Salentinig Group

Stefan Salentinig is Full Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Fribourg, where he leads the Biocolloids Laboratory and serves as President of the Department of Chemistry. He is also President of the Swiss Society for Surfaces and Interfaces (SAOG) and Founding Director of the Food Research and Innovation Center. His research combines colloid and interface science, soft matter, and advanced scattering techniques to understand and engineer biological and bio-inspired materials for food, health, and sustainable materials applications. He obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Graz, Austria, in 2010, specializing in colloids and scattering methods. He subsequently moved to Australia to join the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) as a scientist working on functional nanomaterials. In 2013, he was appointed Lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, where he conducted research on nanoscale drug delivery systems in close collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

In 2015, he joined Empa in St. Gallen, Switzerland, as Group Leader in Functional Materials before taking up his current position at the University of Fribourg in 2019. His research integrates advanced X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques to elucidate the structure and function of biological and bio-inspired materials across multiple length scales, from the atomic to the macroscopic. This work is supported by an extensive network of national and international collaborators and close partnerships with leading large-scale research facilities.

• Research Interest

  The Biocolloids Laboratory studies the physical chemistry of biological and bio-inspired materials. We combine concepts from colloid and interface science, soft matter, and advanced structural characterization to understand how molecular interactions, self-assembly, and confinement determine material structure and function. Nature provides a rich source of inspiration. We investigate systems ranging from milk and lipid assemblies to antimicrobial interfaces, polymers under nanoconfinement, and espresso coffee. Although these materials appear very different, they are governed by common physical principles. Understanding these principles allows us to design new functional materials for applications in food, health, and sustainability.

  Our research combines fundamental science with advanced experimental methods. We integrate synchrotron X-ray scattering and diffraction with spectroscopy, microscopy, and complementary techniques to follow structural changes from the molecular to the cellular scale, often in real time. Our goal is to uncover the relationships between structure, dynamics, and function, and to translate these insights into the design of next-generation functional materials.

   

• Selected Publications
  1. Tran, B.; Lima, D. C. A.; Sandblad, L.; Ramstedt, M.; Soares, T. A.; Salentinig, S. LL-37 Driven Phase Transition and Stacking in Oligolamellar Gram-Negative Bacterial Membrane Models. Advanced Functional Materials 2026, 36(38), e32053. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202532053
  2. Frigerio, M.; Leser, M. E.; Salentinig, S. Beyond the Oil–Water Interface: Cooperative Alkali–Lipase Catalysis Induces pH-Responsive Self-Assembly in Triolein Hydrolysis. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 2026, 706, 139561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2025.13956
  3. Debas, M.; Nguyen, D. P. T.; Kilbinger, A. F. M.; Glavic, A.; Amenitsch, H.; Salentinig, S. Nanoconfined Photopolymerization in Self-Assembled Glycerol Monooleate, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate, and Water Suprastructures. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c02607
  4. Tran, B.; Watts, S.; Valentin, J. D. P.; Raßmann, N.; Papastavrou, G.; Ramstedt, M.; Salentinig, S. pH-Responsive Virus-Based Colloidal Crystals for Advanced Material Platforms. Advanced Functional Materials 2024, 2402257. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202402257
  5. Hong, L.; Gontsarik, M.; Amenitsch, H.; Salentinig, S. Human Antimicrobial Peptide Triggered Colloidal Transformations in Bacteria Membrane Lipopolysaccharides. Small 2022, 18(5), 2104211. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202104211