto Haxel Award for Physics 2019 for Mareike Töpperwien for an outstanding dissertation
06/22/2018
Press release Google Maps für das Kleinhirn (press release in German only, featuring publication Mareike Töpperwien et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., doi/10.1073/pnas.1801678115)
05/25/2018
Mareike Töpperwien successfully defended her PhD thesis "3d virtual histology of neuronal tissue by propagation-based x-ray phase-contrast tomography"
03/27/2018
Markus Osterhoff was awarded the Dectris Award