Press Releases of the MPI-NAT

About 90 girls and boys get to know different areas of work at our institute. more

Markus Zweckstetter, research group leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases Göttingen and at our institute, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. He will use the approximately 2.5 million euros to research the biomolecular mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s disease. (Press release by the DZNE) more

For life on Earth, it is essential that plants carry out photosynthesis and produce oxygen and chemical energy with the help of sunlight. Researchers have now succeeded for the first time in visualizing the copying machine of chloroplasts, the RNA polymerase PEP, in high-resolution 3D.  more

Lipids play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's dementia. However, more details about this process were previously unknown. A team of scientists from Göttingen, Jülich, and Düsseldorf has now determined the atomic structures of lipid-fibril complexes for the first time. (in German) more

The new building will provide space for three departments and replace Tower 6, which is in need of refurbishment. Preparatory work is currently underway to set up the construction site. The actual construction phase is scheduled to begin in November 2024 and be completed by July 2027. The Max Planck Society will cover the costs of around 34 million euros for the new building. more

The waste system of living cells, the proteasome, not only shreds disused or damaged proteins. It also supports the immune system in recognizing virally infected or cancerous cells by producing so-called immunopeptides. Researchers headed by Juliane Liepe have now simulated protein degradation by the proteasome in the laboratory and identified peptides thereby produced. In future, the resulting data could help predict immunopeptides and develop new vaccines against infectious diseases or cancer. more

A team led by Sonja Lorenz has visualized the cell’s labeling machine, the ubiquitin ligase HACE1, bound to an important target protein in full length in 3D. The researchers were thus able to uncover important mechanisms of how HACE1 recognizes its target proteins and how this process is regulated. more