Thianthrenium chemistry allows for reactivity switch of a nucleophilic amino acid into a versatile intermediate

Useful and broadly applicable tool in the field of chemical biology

03-Jan-2024 - Chemical diversification of proteins is an important concept in the study of biological processes and the complex structures of the proteins themselves. It involves using quick and mild reactions that selectively target a specific amino acid and therefore a building block of proteins. Cysteine is ...

First step towards synthetic CO2 fixation in living cells

Three modules forming a new-to-nature CO2 fixation cycle successfully implemented in E.coli

29-Dec-2023 - Synthetic biology offers the opportunity to build biochemical pathways for the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2). Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology have developed a synthetic biochemical cycle that directly converts CO2 into the central building ...

Tobias Erb receives the Leibniz Award 2024

Innovative, interdisciplinary research approach opens up new possibilities for developing technologies to address the global climate crisis

11-Dec-2023 - Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Professor at the University of Marburg, has been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Leibniz Prize is the most important research award in Germany and ...

Electricity driving life

Using a metabolic pathway, energy-rich resources can be produced via the power of electricity

18-Aug-2023 - When nature performs chemical reactions to create energy-rich compounds from simple molecules, it requires energy. So far, it has not been possible to use human-made electricity to drive these biochemical processes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg ...

Ice-free in icy worlds: Special shell protects scallop from ice build-up

Airplane wings that don't ice up or solar cells that generate electricity even in winter - ice-free surfaces are important for many applications

07-Mar-2022 - A team of scientists led by Konrad Meister, professor at the University of Alaska Southeast and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, has now studied an Antarctic scallop species that opposes the icing process with the help of its shell surface. Due to their special ...

New Max Planck Institute in Göttingen Combines Natural and Medical Sciences

Largest institute in the Max Planck Society

05-Jan-2022 - The Göttingen-based Max Planck Institutes (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry and Experimental Medicine have merged as of January 1, 2022. This will establish a new MPI, the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. It will cover a much broader spectrum of research, thus promoting ...

Here comes the long-sought-after iron-munching microbe

26-Oct-2016 - A microbe that ‘eats’ both methane and iron: microbiologists have long suspected its existence, but were not able to find it - until now. Researchers at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen discovered a microorganism that couples the reduction of iron ...

Photons led astray

22-Feb-2010 - Life would sometimes be so much easier if we were quantum particles. For example, if we were trying to find our way out of a strange town allowing chance telling us which way to go at every intersection. As objects of classical physics, this would mean becoming more and more lost in the centre of ...

Enzyme design with remote effects

Chemists in Mülheim devise a new way of optimising enzymes for industrial applications

17-Feb-2010 - Engineers are unlikely to tinker with the cooling system if they want to increase the size of an engine. Yet chemists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research have adopted an approach similar to this in their efforts to optimise an enzyme for practical applications. They substituted two ...

Chaperones for climate protection

The protein Rubisco locks up carbon dioxide

15-Jan-2010 - The World Climate Conference recently took place. Reports about carbon dioxide levels, rising temperatures and melting glaciers appear daily. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry and the Gene Center of Ludwig Maximilians University Munich have now succeeded in rebuilding ...