Doctoral researcher in experimental soft-matter and biological physics at Saarland University. I study the mechanics, flow and aggregation of red blood cells, from single cells to dense suspensions, using in vivo microscopy, image analysis and physical modelling.
Since 2022 I have been working towards a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in the group of Prof. Christian Wagner at Saarland University. My Master's thesis dealt with the sedimentation of erythrocytes in colloidal-silica density gradients. My current work covers detection and tracking pipelines for microscopy data, 2D/3D image segmentation, shape analysis, and models of how red cells move, deform and aggregate.
The position is funded by a Young Investigator Grant awarded to Dr. Alexis Darras. In 2025 the work received the Best Poster Award at the Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC) in Lyon.
Young Investigator Grant of Saarland University (A. Darras) · DFG research unit FOR 2688 · Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), project 1108426N.
Figures are taken from the respective studies and talks; references are given with each project. Click a figure to enlarge it.
Intravital fluorescence microscopy in a dorsal skinfold chamber: the three labels are recorded in separate channels and tracked frame by frame.
Detection and tracking pipelines for intravital microscopy. White blood cells are classified as rolling or flowing along the vessel wall and followed through bifurcations. In a second study, healthy and artificially rigidified red cells are compared at vessel junctions: rigid cells spend less time at the branch apex, which changes how blood is partitioned between the daughter vessels. This is relevant to diseases with stiffened red cells, such as malaria and sickle-cell disease. My contribution: video processing, tracking pipeline, data analysis, statistics and figures.
White blood cells: ongoing investigations with Khadija Larhrissi, AG Wagner.
Rigid versus healthy red cells: Rashidi*, Maurer*, Wrublewsky*, Larhrissi, John, Gidley, Toye, Kaestner, Wagner, Laschke, Darras. Biophysical Journal (2026). doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2026.03.023
Centrifuged red cells settle into discrete bands, which were long interpreted as evidence of discontinuous cell ageing. Using a continuity equation that includes aggregation, we showed that the bands result from a competition between cell aggregation and net buoyancy. Related work explains the bands in classic Percoll gradients and the resulting limits of age separation.
Maurer, Romero, Lerch, John, Kaestner, Wagner, Darras. PNAS 122(51), e2515704122 (2025). doi:10.1073/pnas.2515704122
Cell surfaces from confocal and STED stacks are smoothed by Willmore curvature flow and decomposed into spherical harmonics, which places each cell on the stomatocyte–discocyte–echinocyte axis. A random-forest classifier reaches 92% accuracy on 730 cells and separates shape changes that are difficult to distinguish by eye. Developed together with Nikolas Lerch.
Building on the 3D red-cell phenotyping of Simionato, Quint et al. AG Wagner, Saarland University.
Buoyant-density centrifugation gives the density distribution of red cells and, via the relation between cytosol viscosity and density, their intracellular viscosity. The results provide single-cell parameters for blood-flow models. My contribution: density-gradient preparation and measurements.
John, Kretsch, Maurer, Recktenwald, Kaestner, Wagner. Biophysical Journal 124(16) (2025). doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2025.07.002
Automated patch clamp and calcium imaging are used to compare how the chemical activators Yoda1 and Yoda2 open the mechanosensitive Piezo1 channel in red cells.
Qiao, Penttinen, Coli, Murciano, Maurer, Wagner, Rotordam, Kaestner. Biomolecules 15(8), 1110 (2025). doi:10.3390/biom15081110
In capillary flow, red cells adopt either a symmetric croissant or an off-centred slipper shape. Under time-dependent flow, the croissant-to-slipper transition is considerably faster than the reverse and depends on the flow ramp rate. Cells were tracked in a co-moving frame using a custom PID-controlled microscope stage.
Recktenwald*, Graessel*, Maurer, John, Gekle, Wagner. Biophysical Journal 121(1) (2022). doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2021.12.009
Δ⁹-THC activates cation channels in red cells, which raises intracellular calcium and leads to dehydration and shape change. After THC exposure, a large fraction of sickle cells shifts into the high-calcium range, suggesting that cannabis use may be harmful in sickle-cell disease.
Hatem*, Esperti*, Murciano*, Qiao*, … Maurer, … Egée. American Journal of Hematology 98(12) (2023). doi:10.1002/ajh.27109
Drying droplets usually leave a ring-shaped deposit (coffee-ring effect). At low red-cell concentration, the deposit instead grows from a central edge. This growth is quantified via interface growth and roughness scaling, with potential use in blood-drop diagnostics.
Sardari, Mohammadian, Asfia, Maurer, Örüm, … Darras. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 679(A) (2025). doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.10.039
Ongoing work: optical-tweezers measurements of the attraction between two cells are used to derive a pair-interaction potential, which enters a percolation model of aggregated blood as a gel.
Ongoing, with K. Korneev (AG Wagner) and C. Haessig (KU Leuven). 3D reconstruction and recording of the cells shown by C. Haessig.
Additional manuscripts in preparation. Full list on ORCID. Ad hoc reviewer (2023), Scandinavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation.
Research pipelines and teaching software, available on github.com/FelixMaurer.
Experimental soft matter / biological physics, AG Wagner · Saarland University.
Saarland University. Thesis: sedimentation of erythrocytes in a colloidal-silica density gradient.
Saarland University. Thesis: statistical analysis of red-cell flow in microchannels.
Saarland University · research & teaching. Funded by a Young Investigator Grant (A. Darras).
AspektEins GmbH · integrated systems, ARM firmware, PCB design (working student).
AG Wagner · microscope control, image analysis, portable optical tweezers.
For research collaboration, inquiries, or media requests. Use the form or write directly to the address on the right.
mail@felixmilanmaurer.com
Campus E2 6, Room 320
66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
+49 (0)681 302 - 2977
orcid.org/0000-0002-6459-1204
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