Meissner

Protein analysis is becoming an increasingly important tool on the road towards personalized medicine. The method of choice for this purpose is mass spectrometry. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have developed a new labelling method for proteins called EASI-Tag. The new method makes it possible to analyze multiple samples at the same time using conventional mass spectrometers. Unlike earlier approaches, EASI-Tag is able to detect quantitative differences between samples extremely accurately. The method has now been presented in the scientific journal Nature Methods. more

“Macrophages are real chatterboxes” 

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – nowadays, good social networking and communication is more important than ever. The immune system also resembles a large social network, as shown by Felix Meissner and his team in the Experimental System Immunology Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried. With the help of proteomics they deciphered the messages exchanged between immune cells responsible for protecting us  against diseases. In doing so, they have discovered complex cellular communication structures and previously unknown connections between various cell types. Their research findings were published in the journal Nature Immunology. more

When pathogens such as bacteria or viruses invade the human body, different immune cells must work together and coordinate their defense strategies with each other. Using newly developed proteomics technologies, scientists of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have now comprehensively detected the messenger proteins secreted by immune cells during such an immune response. “Our method enables an analysis of the information exchange between cells and provides a powerful tool to understand the language of our immune system in the context of disease,” said Felix Meissner, scientist at the MPI of Biochemistry. The results of the study, which was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the MPI for Infection Biology in Berlin, have now been published in Science. more