Dr. Daniela Täuber

Daniela Täuber studied Physics and Mathematics at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1986-1991. After two years of assistant teaching she completed the education as Secondary School teacher in 1994. The following years she spent with births (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000), childcare and honorary work. In 2006 she re-entered professional life by starting a PhD project at TU Chemnitz, Germany.

She received her PhD from TU Chemnitz in 2011 using single molecule tracking (SMT) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to study diffusion and intermolecular forces in confined soft matter in the Optical Spectroscopy and Molecular Physics group of Christian von Borczyskowski. Within her PhD project, a joint research project DAAD/MinCyT DA0807 with C. von Borczyskowski, and with B. Araóz, and P.F. Aramendía, Photochemistry Group, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, allowed her to start international networking including 4 months research visit in Buenos Aires.

Due to family reasons she remained in the group focusing on understanding structure and dynamics in thin liquid crystal films, for which she developed an application of FCS at mirror interfaces enabling a vertical resolution below 100 nm. After the retirement of her supervisor in 2012, she continued her research under Michael Schulz, the deputy head of the group Sensorics and Cognition Psychology, which had been initiated by Christian von Borczyskowski, and where she also engaged in teaching.

In 2014 a personal research grant (DFG-TA 1049/1) allowed her to join the Single Molecule Spectroscopy group of Ivan Scheblykin at Lund University, Sweden, extending her experience in microscopy methods. She focused on the investigation of photophysics and micro and nano-structure of conjugated polymers for organic photovoltaics using 2-dimensional polarization imaging (2D POLIM), and continued a project on investigation of early aggregation of GFP-labeled human-alpha-synuclein in models of Parkinson’s disease ex vivo. She continued her stay to 09/17 by a Scholarship from Lund University.

In October 2017 she joined the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) in Jena, Germany, which is closely connected to the Friedrich-Schiller-University (FSU) in Jena. Since then her focus has been on implementation and further development of polarization resolved fluorescence microscopy and complementing label-free nanoscale infrared spectroscopy methods (NanIR) for emergent and cutting-edge biomedical research and innovation.

From 12/2019 to 05/2020 a Scholarship (POLIRIM) by the FSU provided funding for her work in the context of Thuringia's program for support of female junior researchers and junior artists. Since 06/2020 her research project Live2DPOLIM has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which includes also her own position at the Leibniz-IPHT in Jena. Besides her research work, she currently is pursing a habilitation (lecturing qualification) at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, FSU. From May 2020 to June 2022 she joined the mentoring program of the federation of the universities of Halle, Jena and Leipzig, which supports female postdocs aiming at a career in academia.

From 10/2022 till 02/2024 she will be responsible for the chair of Photonic Nanomaterials at the Institute of Solid State Physics, FSU Jena, taking over 80-70% until July 2023 and 50% since then in support of a temporary leave of the chair holder.

In 2020 she joined the collaboration of Rainer Heintzmann with the ophthalmologist Thomas Ach, University Hospital Bonn, for investigation of age-related pathologic deviations in human retina

She presented first results comparing NanIR to established IR- and Raman spectroscopy in 04/2019 at the spring conference of the German Physical Society together with her two master students working on the topic, and at the Mosbacher Symposium of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Presentations of further results using NanIR followed in 09/2020 at the Nano-Scientific Forum Europe, and 10/2020 at the Workshop Women in Photonics.

A Laserlab Europe Access Grant LLC002451 provided funding for measurements using the 2D POLIM setup in Lund in collaboration with Ivan Scheblykin with promising results, which she presented at the annual Laserlab Europe User meeting 11/2018 in Paris (invited talk) and in 04/2019 at the spring conference of the German Physical Society and at the Mosbacher Symposium of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The results using 2D POLIM complement several other studies of the topic.

In Juli 2018 she was invited as expert on fluorescence microscopy/spectroscopy and NanIR methods by the European Comission at the TAIEX Regional Workshop on Biomedical Engineering – Nanotechnology in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of support for scientifc development of the Balkan Countries.

