Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)

The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), founded in 1998, is one of 80 institutes of theMax Planck Society, an independent, non-profit organization in Germany.

"How do cells form tissues?" has been and still is the question that researchers at MPI-CBG are tackling from different angles. Molecular cell biologists provide insight into basic processes of cellular life and organization. Developmental biologists and geneticists place these functions into the context of tissue development in different model organisms like zebrafish, Drosophila, C. elegans, or mouse. The MPI-CBG has also invested extensively in Services and Facilities to allow research scientists shared access to sophisticated and expensive technologies. The Scientist voted the MPI-CBG the number one place in the world in academia and the number one place in the world to do a postdoc. The institute was named the "Most family-friendly company in Dresden" in 2012. The MPI-CBG is member of DRESDEN-concept, a research alliance of the Technische Universität Dresden together with the major non-university partners and culture institutions in Dresden.

We maintain our fundamental scientific question: how do cells form tissues? More generally, we are interested in how the morphology of cells and tissues emerge from the interactions between individual molecules and cells. Key questions we are interested in are the molecular principles underlying morphogenesis, such as regulation of size and shape. Importantly, we want our research programs to span multiple scales of magnitude. We will continue working on size and shape at any of the scales or organizational levels from molecular assemblies, to organelles, cells, tissues, organs and organisms. New research group leaders are selected on the basis of their fit to the overall multi-scale research of the Institute, to maintain some proportion between the different scales covered. Ultimately, our goal is to take a multi-scale approach to link tissue level organizational principles to molecular activity. We are prepared to consider any animal system that amplifies a particular piece of biology and offers particular opportunities and/or is easy to study. The institute will develop new technologies necessary to realize these goals.

Nearly 400 scientists from 45 nations work at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. Each and every one is asking the same question: How do cells form tissues and then, from there, organisms Watch MPI-CBG's introduction movie with fascinating sequences from the labs and with statements from the directors - what makes the atmosphere so inspiring and the MPI-CBG so special?