Press Releases

Holger Stark and his team have broken a crucial resolution barrier in cryo electron microscopy. The scientists succeeded in observing single atoms in a protein structure and taking the sharpest images ever with this method. Such unprecedented details are essential to understand how proteins perform their work or cause diseases in the living cell. The technique can in future also be used to develop active compounds for new drugs. more

With this award, the university honors Reinhard Lührmann's pioneering work in spliceosome research. Spliceosomes are molecular "cutting tables" that bring the building instructions for proteins - the tools of living cells - into a readable form. (in German) more

Sufficiently small systems warm up faster than they cool down. Aljaz Godec and Allesio Lapolla have now mathematically proven this unforeseen asymmetry. They have shown that the counterplay of potential energy and entropy in the system, which warms up, is less of an obstacle on return to thermodynamic equilibrium.  more

Six top researchers, six current topics in medicine, social and natural sciences – that is what this year's lecture series Wissenschaft beim Göttinger Literaturherbst offers. The lectures will take place from October 23 to November 1 at 7 pm as usual in the Historical Hall of the Paulinerkirche – but as purely online events. (in German) more

The European Research Council has been awarded about 1.5 million euros funding to Stefan Glöggler and Juliane Liepe at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry. This year, 3272 junior researcher applied for the ERC Starting Grants, 436 of them succeeded in the competition for the best research projects.
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Bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics with the result that these drugs no longer work. Particularly problematic are pathogens which develop multi-drug resistance and are unaffected by most antibiotics. Scientists world-wide therefore search for new classes of antibiotics. Scientists from Göttingen have now presented a new promising approach to using antivitamins as a therapeutic alternative to conventional antibiotics. more

Every year, the Max Planck Society awards the Apprenticeship Prize to the best trainees at its 86 institutes and research facilities. This year, Lukas Munser of the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry was honored for his outstanding professional and academic achievements as well as his personal development.
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In an initial application of the powerful MINFLUX nanoscopy technique to cell biology, researchers led by Stefan Hell and Stefan Jakobs have now optically dissected the distribution of individual proteins in a ~ 20-nanometer-sized protein cluster within a cellular organelle in 3D using multiple colors. MINFLUX nanoscopy thus proves to be an extremely powerful tool to find out if and how proteins group inside the cell, at the length scale of the proteins themselves.  more

It looks like a giant thermos flask and weighs eight tons. Not only because of that is the new 1.2 GHz spectrometer a heavy weight in the worldwide science community: With its magnetic field strength, it sets new standards in high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy: 28.2 Tesla –almost 600,000 times stronger than the earth´s magnetic field. Presently, there are only three of these high tech instruments; in addition to Florence and Zurich, there is now one in Göttingen at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry. more

The power plants of our cell – the mitochondria – consist of a smooth outer membrane and a highly folded inner membrane. However, what shapes the inner membrane remains a mystery. A team of scientists from Göttingen has now used state-of-the-art microscopy methods to gain new insights into how the inner membrane is folded. This could help to better understand some diseases of the nervous system and the muscular apparatus. more

Gražvydas Lukinavičius and his team have succeeded to improve fluorescent dyes in a way that they are compatible with living cells. By combining these new dyes with 3D-STED microscopy, the research group visualized tiny structures of the cytoskeleton with a diameter of only 23 nanometers. more

Karl Bertram and Chun So of the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry and Fabian Jan Schwarzendahl of the MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization received the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal. Only a few of the 30 laureates receive the Otto Hahn Award additionally. This year, Chun So is one of them.
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