Publications

1. Celina Detwiler Gray, Alejandra Coronel-Zegarra, Andrienne Martin, Oliver Wang, Eshita Samajpati, Alberto Perez-Huerta, Jefferey Baxter, Christopher T. Nelson, Jessica Walker, Vivian Merk*, Engineering curved strontium sulfate crystals through biomimetic crystallization, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2025, accepted

2. John G. Ricca, Holly A. Petersen, Adam Grosvirt-Dramen, Xavier Mayali, Sarah H. Naylon, Bobby G. Duersch, Craig P. Dufresne, Peter K. Weber, Ravi R. Sonani, Peter E. Prevelige, Allon I. Hochbaum, Vivian Merk, William Louda, Fengbin Wang*, A family of tubular pili from harmful algal bloom forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa, Nature Communications, 2025, 16 (1), 8082, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63379-1

3. Celina Detwiler Gray, Alejandra Coronel-Zegarra, Andrienne Martin, Eshita Samajpati, Alberto Perez-Huerta, Jessica Walker, Vivian Merk*, Investigating Curved Strontium Sulfate Crystals Using Multimodal Microscopy and Spectroscopy, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 31 (7), 2025, 1915–1916, DOI:10.1093/mam/ozaf048.964

4. Yu Wen, Edward De La Uz, Joshua Voss, Vivian Merk, Paul Smeets*, Exploring Structure and Properties of Diseased Coral Exoskeletons using Multi-scale Electron Diffraction Techniques, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 31 (7), 2025, 1875–1876, DOI:10.1093/mam/ozaf048.946

5. Alejandra Coronel-Zegarra, Edward De La Uz, Diannelle Lacambra-Rivera, Paul Smeets, Joshua Voss, Youli Li, Phillip Kohl, Vivian Merk*, Multiscale Chemistry and Structure of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Lesions, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 31 (7), 2025, 795–797, DOI:10.1093/mam/ozaf048.403

6. Dawn Raja Somu, Steven Soini, Ani Briggs, Kritika Singh, Imke Greving, Marianne Porter, Michelle Passerotti, Vivian Merk*, A nanoscale view of the structure and deformation mechanism of mineralized shark vertebral cartilage, ACS Nano, 2025, 19, 14, 14410–14421, DOI:10.1021/acsnano.5c02004

7. Steven A. Soini, Inam Lalani, Matthew L. Maron, David Gonzalez, Hassan Mahfuz, Neus Domingo-Marimon, Vivian Merk*, Multiscale mechanical characterization of mineral-reinforced wood cell walls, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2025, 17(12), 18887-18896, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c22384

8. Laiqi Zhang, Elena Zhu#, Alejandra Coronel-Zegarra#, Dawn Raja Somu#, Vivian Merk, Xiaolang Zhang, Renjie Wang*, Mxene-AgNPs based SERS platform for ion sensing, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2025, 433, 137524, DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2025.137524

9. Dawn Raja Somu, Malena Fuentes, Lihua Lou, Arvind Agarwal, Marianne Porter, Vivian Merk*, Revealing chemistry-structure-function relationships in shark vertebrae across length scales, Acta Biomaterialia, 2024, DOI:10.1016/j.actbio.2024.09.041

10. Bobby Duersch, Steven Soini#, Yanqi Luo, Xiaoyang Liu, Si Chen, Vivian Merk*, Nanoscale elemental and morphological imaging of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, Metallomics, 2024, 16 (10), 1-15, DOI:10.1093/mtomcs/mfae040

11. Steven Soini, Sofia Feliciano, Bobby Duersch, Vivian Merk, Nanocrystalline Iron Hydroxide Lignocellulose Filters for Arsenate Remediation, RSC Sustainability, 2024, 2(3), 626-634, DOI: 10.1039/D3SU00326D

