Ovulation filmed from start to finish for the first time

New findings for fertility research

25-Oct-2024 - Approximately 400 times in a woman's life, a mature egg makes the “leap.” It is released into the fallopian tube, ready for fertilization by the sperm. Researchers led by Melina Schuh, Christopher Thomas, and Tabea Lilian Marx from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences ...

Discovery of the first fractal molecule in nature

‘We stumbled on this structure completely by accident and almost couldn’t believe what we saw when we first took images of it using an electron microscope’

12-Apr-2024 - Snowflakes, fern leaves, romanesco cauliflower heads: many structures in nature have a certain regularity. Their individual parts resemble the shape of the whole structure. Such shapes, which repeat from the largest to the smallest, are called fractals. But regular fractals that match almost ...

Identify, engage, assassinate: How seahorse-like toxins kill insects

Researchers reveal the first-ever detailed structure of the bacterial toxin Mcf1: Useful for engineering novel biopesticides

02-Feb-2024 - Insect-killing bacteria typically release toxins to slay their hosts. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, for example, pumps insect larvae full of the lethal ‘Makes caterpillars floppy 1’ (Mcf1) toxin, leading them to first become droopy and then dead. However, it has so far been a mystery ...

Fatty acid factory filmed at work

High-resolution images provide new insights into cellular fatty acid production: Potential for medicine and biotechnology

15-Nov-2023 - Fatty acids are essential in all living organisms: to store energy, form membranes, and multiply. They are produced by a complex cellular machinery – the fatty acid synthase (FAS). A team of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences, led by Ashwin Chari and Holger Stark, have ...

Wiggly proteins guard the genome

Dynamic network in the pores of the nuclear envelope blocks dangerous invaders

03-May-2023 - Tiny pores in the cell nucleus play an essential role for healthy aging by protecting and preserving the genetic material. A team in Germany from the Department of Theoretical Biophysics at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main and the Synthetic Biophysics of Protein ...

Neuroscientists illuminate how brain cells deep in the cortex operate in freely moving mice

This new miniature microscope is a game changer for exploring the link between neural activity and complex animal behavior

01-Dec-2022 - How can we see what neurons deep in the cortex are doing during behavior? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar (MPINB) have developed a miniature microscope small enough to be carried on the head of a freely moving mouse and capable of measuring ...

Structure of key protein for cell division puzzles researchers

Researchers provide a first 3D snapshot of the CCAN protein complex and raise fundamental questions towards the creation of artificial chromosomes

17-May-2022 - Human cell division involves hundreds of proteins at its core. Knowing the 3D structure of these proteins is pivotal to understand how our genetic material is duplicated and passed through generations. The groups of Andrea Musacchio and Stefan Raunser at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular ...

Bacteria’s hidden weapon: toxins locked inside a capsule secured by a cork

New insights into the bacterial type VI secretion system could one day help to develop antibacterial and antifungal applications

11-Feb-2022 - The microbiome is home to an estimated 100 trillion bacteria, existing as a dense colony of many different strains and species. Similar to all organisms, bacteria must also compete with one another for space and resources, engaging in “warfare” by releasing toxins to kill competitors. One of the ...

Errors at the start of life

The process of combining maternal and paternal genetic information is surprisingly error-prone

14-May-2021 - Only one in three fertilizations leads to a successful pregnancy. Many embryos fail to progress beyond early development. Cell biologists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (Germany), together with researchers at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics in ...

Biophysicists reveal secret language of bones

10-Dec-2020 - Our bones have so-called mechanosensors that react to pressure and communicate with each other. “These sensors enable that bone is formed where it is mechanically necessary and broken down elsewhere," says Richard Weinkamer from the Biomaterials Department. In their research they have come a ...