Martina Delbianco

Martina Delbianco earned her MSc in chemistry at the University of Milan, before completing her PhD at Durham University under the supervision of Prof. David Parker, where she focused on developing emissive Eu(III) complexes for biological assays. As a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG), she specialised in the automated synthesis of carbohydrates to create oligomers for structural and material studies. Since 2018, Martina leads the “Carbohydrate Materials” group at the MPIKG.

In 2023, she was appointed to W2 Research Group Leader from the Max Planck Society, a tenured position equivalent to Associate Professor at a university. Her pioneering work focuses on understanding and utilizing carbohydrate materials, the most abundant organic materials on earth. Her team synthesizes glycans to study their structure and ability to assemble into supramolecular materials, revealing fundamental aspects of natural carbohydrates and opening new avenues in nanotechnology, catalysis, and materials science.