Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics

Max Planck director honoured for the discovery of genomic imprinting 

Scientists mapping how nutrients and lipids shape bone marrow blood stem cells from health to aging and leukemia

The ELAV protein iss a key regulator of circular RNA production in the nervous system

Chromatin enzymes play a crucial role in germ layer formation at the onset of zygotic genome activation in Drosophila embryos

How a vitamin A metabolite could help myocardial infarction patients by modulating blood stem cell activity

Max Planck scientist Tim Lämmermann is investigating how immune cells hunt pathogens in swarms. The cells exhibit a behavior that biologists will also be familiar with from an insect – the Asian honey bee.

Men and women possess different sex chromosomes. Nature, however, manages to reconcile this genetic gender gap. Asifa Akhtar, the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, and her team are researching the sophisticated epigenetic mechanisms responsible for this process. As the Vice-President of the Biological and Medical Section in the Max Planck Society, she is also committed to reducing the gender gap in science.

In the mid-1970s, Georges Köhler, later Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg, succeeded in fusing together a short-lived immune cell and a rapidly dividing cancer cell. The result was an immortal cell chimera with the ability to produce identical (“monoclonal”) antibodies, ushering in a revolution in biology and medical science. In 1984, Köhler was awarded the Nobel Prize along with César Milstein and Niels Kaj Jerne. The researcher, who died young, would have celebrated his 70th birthday this year.

We developed live-cell super-resolution and multi-color 3D-imaging approaches to investigate the function of endogenous condensates in the regulation of super-enhancer controlled gene Sox2. In contrast to enhancer distance, we found that the condensate’s positional dynamics are a better predictor of gene expression. Perturbations of cohesin and local DNA elements do not prevent basal bursting but affect the condensate and its burst. We propose a three-way kissing model whereby the condensate interacts transiently with gene locus and regulatory DNA elements to control gene bursting.

We inherit two copies of each chromosome, one from our mothers and one from our fathers. Do we really need both of them? For some genes, one copy is sufficient, meaning that the organism can survive if one of the two copies is inactive or mutated. For other genes, the organism cannot survive without both copies. These genes are known as haploinsufficient and mutation or inactivation in just one of their copies leads to disease. We now have discovered that the cell possesses a special mechanism to ensure that both copies of haploinsufficient genes remain “switched on” at all times.

Macrophages are professional phagocytes  equipped to efficiently capture and eliminate pathogens inside their internal digestive system, the phagolysosome. However, certain bacteria can resist the elimination inside macrophages and thus are able to escape the control of the immune system. Our research now identifies a specialized communication mode between two different organelles, the phagolysosome and the mitochondria, activating an effective and cell-intrinsic anti-bacterial defense mechanism to control bacterial growth.

Neutrophilic granulocytes are scavenger cells of the innate immune response and first aiders of our immune system. They patrol through blood vessels and enter quickly into tissues upon signs of inflammation or infection to eliminate pathogens. Once they have arrived, they form impressive cell swarms and together attack the microbes. Our research shows that neutrophils have evolved a molecular start-stop system to self-control their swarm activity and thereby effectively clear bacteria in tissues.

Neurons, also known as nerve cells, send and receive signals in our brain. They are particularly complex and fulfill functions that are unique to this cell type. Our research has shown that particular RNA sequences are of crucial importance for neurons to maintain their identity, and to develop and function properly. We study the gene-regulatory mechanisms that underlie the neuron-specific RNA landscape that drives neural function in health and disease.