12. Natasha Ramnauth, Elise Neubarth, Amy Makler-Disatham, Mazhar Sher, Steven Soini, Vivian Merk, Waseem Asghar, Development of a microfluidic device for exosome isolation in point-of-care settings, Sensors, 2023, 23(19), 8292, DOI: 10.3390/s23198292

13. Bobby G. Duersch, Yanqi Luo, Dawn Raja Somu, Si Chen, Steven A. Soini, Vivian Merk, Synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy mapping the ionome of a toxic freshwater cyanobacterium, Environmental Pollution, 2023, 334, 121781-121790, DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121781 

14. Bobby G. Duersch, Steven A. Soini, Yanqi Luo, Xiaoyang Liu, Si Chen, Vivian Merk, Multimodal Imaging of Nitrogen-fixing Cyanobacteria in the Near-native State, Microscopy and Microanalysis,  2023   29(1), 1953–1954, DOI:10.1093/micmic/ozad067.1011

15. Dawn Raja Somu, Timothy Cracchiolo, Elena Longo, Imke Greving, Vivian Merk, On stars and spikes: Resolving the skeletal morphology of planktonic Acantharia using synchrotron X-ray nanotomography and deep learning image segmentation, Acta Biomaterialia, 2023, 159, 74-82, DOI:10.1016/j.actbio.2023.01.037

16. Fengyun Shen, Deepika Regmi, Majedul Islam, Dawn Raja Somu, Vivian Merk, Deguo Du, Effects of Zinc and Carnosine on Aggregation Kinetics of Amyloid-β40 Peptide, Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports, 2022, 32, 101333, DOI:10.1016/j.bbrep.2022.101333

17. Bobby G. Duersch, Yanqi Luo, Si Chen, Steven A. Soini, Dawn M. Raja Somu, Vivian M. Merk,, Visualizing the Macro- and Micronutrient Distribution of Toxic Cyanobacteria in Two and Three Dimensions. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2022, 28, 1128–1131, DOI:10.1017/S1431927622004743

18. Vivian Merk, Johan Decelle, Si Chen, Derk Joester, Multi-modal correlative chemical imaging of aquatic microorganisms, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2021, 27 (S1), DOI: 10.1017/S1431927621001641

19. Vivian Merk, Johan Decelle, Si Chen, Antonio Lanzirotti, Matthew Newville, Olga Antipova, Derk Joester, Selective Ion Accumulation in Biomineralizing Marine Acantharia, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2019, 25 (S2), DOI: 1072-1073, 10.1017/S1431927619006093

20. Sanja Kostić, Vivian Merk, John K. Berg, Philipp Hass, Ingo Burgert, Etienne Cabane, Timber-mortar composites: the effect of sol-gel surface modification on the wood-adhesive interface, Composite Structures, 2018, 201, 828-833, DOI: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2018.06.108

21. Maija Kymäläinen, Selim Ben Mlouka, Tiina Belt, Vivian Merk, Ville Liljeström, Tuomas Hänninen, Tuuli Uimonen, Mauri Kostiainen, Lauri Rautkari, Chemical, water vapour sorption and ultrastructural analysis of Scots pine wood thermally modified in high-pressure reactor under saturated steam, Journal of Materials Science, 2018, 53 (4), 3027–3037, DOI: 10.1007/s10853-017-1714-1

22. Sanja Kostić, John K. Berg, Kirstin Casdorff, Vivian Merk, Ingo Burgert, Etienne Cabane, straightforward thiol-ene click reaction to modify lignocellulosic scaffolds in water, Green Chemistry, 2017,19, 4017-4022, DOI: 10.1039/C7GC01601H

23. Vivian Merk, John K. Berg, Christina Krywka, Ingo Burgert, Oriented Crystallization of Barium Sulfate Confined in Hierarchical Cellular Structures. Crystal Growth & Design, 2017, 17 (2), 677–684, DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.6b01517

24. Etienne Cabane, Tobias Keplinger, Tina Künniger, Vivian Merk, Ingo Burgert, Functional lignocellulosic materials prepared by ATRP from a wood scaffold. Scientific reports, 2016, 6, 31287, DOI:10.1038/srep31287

