The nucleolus is a well-known cellular structure that is easily visible under a light microscope. This nuclear structure is known as the site of ribosome production. In a recent study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, have shown that the nucleolus is also a site of quality control for proteins. When cells are stressed, proteins tend to misfold and to aggregate. To prevent proteins from clumping, some are temporarily stored in the nucleolus. The special biophysical conditions found in this organelle prevent harmful protein aggregation. The results of this study have now been published in the journal Science. [more]

The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry mourn the death of their colleague, biochemist Prof. Dr. Walter Neupert, who passed away on 22 June aged 79 years. Walter Neupert worked at the Institute from 2008 to 2017 as a Max Planck Fellow. Inter alia, he was awarded the Ernst Jung Medal in gold and the “Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst” in honor of his outstanding achievements in the field of the biology of mitochondria. “Walter Neupert was an exceptional scientist with a fine sense of how cells function”, says MPIB Director F.-Ulrich Hartl, a former student of Walter Neupert. “The research community have lost a highly-valued mentor and colleague.” [more]

The biophysicist has revolutionized molecular structural biology with the help of cryo-electron tomography. [more]

The European Patent Office has nominated scientist Matthias Mann from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry as one of the three finalists in the field of research. The Inventors' Award is presented in five categories to individual inventors and teams whose developments contribute to finding technological solutions to the most important challenges of our time. The winners will be awarded on June 20, 2019 in Vienna. [more]

F.-Ulrich Hartl, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, and Arthur Horwich of Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute were named winners of the 2019 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. Selected by an independent committee of world-renowned scientists, Hartl and Horwich won for their revolutionary insights into chaperone-mediated protein folding. Hartl expresses his delight to have been selected as one of the winners of the Dr. Paul Janssen Award. “This is a fantastic honor and recognition of the work of my laboratory”, he says. The award includes a $200,000 prize and will be presented at ceremonies in the USA and Belgium in September. [more]

The protein composition of cells depends on the cells’ function and current condition. Mass spectrometry (MS) can determine the identity and quantity of the proteins found in a sample. However, the data analysis of this method is time- and resource-intensive. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) have collaborated with data science specialists from Verily in the USA to develop a machine learning approach – continuously self-improving algorithms – to facilitate the analysis of mass spectrometry data. Their results, which simplify MS applications and also led to the discovery of new chemical patterns in proteins, are published in the journal Nature Methods. [more]

Brenda Schulman, head of the department "Molecular Machines and Signaling" at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, receives the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine 2019 together with the neurobiologist Gary R. Lewin from Berlin. The prize money of 300,000 euros is shared equally. Brenda Schulman receives the award in recognition and continuation of her groundbreaking work on the mechanisms of ubiquitin transfer at the atomic level. The Ernst Jung Prize will be awarded today in Hamburg. [more]