In 2018 she started collaborations with research groups at Jena University Hospital focussing on investigating infectious diseases, in particular, with the Nanophyiology group in the department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, and the Biophotonics facility of the Center for Sepsis Control & Care (CSCC) which closely cooperates with the department of Clinical Spectroscopy and Diagnostics at Leibniz-IPHT.

06/2020-05/2023 Research Project Live2DPOLIM funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG-TA 1049/2-1): Live Cell 2D polarization imaging (Live2DPOLIM) – an imaging technique for observation of nanoscale protein aggregation and molecular (re-)arrangements in live cells, in the Department of Microscopy at the Leibniz-IPHT & Nanoimaging (Nanobiophotonics) Group at FSU, both headed by Rainer Heintzmann.

12/2019-05/2020 Postdoctoral Scholarship by the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena: POLIRIM: Fortführung von grundlegenden Untersuchungen mit polarisationsaufgelöster IR-Spektroskopie und photo-induzierter Rasterkraftmikroskopie (PiFM) für biomedizinische Anwendung (Continued fundamental investigation using polarization resolved IR spectroscopy and photo-induced force microscopy for biomedical application) in the Nanoimaging (Nanobiophotonics) Group of Rainer Heintzmann.

01/2020-09/2021 main contribution to infrastructure funding application BiopolarSpec: Entwicklung neuartiger Gesundheitstechnologien zur Detektion pathologischer Veränderungen und zur Visualisierung lokaler Therapieeffizienz mittels photonisch polarisierbarer, biologischer Spezies und photoinduzierter Rasterkraftmikroskopie (Development of novel health technologies for the detection of pathological changes and for the visualization of local therapy efficiency by means of photonically polarizable, biological species and photo-induced atomic force microscopy) for Heidemarie Schmidt, Dept. Quantum Detection, Leibniz-IPHT, funded by the Thuringian Ministry for Economy, Science and Digital Society (TMWWDG) & the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE).

05-06/2018 Laserlab Europe Access Grant LLC002451: Investigation of apical f-actin aggregation in healthy and cholestatic liver tissue using 2D polarisation imaging to Lund Laser Center SMS group of Ivan Scheblykin together with Adrian Press, head of Nanophysiology Group, University Hospital Jena. Receiving funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 654148 Laserlab-Europe.

08/2016 Host institution for Laserlab Europe Access Grant LLC002269: Characterization of photoluminescence spectra and local polarization properties of YMnO3 thin films on substrates with and without metallic bottom electrode and spectral investigation of luminescence from resistively switched YMnO3 in collaboration with Heidemarie Schmidt, Nanospintronics, TU Chemnitz, Germany. Receiving funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 654148 Laserlab-Europe (wrote also the proposal).

10/2014-03/2016 Personal Research Grant from the German Science Foundation (DFG-TA 1049/1): 2D polarisation resolved optical spectroscopy on macromolecules (conjugated polymers and proteins) in different environments for investigation of conformation, aggregation and energy transfer with the intention to improve organic solar cells, for research in Single Molecule Spectroscopy Group of Ivan Scheblykin, Chemical Physics, Lund University, Sweden. Continuation until 09/2017 with Scholarship from Lund University.

2007–2014 Co-worker in Research Project Group: DFG-FOR 877: From Local Constraints to Macroscopic Transport (1st period & extension), involving research groups from TU Chemnitz, University of Leipzig and TU Dresden, Germany.

2009–2010 Joint research project DAAD/MinCyT DA0807: Controlling Dynamic Properties of Ultra-thin Polymer Films via Photoactive Molecules with Photochemistry Group, Chemistry Department, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2008-2017 Intitiating Board Member of the Regensburger Symposium: Wissenschaft im Kontext gesellschaftlicher Entscheidungen und Weltanschauungen (academia in the context of societal decisions and world views), Speaker: Christiane Thim-Mabrey, German linguistics, Universität Regensburg.

2014–2017 Representative from Sweden in European Union Cost Action MP1302 Nanospectroscopy (Member since 2013).

2013 Suggestion & organization of a focussed session Van der Waals at soft matter interfaces: structure and dynamics at the spring conference of the german physical society (DPG) in Regensburg together with Karin Jacobs, Saarland University.