25. Ingo Burgert, Vivian Merk, Tobias Keplinger, Holzbasierte Materialien ‒ Forschungsansätze für eine erweiterte Nutzung des Werkstoffs, Wood materials – Research approaches for a wider utilization, Holztechnologie, 2016, 57 (5), 38-43

26. Vivian Merk, Munish Chanana, Sabyasachi Gaan, Ingo Burgert, Mineralization of Wood by Calcium Carbonate Insertion for Improved Flame Retardancy. Holzforschung, 2016, 70 (9), 867-876, DOI: 10.1515/hf-2015-0228

27. Vivian Merk, Munish Chanana, Tobias Keplinger, Sabysachi Gaan, Ingo Burgert, Hybrid wood materials with improved fire retardance by bio-inspired mineralisation on the nano- and submicron level. Green Chemistry, 2015, 17, 1423-1428, DOI: 10.1039/C4GC01862A5

28. Tobias Keplinger, Etienne Cabane, Munish Chanana, Philipp Hass, Vivian Merk, Notburga Gierlinger, Ingo Burgert, A versatile strategy for grafting polymers to wood cell walls. Acta Biomaterialia, 2015, 11, 256-263, DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.09.016

29. Vivian Merk, Munish Chanana, Notburga Gierlinger, Ann M. Hirt, Ingo Burgert, Hybrid Wood Materials with Magnetic Anisotropy Dictated by the Hierarchical Cell Structure. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2014, 6 (12), 9760–9767, DOI: 10.1021/am5021793

30. Etienne Cabane, Tobias Keplinger, Vivian Merk, Philipp Hass, Ingo Burgert, Renewable and Functional Wood Materials by Grafting Polymerization Within Cell Walls. ChemSusChem, 2014, 7 (4), 1020–1025, DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201301107

31. Vivian Merk, Christoph Rehbock, Felix Becker, Ulrich Hagemann, Herman Nienhaus, Stephan Barcikowski, In Situ Non-DLVO Stabilization of Surfactant-Free, Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles: Effect of Hofmeister’s Anions. Langmuir, 2014, 30 (15), 4213–4222, DOI: 10.1021/la404556a

32. Christian Pfeiffer, Christoph Rehbock, Dominik Hühn, Carolina Carrillo-Carrion, Dorleta Jimenez de Aberasturi, Vivian Merk, Stephan Barcikowski, Wolfgang Parak, Interaction of colloidal nanoparticles with their local environment: the (ionic) nanoenvironment around nanoparticles is different from bulk and determines the physico-chemical properties of the nanoparticles. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 2014, 11 (96), 20130931, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2013.0931

33. Christoph Rehbock, Vivian Merk, Lisa Gamrad, René Streubel, Stephan Barcikowski, Size control of laser-fabricated surfactant-free gold nanoparticles with highly diluted electrolytes and their subsequent bioconjugation. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2013, 15, 3057-3067, DOI:10.1039/C2CP42641B

Book Chapter

1.  Ingo Burgert, Tobias Keplinger, Etienne Cabane, Vivian Merk, Markus Rüggeberg, Biomaterial Wood: Wood-based and Bioinspired Materials, Secondary Xylem Biology, 1st Edition, Elsevier, 2016

Patents

1. Munish Chanana, Ingo Burgert, Vivian Merk, International (PCT) application for technology No. WO 2015/162061 Mineralized wood materials and methods providing mineralized wood materials, Granted October 29, 2015

2. Vivian Merk, Satviki Singh, Daniela Scheurle, Provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No.: 63/298,469 Biocompatible metal ion-chitosan hydrogels with antimicrobial properties.

3. Vivian Merk, Edward de la Uz, U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11605-053PV1, Title: Chitin aerogels and mineralized aerogels derived from biomass, filed on October 4, 2023, Attorney Docket No. 11605-053PV1