Max Planck Institutes and Experts

The question how and why we sleep is one of the most exciting mysteries of biology. Sleep is important for our well-being. Yet, we do not know how sleep becomes regenerative. The Max Planck Research Group Sleep and Waking is trying to answer these basic questions. The researchers’ strategy is to first investigate sleep in one of the most simple model organisms that sleeps, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. The group identified a single neuron to be responsible for sleep induction and found a molecular mechanism for sleep induction.

Neurodegenerative diseases‘ hallmark is the aggregation of mostly intrinsically disordered proteins. Getting fundamental insights into the structural biology of these proteins, it was possible to identify oligomers as an attractive target for disease modifying therapies. The compound anle138b is bearing the required properties regarding modification of aggregation pathways, and is also orally bioavailable.

Two astronomers have produced the first direct images of a gigantic X-shaped distribution of stars in the center of the Milky Way. The collaboration began when Dustin Lang (University of Toronto) tweeted an image he had recently created. From the tweet, Melissa Ness (MPIA) recognized the image's significance for reconstructing the history of our home galaxy. The X-shaped distribution indicates that the bulge of stars surrounding the center of the galactic disk was formed through dynamical interactions of stars, not by the merger of smaller galaxies with our own.

Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting the nearest star outside our solar system, Proxima Centauri. The planet, designated Proxima Centauri b, is in the habitable zone of its star, where liquid water could exist. The discovery is the result of a patient search using the radial velocity method, which searches for tiny wobbles of a star caused by an orbiting planet. In addition to newly acquired data, the analysis uses spectra taken by MPIA astronomer Martin Kürster and colleagues between 2000 and 2007.

Using recent, extensive cosmological simulations, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics have shown that the expected signal from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect of galaxy clusters on the Cosmic Microwave Background agrees remarkably well with observations by the Planck satellite. However, only a small fraction of this predicted signal is currently observable. The scientists developed a simple analytical model to understand the SZ probability distribution function, which is also helpful in interpreting the observed distribution of galaxy clusters masses.