Welcome to the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics!

Welcome to the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics!

We study the structure and function of proteins which regulate vital cellular processes using a wide methodological repertoire including advanced light and electron microscopy and as well as computational biology.

Our Research


Werner Kühlbrandt – Structural Biology
Gerhard Hummer – Theoretical Biophysics
Ana J. García-Sáez
Ulrich Ermler – Enzyme Mechanism
Martin Beck – Molecular Sociology
Ernst Bamberg – The Functional Analysis of Electrogenic Membrane Proteins
Eugene Kim – Structure and Dynamics of Chromosomes
Melanie McDowell – Membrane Protein Biogenesis
Hartmut Michel – Molecular Membrane Biology
Bonnie Murphy – Redox and Metalloproteins
Beata Turoňová – Image Processing
Florian Wilfling – Mechanisms of Cellular Quality Control

Overview

Scientific Facilities


Sonja Welsch – Electron Microscopy
Julian Langer – Mass Spectrometry
https://brain.mpg.de/imaging

News

The effect of removing a component from the nuclear pore complex<br> 

The effect of removing a component from the nuclear pore complex 

Research News
Removing a single component from the large nuclear pore complex has surprising effects during cell differentiation
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Silhouette of a hand holding an orange protein model, superimposed over a faint skull-like shape in the background. The composition evokes a Hamlet-like existential scene.

Necroptosis Regulation: Balancing Life and Death

Research News
A new study reveals the dual role of MLKL in necroptosis, paving the way for new treatments for inflammatory diseases.
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Understand what we do

Understand what we do

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Meet us

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Work with us

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Latest Publications

1.
Bukhdruker, S.; Gushchin, I.; Shevchenko, V.; Kovalev, K.; Polovinkin, V.; Tsybrov, F.; Astashkin, R.; Alekseev, A.; Mikhaylov, A.; Bukhalovich, S. et al.; Bratanov, D.; Ryzhykau, Y.; Kuklina, D.; Caramello, N.; Rokitskaya, T.; Antonenko, Y.; Rulev, M.; Stoev, C.; Zabelskii, D.; Round, E.; Rogachev, A.; Borshchevskiy, V.; Ghai, R.; Bourenkov, G.; Zeghouf, M.; Cherfils, J.; Engelhard, M.; Chizhov, I.; Rodriguez-Valera, F.; Bamberg, E.; Gordeliy, V.: Proteorhodopsin insights into the molecular mechanism of vectorial proton transport. Science Advances 11 (16), eadu5303 (2025)
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2.
Ros, U.; Martinez-Osorio, V.; Valiente, P. A.; Abdelwahab, Y.; Gojkovic, M.; Shalaby, R.; Zanna, S.; Saggau, J.; Wachsmuth, L.; Nemade, H. N. et al.; Zoeller, J.; Lottermoser, H.; Chen, Y.-G.; Ibrahim, M.; Kelepouras, K.; Vasilikos, L.; Bedoya, P.; Espiritu, R. A.; Müller, S.; Altmannova, V.; Tieleman, D. P.; Weir, J.; Langer, J. D.; Adam, M.; Walczak, H.; Wong, W. W.-L.; Liccardi, G.; Mollenhauer, M.; Pasparakis, M.; Peltzer, N.; García-Sáez, A. J.: MLKL activity requires a splicing-regulated, druggable intramolecular interaction. Molecular Cell 85 (2025)
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3.
Zaghbani, S.; Faber, L.; Garcia Saez, A. J.: Convolutional Neural Network approach to classify mitochondrial morphologies. Computational Biology and Chemistry 118, 108477 (2025)
MPG.PuRe
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4.
Cook, A. S. I.; Chen, M.; Nguyen, T. N.; Cabezudo, A. C.; Khuu, G.; Rao, S.; Garcia, S. N.; Yang, M.; Iavarone, A. T.; Ren, X. et al.; Lazarou, M.; Hummer, G.; Hurley, J. H.: Structural pathway for PI3-kinase regulation by VPS15 in autophagy. Science 388 (6743), eadl3787 (2025)
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DOI

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