Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems

After two years of online only encounters, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2022 took place onsite again

ContiVir, a Max Planck spin-off, presents a vaccine candidate against the Coronavirus, which can be produced in a quick, efficient and scalable process

Researchers make the proton pump of the respiratory chain work in an artificial polymer membrane

In order to immunize the world population both an effective vaccine and an efficient production process are necessary

Highly concentrated reproduction of some flaviviruses in bioreactors will become possible

In the event of an impending global flu pandemic, vaccine production could quickly reach its limits, as flu vaccines are still largely produced in embryonated chicken eggs. Udo Reichl, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, and his colleagues have therefore been working on a fully automated method for production in cell cultures that could yield vaccines in large quantities in a crisis.

Normally, Peter Benner and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg work on complicated numerical methods to optimize the automatic control of technical systems and equipment. Recently, however, their research was applied to resolve a political conflict centering around drug cultivation, herbicide spraying and border violations in South America.

Wood waste and straw contain valuable substances for the chemical industry, and these substances are what chemists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg want to get their hands on. The researchers are looking for ways to convert biomass into useful chemical compounds and use them as energy sources or raw materials.

A hybrid data-driven and mechanistic modeling approach is proposed for integrated material and process design. The method has been applied to a few example processes and substantial improvements on the process performance have been achieved.

In the age of electromobility, electrochemical energy converters such as fuel cells will play an increasingly important role in everyday life. On this point, diagnostic tools that can precisely determine the various fail states (flooding, drying out, catalyst degradation, poisoning, etc.) of these devices are becoming increasingly important. We report on a new experimental method for fuel cell diagnostics, based on frequency response analysis of concentration input and electrical output (current or cell potential), which can selectively distinguish between the different fail states.

Preparative chromatographic processes play an important role for the separation of complex mixtures. Recent research at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg aims at better understanding, systematic design as well as automatic control of these processes. Special focus in this contribution is on model based analysis of processes with implicit adsorption isotherms and a new self learning control concept for simulated moving bed processes.

A key principle for the rational design of cell factories is the stoichiometric coupling of growth and product synthesis, which makes production of the desired compound obligatory for growth. Using mathematical models and new computational algorithms, researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg showed that coupling of growth and production is feasible under appropriate genetic interventions for almost all metabolites in five major production organisms. These results are of fundamental importance for rational metabolic engineering in biotechnology.

An increasing world population and fast spread of old and new influenza virus strains demands more efficient vaccine production methods. One approach is the use of coupled continuous bioreactors. Unfortunately, accumulation of defective interfering particles (DIPs) leads to unstable virus yields. As an alternative we have designed a novel plug-flow tubular bioreactor system, providing high influenza virus titers for up to three weeks in continuous mode using suspension MDCK cells. This novel platform can be used for other viruses and help reduce vaccine manufacturing costs worldwide.