Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

2025 was a successful year for Max Planck spin-offs

An study uncovers how benign borderline ovarian tumors develop into invasive low-grade serous carcinoma

The biophysicist is being honoured for his groundbreaking development and application of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET)

Researchers have used spatial Deep Visual Proteomics workflow to reveal why some patients with the hereditary disease remain healthy

Maria Sokolova, head of the Lise Meitner Research Group Bacteriophages at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, receives this year's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2025

A human cell produces an average of 10,000 different proteins; there are more than 100,000 protein variants in the entire human body. Decoding the protein inventory, also known as the proteome, requires enormous computational power—and artificial intelligence. Matthias Mann and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried have developed a technique that allows for more accurate diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. This enables therapies to be precisely tailored to the individual needs of a patient.

“Human beings can do what they will, but they cannot will what they will.” In the question of whether humans determine their own actions, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer took a clear stance: free will does not exist! To this day, neither philosophy nor science have been able to definitively answer this question. For Herwig Baier of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, this is primarily due to conflicting concepts of freedom.

Talking with friends, enjoying a concert, talking on the phone on noisy streets – people with hearing problems are often unable to hear things that others can. Tobias Moser aims to make sound accessible to those with hearing disabilities in a whole new way through a new generation of hearing protheses. Known as optical cochlear implants, these devices serve as an example of therapies developed on the basis of fundamental research.

Researcher or entrepreneur – thanks to Axel Ullrich, this is no longer a contradiction for the Max Planck Society: he‘s both. This is proven by countless publications and honors, two cutting-edge cancer drugs, six start-up companies and over 100 patents. Ullrich, a former Director of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried has been instrumental in promoting the combination of basic and applied research at the Max Planck Society.

In the Bible, the universe was created step by step: first light, then water and land, and finally the terrestrial animals and humankind. However, from a scientific viewpoint, it seems that the building blocks of life might not have come into being successively, but rather at the same time – at least, this is what Hannes Mutschler of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry believes. He and his colleagues in Martinsried, near Munich, are researching the role played by RNA molecules in the emergence of life.

Some time around four billion years ago, life started to become encapsulated. The first cells emerged – protected spaces that facilitated the bonding of complex molecules. Petra Schwille from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried and Rumiana Dimova from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam are exploring the boundaries of cellular life. The two researchers are investigating the dynamics of biomembranes.

Proteins are built out of amino acid chains. To fulfill their various cellular functions, these chains must be folded into a specific, biologically active spatial structure. So-called molecular chaperones, themselves proteins as well, help to do this. Cellular stress or chaperone malfunction can lead to protein aggregation, which is associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. In two studies, we explore different mechanisms by which cells help proteins to adopt and maintain their functional form or shield them from aggregation under stress.

The fertilization of an egg by sperm is the beginning of new life. In this process, the genetic information of both parents is united in the fertilized egg cell. Initially, the genetic information in the nucleus is inactive, and the first cell division is induced solely by maternal gene products. However, from the second cell division on, the newly combined genetic information must be accessed. Together with my team, I have investigated this particular process and discovered a „spark of life”, a genetic factor, that “awakens” the DNA.

How does cancer arise? How does the cellular composition of a tumor change its malignant characteristics? These questions are difficult to answer, yet crucial to understand cancer and find a cure. Together with my two research groups, I succeeded in developing a completely new diagnostic approach to get one step closer to this goal. By combining four modern methods, we have developed a very powerful technology to better understand the mechanisms of health and disease.

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) specifically deliver amino acids to ribosomes during the translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) into proteins. The abundance of tRNAs therefore has a profound impact on cells. However, determining the amount of each tRNA species in cells was limited because of technical challenges. We overcame these limitations thanks to mim-tRNAseq, a method that can be used to quantify tRNAs in any organism and will help improve our understanding of tRNA regulation in health and disease.

The field of synthetic biology aims to assemble life-like systems from inanimate building blocks. Our goal is not only to observe and describe processes of life, but also to mimic them. A key characteristic of life is its ability to replicate its own macromolecular components. We have generated a new in vitro system that can regenerate some of its own DNA and protein building blocks.