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SoftComp e-Newsletter No. 6 - December 2025
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Dear Members and Friends of SoftComp,
Last year, we had the great pleasure of celebrating SoftComp's 20th anniversary, and our success story continues. We are happy to announce that we are welcoming a new partner to our network once again this year: the Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB) based in Pozzuali, Italy, which is the main research institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) dedicated to the development of polymeric materials, composites and biomaterials, as well as biomacromolecules, green chemistry and chemistry for life sciences. Welcome! Now at the end of 2025, we can again look back on exciting scientific discoveries and many successful events. Happy reading, have a wonderful holiday season and all the best for 2026!
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Angela Wenzik & Stephan Förster
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for the SoftComp Coordination, Management and Communication Team
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Scientific News
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The formation and regulation of biomolecular condensates is central to many cellular processes and remains a key challenge in the construction of synthetic cells. Researchers from SoftComp partner Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and the University of California, Davis in the USA reveal how segregative phase separation (SPS) can be used to precisely regulate associative phase separation (APS) inside cell-like environments. Their findings provide a mechanistic framework for controlling condensate localisation and membrane interactions in synthetic cells, offering new routes to designing structured, multi-phase reaction environments.
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Ever wonder why it’s so much easier to cut a tough material like rubber or leather with a sharp knife than it is to rip or tear it with your hands? Researchers from SoftComp partner ESPCI, CNRS and Sorbonne University, France have dived down to the molecular level to finally answer this long-standing question in materials science. They found that the key difference lies in how much the material stretches and deforms right at the tip of the crack or cut.
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A long-standing scientific belief has been overturned: Researchers from a SoftComp collaboration including Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and University of Bordeaux, France, have observed a Wigner crystal forming in rod-like colloidal particles. Once thought impossible for elongated shapes, these crystals arise from a surprising interplay of electrostatic forces and entropy. The discovery expands Wigner’s 1934 prediction and opens new paths for advanced self-assembled materials.
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Capillary waves—tiny ripples normally seen only at the sharp boundary between liquids that do not mix—have now been observed between liquids that do mix completely. Using microfluidic experiments, researchers around SoftComp partner CNRS-Montpellier, France, found that these ripples can briefly appear when the two liquids first meet. They identified two kinds of wave behaviour and measured time-dependent interfacial stresses acting like interfacial tension. Their findings clarify how confinement, diffusion, and rapidly changing stresses at miscible liquid-liquid interfaces rule instabilities on the scale of milliseconds, thereby opening new possibilities for probing mixing processes in microfluidics, flows in porous materials, and systems far from equilibrium.
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Water behaves in strangely unique ways—even under everyday conditions—and scientists have long sought the origins of its anomalies. A new study lead by SoftComp partner Ca’ Foscari University of Venice reveals a surprising link: water’s dipolar nature may drive both ferroelectric ordering and the elusive liquid-liquid phase transition. By uniting simulation and theory, the research uncovers how overlooked molecular interactions could explain water’s most puzzling behaviors and reshape our understanding of polar liquids.
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Event Reports
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SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2025 took place in Venice-Mestre (Italy) from May 19 to 22, 2025. With 140 participants from 31 of the 36 SoftComp groups and four external speakers, the event was a lively forum for scientific exchange, international networking and new collaborations in the field of soft matter. A particular focus this year was on the growing influence of artificial intelligence and machine learning in soft matter research.
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The 9th International Soft Matter Conference (29 September–3 October, Chania) brought together 500 researchers for a four-and-a-half-day programme featuring six plenary lectures, 32 keynotes, 280 talks and over 200 posters. Guided by the International Advisory Committee, sessions spanned the full breadth of soft matter science. SoftComp played a prominent role in the event, with members involved at every level. The meeting showcased the field’s diversity, dynamism and strong international collaborations.
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Six SoftComp Webinars Took Place in 2025
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In 2025, SoftComp organised a series of six webinars offering intriguing insights into a variety of research subjects within the field of soft matter: Randall Kemian from University of Pennsylvania, USA, started the series with a presentation on "A Bouquet for Apollonius: Cholesteric Droplets and Their Conic Sections". Lisa Manning of Syracuse University, USA, presented a report on “Flow and yielding in dense active sphere packings”, Cecile Cottin-Bizonne from University of Lyon, France, reported on “Wall-Climbing Active Colloids and Rheological Behavior in Active Dense Systems”. Amy Shen from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan gave a presentation entitled “Microfluidic Platforms for Soft Matter Dynamics and Precision Biosensing”, So Youn Kim from the Seoul National University in Korea held a talk on “Probing Microstructure and Polymer Dynamics in Polymer Nanocomposites”. The 2025 webinar series concluded with a presentation from Regine von Klitzing (University of Darmstadt, Germany) on “Exploring the structure of foams stabilized by microgels across different length scales”. Dates for 2026 will be announced in due course on the SoftComp website.
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Upcoming Events
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SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2026
18 - 21 May 2026
Zakopane, Czech Republic
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News & Personalia
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The new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network – Edible Soft Matter is a highly interdisciplinary programme dedicated to tackling key challenges in food and environmental transitions. ESM aims to pave the way for improved formulation of innovative plant-based food products and to contribute to food systems that are fair, healthy, and environmentally sustainable. ESM’s societal impact is recognised at the European level through the Farm to Fork Strategy, a central pillar of the European Green Deal. Read more
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The SoftComp consortium has a new partner: the Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB), based in Pozzuoli, Italy. With 112 employees, it is the biggest Italian institute performing research on polymers, composite materials and related advanced technologies. Research activities are mainly focused on the synthesis and design of advanced polymer-based materials, the development of personalized solutions in nanomedicine and health, the application of chemistry and materials science for the environment and energy, transport, packaging and cultural heritage. (see full mission statement). Welcome to SoftComp!
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About SoftComp
SoftComp first emerged in 2004 as a Network of Excellence – a tool developed under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission – and continued as a self-sustaining Consortium in December 2009, when EU funding came to an end. SoftComp deals with the integration of European research, seeking to strengthen scientific and technological excellence in soft matter. In particular, it aims to establish a knowledge base for the intelligent design of functional and nanoscale soft matter composites, by overcoming the present fragmentation of this important field involved in the development of new materials at the interface of non-living and living matter, where the delicate principles of self-assembly in polymeric, surfactant and colloidal matter prevail. SoftComp has created an integrated team that is able to mobilize European potential in soft matter composite materials and thus disseminate excellence through extensive training and knowledge transfer schemes. Softcomp now consists of 36 research groups in 32 different institutions spread over 12 European countries.
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Contact
Dr. Flavio Carsughi
SoftComp Project Manager
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Forschungszentrum Jülich
JCNS Outstation
Lichtenbergstrasse 1
85748 Garching
Germany
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Phone: + 49 89 289-10703
Fax: + 49 89 289-10799
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Imprint
Published by:
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
SoftComp NoE
52425 Jülich, Germany
Phone: + 49 2461 61-6048
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Email: softcomp@fz-juelich.de
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SoftComp Coordinator: Stephan Förster
Concept and Editing: Angela Wenzik
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SoftComp Newsletter Editor
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Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
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Copyright of Images:
The copyright information for all images and logos shown above can be found via the ‘Read more’ or ‘More photos’ links in the respective announcements, with the exception of the ‘H2O’ photo, which is copyrighted by Pixabay (PublicDomainPictures).
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