Epigenetics - packaging artists in the cell

Biomaterials - patent solutions from nature

Animals and plants can produce amazing materials such as spider webs, wood or bone using only a few raw materials available. How do they achieve this? And what can engineers learn from them? more

Chaperones - folding helpers in the cell

Nothing works without the correct form: For most proteins, there are millions of ways in which these molecules, composed of long chains of amino acids, can be folded - but only one way is the right one. Researchers in the department "Cellular Biochemistry" at the Max Planck Institute for Bi ... more

Gene-editing with CRISPR/Cas9

The discovery that bacteria use a kind of immune system to fight viruses initially was only interesting for microbiologists. But when the discovery that CRISPR/Cas9 system is able to manipulate genes of many organisms was made, also non-scientists were alerted. But how does this method works? more

New app calculates corona infection risk in rooms

The risk of being infected with the corona virus indoors can now be determined more reliably than before using a web app. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and the University Medical Center Göttingen uses a refined statistical method in the ... more

Speeding up sequence alignment across the tree of life

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institutes of Developmental Biology in Tübingen and the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility in Garching develops new search capabilities that will allow to compare the biochemical makeup of different species from across the tree of life. Its comb ... more

Stimulating the Immune System to Fight Cancer

Cancer cells have evolved mechanisms to escape the body's immune defense. Agents that prevent immune escape are attractive targets for the development of new cancer therapies. A group of scientists led by Herbert Waldmann and Slava Ziegler at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology ... more

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V.

The research institutes of the Max Planck Society perform basic research in the interest of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. In particular, the Max Planck Society takes up new and innovative research areas that German universiti ... more