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


Ernst Bamberg – The Functional Analysis of Electrogenic Membrane Proteins
Martin Beck – Molecular Sociology
Ulrich Ermler – Enzyme Mechanism
Ana J. García-Sáez
Gerhard Hummer – Theoretical Biophysics
Werner Kühlbrandt – Structural Biology
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


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

News

3D animation of a ribosome attached to SND3 on the ER surface. The backgroud of the illustration shows heat marks, referencing the hot environment in which Chaeomium thermofilum thrives.

SNDing Proteins into the Membrane

October 29, 2025

Research News
Recent structural study reveals a new route for membrane protein insertion in fungi.
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Symposium on Cellular Biophysics, September 2025, IMPRS logo in scientific structures.

Symposium on Cellular Biophysics September 2025

Events
On the occasion of the annual program start for new PhD students, our graduate program – the IMPRS on Cellular Biophysics – organizes a versatile symposium on research topics from the field of…
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Drawing of two hands approaching each other to pass something. One of the hands is holding a small transparent ball. A round light illuminates the hands from the background, surrounded by surrounding shadow.

Visualizing the Main Gate into Mitochondria

July 21, 2025

Research News
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics have determined a high-resolution structure of the main gate into mitochondria using cryoEM.
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Latest Publications

1.
Rosenkranz, N.; Birtasu, A. N.; Wieland, K.; Rehm, L.; Sharma, R.; Vats, A.; Manger, S.; Srivastava, A.; Bhattacharya, A.; Hummer, G. et al.; Frangakis, A. S.; Gottschalk, A.: In situ structure of a gap junction-stomatin complex. Science Advances 11 (45), eaea8596 (2025)
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2.
Glushkova, D.; Böhm, S.; Beck, M.: Systematic membrane thickness variation across cellular organelles revealed by cryo-ET. Journal of Cell Biology 225 (1), e202504053 (2025)
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3.
Sanchez Carrillo, I. B.; Hoffmann, P. C.; Obarska-Kosinska, A.; Fourcassié, V.; Beck, M.; Germain, H.: In situ architecture of the nuclear pore complex of the higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature Plants (2025)
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4.
Yang, T.-J.; Mukherjee, S.; Langer, J. D.; Hummer, G.; McDowell, M. A.: SND3 is the membrane insertase within a distinct SEC61 translocon complex. Nature Communications 16, 9566 (2025)
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