Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

New method could facilitate development of new "degrader" therapies that harness the power to destroy unwanted proteins

The protein may help to prevent neurodegenerative diseases

Research team achieves Ångström resolution using DNA-barcoded fluorescence microscopy

Scientists decipher a mechanism that may help prevent the formation of blood clots

Four scientists can look forward to additional funding in this year's ERC Advanced Grants

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.

Elena Conti used to entertain the notion of becoming an architect. The fact that she decided to study chemistry in the end detracted nothing from her passion for the subject. As Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, she studies the architecture of molecular machines in the cell – and is fascinated by the sophisticated structures in miniature.

The discovery of a visual pigment in the cell membrane of an archaebacterium in the early 1970s is owed solely to a researcher’s curiosity: For three years, the scientific community wouldn’t believe Dieter Oesterhelt. Forty years after his pioneering work at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, bacteriorhodopsin and channelrhodopsin, which stems from a single-celled green alga, are gaining ground as new tools in neurobiology.

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.

Cells contact other cells via precise docking points. Cell migration and immune reactions require a finely tuned attachment and detachment process. Therefore, the contact sites consist of a whole machinery of proteins, in which talin plays a central role. Using cryo-electron microscopy, we were able to show how talin can assume an inactive spherical shape and is thus inaccessible to contact other proteins. These results help to understand the adhesion mechanism and also dysfunctions in disease processes.

The ability of cells to sense and respond to mechanical signals is central to numerous biological processes. How mechanical signals are processed in cells has remained unclear, because techniques to detect the extremely small molecular forces in cells were missing. We therefore developed a technology that allows quantification of intracellular forces that are as low as a billionth of a newton. First applications reveal fascinating insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular mechanobiology.