Max Planck Society
- Entrance of the Max Planck Society Headquarter in Munich
The Max Planck Institute for Brain Research is one of 80 research institutes and facilities of the Max Planck Society (German acronym: MPG) for the Advancement of Science, which was founded in 1948 to succeed the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The MPG is an independent, non-profit research organization at the service of the public, with more than 760 supporting, honorary, ex officio and active scientific members. The latter are the directors of the Max Planck Institutes and research facilities comprising approximately 14,300 employees, including scientists, student assistants, fellows of the International Max Planck Research Schools, doctoral and postdoctoral students, research fellows and visiting scientists (as of January 1, 2010). Although the MPG is funded to a large extent by the federal and state governments, it is not a governmental institution but a registered association (German acronym: e.V.) with its legal seat located in Berlin. The office of the President and the Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society are located in Munich. The primary goal of the MPG is to promote research at its own institutes.
The individual institutes perform their scientific research freely and independently. Research topics cover the fields of natural and life sciences (Section of Biology and Medicine, Section of Chemistry, Physics and Technology), social sciences and humanities (Section of Humanities). In particular, the institutes of the Max Planck Society explore new and innovative research areas that are not -or not yet- covered at German universities. Therefore, the MPG recruits outstanding scientists from all over the world who redefine the research areas at existing institutes or even promote the creation of new institutes as the needs arise. Scientists within the MPG benefit from the excellent working conditions at the individual institutes and enjoy great freedom in the design of their research.
The outcome of the research work from the Max Planck Institutes is published each year in more than 12,000 peer-reviewed scientific articles, books, conference reports and other publications. As a result of this excellent record, the Max Planck Society is the second most-cited institution worldwide (Source: Essential Science Indicators, 03/11).
Latest News
| 09.05.2012 |
Think Global, Act local: new roles for protein synthesis at synapsesHow do we build a memory in the brain? It is well known that for animals (and humans) new proteins are needed to establish long-term memories. During learning information is stored at the synapses, the junctions connecting nerve cells. Synapses also require new proteins in order to show changes in their strength (synaptic plasticity). Historically, scientists have focused on the cell body as the place where the required proteins are synthesized. However, in recent years there has been increasing focus on the dendrites and axons (the compartments that meet to form synapses) as a potential site for protein synthesis. Protein synthesis machines have been observed there as well as a limited number of their templates, the messenger RNA molecules. The limited number of mRNAs observed in dendrites and axons placed constraints on the constellation of proteins that could be synthesized to help synapses work and change. Researchers from Erin Schuman's lab at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Brain Research used new-generation sequencing to directly identify a very large number (over 2500) of new mRNA molecules that are present at the axons and dendrites. Using high-resolution imaging techniques they were able to both quantify and visualize individual mRNA molecules. They published their findings in the latest issue of Neuron. |
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| 27.01.2012 |
Erin Schuman receives an ERC Advanced Grant to study the fundamentals of synaptic plasticityProf. Erin Schuman, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research is one of the seven Max Planck Directors who receives this prestigious grant. These grants, for exceptional research leaders, are a special program of the ERC designed to fund ambitious, pioneering and unconventional science. In the latest round (2011) the European Commission received 2009 applications but made only 266 awards, adding up to 590 million Euro. |
| 27.01.2012 |
New mechanistic insights into adaptive learningThe brain is a fantastically complex and mysterious device, too large and with too many internal connections to be entirely programmable genetically. Its internal connectivity must therefore self-organize, based on the one hand on genetically regulated biases and on experience and learning on the other. The brain can change its internal connectivity based, for example, on correlations between the inputs it receives and the consequences of actions associated with those inputs, in a phenomenon we generally call associative learning. There are, in our daily life, numerous examples of this type of learning; its consequence is that a smell or a tune on the radio can trigger memories from the past, which lay dormant for some time. “Such a recall — to a smell, sound, taste, or any other sensory stimulus — is evidence of associative learning, and what interested us here was to understand the tricks used by the brain to make these associations specific”, says Gilles Laurent, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. |
| 18.01.2012 |
Visit Korean delegationOn January 12, 2012 a delegation of the Republic of Korea visited the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. |
| 06.12.2011 |
Scientists at the MPI for Brain Research visualize new protein synthesis in zebrafishThe newly synthesized proteins can be labeled in intact organisms via metabolic incorporation of non-canonical amino acids. |
