First step towards synthetic CO2 fixation in living cells

Three modules forming a new-to-nature CO2 fixation cycle successfully implemented in E.coli

29-Dec-2023 - Synthetic biology offers the opportunity to build biochemical pathways for the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2). Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology have developed a synthetic biochemical cycle that directly converts CO2 into the central building ...

Electricity driving life

Using a metabolic pathway, energy-rich resources can be produced via the power of electricity

18-Aug-2023 - When nature performs chemical reactions to create energy-rich compounds from simple molecules, it requires energy. So far, it has not been possible to use human-made electricity to drive these biochemical processes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg ...

Unmuting the genome

Epigenetic mechanisms for parent-specific genetic activation decoded

13-Jan-2022 - Hereditary diseases as well as cancers and cardiovascular diseases may be associated with a phenomenon known as genomic imprinting, in which only the maternally or paternally inherited gene is active. An international research team involving scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), ...

Prestigious award for the pioneers of optogenetics

Dieter Oesterhelt, Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, is being honoured with the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 2021 together with Peter Hegemann and Karl Deisseroth

27-Sep-2021 - Dieter Oesterhelt from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Peter Hegemann from Humboldt University and the U.S. American Karl Deisseroth from Stanford University will receive the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 2021 for the discovery of light-sensitive proteins in the membrane of ...

Light drives injection

By coupling a bacterial injection system with a light-controlled molecular switch, scientists are able to inject proteins into eukaryontic cells

15-May-2020 - When bacteria such as Salmonella or Yersinia cause fever, diarrhoea or abdominal pain, tiny "injection needles" are at work: their type 3 secretion system, or T3SS for short, shoots bacterial virulence proteins directly into the eukaryotic host cells. Researchers have thought of using bacterial ...

Biological machine produces its own building blocks

Researchers have for the first time developed a genome the size of a minimal cell that can copy itself

18-Feb-2020 - The field of synthetic biology does not only observe and describe processes of life but also mimics them. A key characteristic of life is the ability to ability for replication, which means the maintenance of a chemical system. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried ...

Otto Hahn Medal for Jaime Agudo-Canalejo

22-Jun-2017 - Im Rahmen der 68. Jahreshauptversammlung der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), die am 21. und 22. Juni in Weimar, Jena und Erfurt stattfindet, erhält der Nachwuchswissenschaftler vom Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung die Otto-Hahn-Medaille. Er wird für seine herausragende ...

With scissors and string  

Chromosome segregation in meiosis

17-Jan-2017 - Once together, never apart – isn’t that how the saying goes? Not so in meiosis, the special type of cell division in which gametes, sperm and egg cells are formed. At the start of meiosis the ring-shaped protein complex, referred to as cohesin, is the string that ties the chromosome strands ...

Synapses always on the starting blocks

Vesicles filled with neurotransmitters touch the cell membrane, thereby enabling their rapid-fire release

29-Oct-2014 - While neurons rapidly propagate information in their interior via electrical signals, they communicate with each other at special contact points known as the synapses. Chemical messenger substances, the neurotransmitters, are stored in vesicles at the synapses. When a synapse becomes active, some ...

New probes for the brain

The Department of Microsystems Engineering of the University of Freiburg is Coordinating the Research Project NeuroSeeker

12-Feb-2013 - Developing tiny probes for research and brain-related medical applications – that is the goal of the project NeuroSeeker, launched in February 2013 with a kick-off event in Leuven. The interdisciplinary project pools the expertise of ten partner institutions from Europe and Canada. The University ...