Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) promotes an interdisciplinary research group under the overall control of TU Dresden for the research on marine diatoms (Kieselalgen) with a total amount of 2.1 million Euro. Those marine diatoms are single-cell microorganisms whose cell walls consist of the inorganic material Silica (SiO2) and which forms absolutely regular structures. The aim of the research project is to investigate the biological creation of minerals and hence to gain an improved basis for a resource-friendly manufacturing of functional materials.