Max-Planck-Institut für Neurobiologie

The Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried near Munich is a non-university research institute that investigates the basic functions and connections of the brain and nervous system. What the scientists at the institute are working on can be illustrated with an example: As you read this text, your brain is simultaneously monitoring and controlling your organ functions, calculating and coordinating every tiny movement, especially those of your eyes, and analyzing the incoming information from your various senses. But how does the brain manage to process all this information? How are the cells interconnected? How does such a complex system develop? What happens at the level of molecules right through to the entire system? And what happens when the nervous system is damaged or attacked by pathogens? These are just some of the questions that the scientists at the Institute are asking themselves. As the researchers are always working at the limits of knowledge, these questions are not studied in humans but in cell cultures and models.