Institutes

The MPI for Biology hosts five main departments currently hosts five departments and three junior research groups that together cover a broad range of disciplines. The cutting-edge technology in molecular and cellular biology and computational science available at the institute is enabling scientists to gain increasing insight into cellular and developmental processes. A highly dynamic and interdisciplinary approach is applied from the molecular level to cells, tissues, and the whole organism. Current research interests at the institute address fundamental questions of modern biology at multiple levels of magnification. At the atomic level, we are investigating how protein machines work. At the molecular and subcellular level, we are studying how proteins and nucleic acids cooperate to regulate processes and the effects of their location within the cell. At the tissue level, we are determining how cells interact to produce complex outcomes during development. Finally, at the organism level, we are asking how the naturally occurring interactions among microbes, plants and animals shape their genomes. The institute is therefore uniquely poised to provide interdisciplinary training.

The FML is part of the Max Planck Campus and hosts independent junior research laboratories working on different biological topics. These include homologous recombination during meiosis, pattern formation in vertebrate embryos, and molecular mechanisms influencing adaptive divergence, reproductive isolation and ecological speciation. The groups use a variety of methods in biophysics, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, genomics and animal transgenics.

The IFIB is a joint institute of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tübingen. Key research topics include the role of processes dysfunctional in illnesses and stress. Overall, research themes extend from the structural analysis of pathogen-host cell interaction, mRNA localization and translational control, mitochondrial biogenesis, cell death and survival of tumor cells and parasites, to studies of cellular signaling using mouse models.

Research at the IZB focuses on the areas of molecular cell biology (cell cycle, autophagy), genome and proteome biology and cell biology of developmental biological systems. As part of the IMPRS faculty at the IZB, the Macek group focuses on quantitative proteomics approaches based on stable isotope labeling and mass spectrometry. The Macek group is applying this technology to a range of biomedical topics, such as the impact of point mutations on signaling in cancer, the influence of the gut microbiome on neuroinflammation in autism spectrum disorders, and the role of bacterial S/T/Y kinases in the Persistence. The Proikas-Cezanne group is focused on understanding the role of human WIPI beta-propellers in autophagy, cancer and neurodegeneration using human cell lines, human patient-derived primary fibroblasts, iPSCs and iNeurons. Furthermore, C. elegans is used to study autophagy and lifespan extension.
 

The IMIT was founded in 2009, merging the Institute for Microbiology (Faculty of Science) and the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (Faculty of Medicine) and is the first institute of its kind in Germany. Core research areas at the IMIT include microbial physiology (particularly research on microbial growth, adaptations and maintenance of viability), antimicrobial agents (particularly the biosynthesis and mechanisms of action of novel natural product antibiotics) and the biology/medicine of bacterial infections (particularly pathogenicity and microbiome colonization by bacterial pathogens). The IMIT is central to the Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections”.

The ZMPB is a joint cooperation between the Department of Biology and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science of the University of Tübingen. The ZMBP is a leading center for plant molecular research. It hosts several senior and junior research groups that investigate basic cellular and developmental processes in plants. These include the role of small RNAs in development and environmental responses, the role of receptor protein kinases in plant immunity and pathogen recognition, and signal transduction in adaptive responses to environmental stress.

The IBMI at the University of Tübingen brings together all research groups whose focus is on bioinformatics or medical informatics. The IBMI is a joint institute of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine and tightly connected to the University Hospital, the local Max Planck Institutes, and the Cyber Valley. Research at the IBMI covers a broad spectrum of topics from Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, and comprises both the development of new methods and their application to problems in the corresponding research domains. Bioinformatics research especially covers genomics/metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, immunomics, phylogeny, structural bioinformatics, and systems biology. Established in 1998, the bioinformatics curriculum at University of Tübingen was the first of its kind in Germany.