The Walter Benjamin Program of the DFG enables early-career postdoctoral researchers with outstanding qualifications to independently pursue their own independent research project at a location of their choice. The funding of the program, which is named after the philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), provides funding for up to two years.

The goal of the funded project is to understand how blood vessels influence the spatial organization and maturation of pancreatic tissue in humans. Using advanced imaging, computational analysis, and gene expression profiling, Julie hopes to identify the signals that coordinate ductal structure formation and determine how proximity to blood vessels affects cell behavior and differentiation. This research could provide fundamental insights into the development of human organs and, in the long run, enhance approaches in tissue engineering, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine, especially for diseases like diabetes and pancreatic disorders, by uncovering the principles governing the co-development of vascular and epithelial networks.

After my PhD, I wanted to challenge myself by moving into a completely different research area, and joining the Grapin-Botton lab gave me that opportunity. I’ve now been here for a year and have really enjoyed learning this new field, so I’m very happy that the Walter Benjamin Fellowship will allow me to continue this journey and develop my own research direction.
- Julie Warin

To find this out, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Biotechnology Center of the TU Dresden (BIOTEC) and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD) teamed up. In their study, published in Nature Cell Biology, they combined super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) imaging of bifunctional membrane lipids with mathematical modeling. STED microscopy is a fluorescence microscopy technique that overcomes the diffraction limit of light microscopy and creates super-resolution images by deactivating selected fluorophores. Bifunctional lipids (lipids that carry two chemical modifications) are tools to visualize lipids within cells by microscopy techniques such as STED.

The first author of the study, Mathilda Lennartz, a former postdoc in the group of André Nadler at MPI-CBG, says,

We looked at ten different lipid species and compared their uptake by clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Some of the lipids were slightly more selected to be transported into the cell than others. We found that this effect was mostly due to the way lipids are arranged in the membrane. Some lipids prefer to face the inside of the cell whereas others accumulate on the outside. This asymmetry together with the shape of the plasma membrane invaginations ultimately causes a small uptake preference for lipids facing the inner side of the membrane.

The supervising authors, André Nadler and Alf Honigmann (BIOTEC), explain the finding,

We observed that the amount of lipids transported is determined by their asymmetric distribution in the membrane. However, the differences in uptake we measured for different lipids are still very small. We therefore think the cell actually uses clathrin-mediated endocytosis to mainly sort proteins rather than lipids, while lipids are sorted by pathways such as non-vesicular transport routes. This allows the cell to separate two processes that are already logistically very complicated: the sorting of proteins and the sorting of lipids.

This new method to quantify lipids in complex cell structures and combine super-resolution STED imaging and mathematical modeling will help scientists better understand how membranes are organized and how lipids move throughout the cell.

The program welcomed 16 exceptional mathematics bachelor's and master's students from 15 institutions and 14 nationalities. Together, they worked on nine research projects spanning topics such as graphical models, game theory, phylogenetics, and likelihood geometry, designed by a team of three organizers, six mentors, and six research assistants. The opening week set the stage with lectures and exercise sessions led by the organizers, giving students the foundational tools and context needed to hit the ground running. From there, the school shifted into full research mode. Students worked intensively alongside their mentors, attended talks by guest researchers, and presented their progress in weekly seminars, learning not only how to do research but also how to communicate it. Feedback flowed freely between students, mentors, and guests, fostering a true spirit of scientific community.

The school was organized by Benjamin Hollering and Irem Portakal (both MPI MiS), together with Aida Maraj (MPI-CBG). The participants from both institutes embodied the spirit of cross-institutional collaboration, making the program a shared success between the two Max Planck Institutes.

Local organizer Aida Maraj reflects on the experience:

We as organizers are very proud. We had the privilege of working with such a dedicated team of mentors and students. The school offered an intense and real taste of what research life is like. All groups made meaningful progress on their projects and are continuing that work after the school ended, with plans to develop their results into papers or master's theses.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who made these six weeks special: the organizers, mentors, and administrative staff – and above all, the students, whose curiosity, enthusiasm, and hard work were the heart of it all.

More information on the website of the event: https://sites.google.com/view/aidamaraj/dresdendir

The team assembled the largest collection of high-quality bat genomes to date, covering 103 species and representing every one of the currently recognized 21 bat families. “We combined state-of-the-art DNA sequencing and computational methods to generate and compare these genomes and identify the genes they contain,” says Michael Hiller, senior author at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt and Alumni at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG). The researchers combined them with 44 fossil bats from across the globe to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the world's only flying mammals.

In total 103 bat species were analyzed, including 42 new chromosome-level genome assemblies representing 41 distinct species. The Sequencing Facility at MPI-CBG and the DRESDEN-concept Genome Center sequenced and assembled 30 of the 42 new genomes. MPI-CBG Alumni Michael Hiller and Eugene Myers were involved in the study.  

It was amazing to get in touch with field biologists, sample curators and bat experts and to learn about the specific habitats, features and power of bats. As technologists, it was our job to implement state-of-the-art sequencing technologies to generate almost complete genome assemblies that allow this fantastic analysis.
- Sylke Winkler, head of the Sequencing Facility at MPI-CBG

Building this dataset required samples collected over decades from bats across the world, including representatives of some of the rarest and most unusual bat families, found in the most remote locations.

The fossil evidence also provides important clues about another long-standing mystery: when bats first evolved echolocation. The placement of the fossil bat Vielasia within the oldest branch of the bat family tree indicates that echolocation predates the diversification of modern bats. The finding suggests that two of the defining characteristics of bat biology, echolocation and powered flight, were established near the origin of the group itself, helping explain the extraordinary evolutionary success of bats over the subsequent 65 million years.

This study provides answers to many long-standing questions. The team analyzed these genomes and fossils using novel methods and revised the bat evolutionary tree, resolving several long-running debates about how the major bat groups are related.

“Bats constantly surprise us. They are one of evolution’s greatest experiments. This extraordinary genomic resource, the culmination of years of international cooperation of Bat1K, is finally allowing us to understand how their remarkable biology evolved,” says Sonja Vernes, University of St Andrews, Bat1K co-founding director and senior author.

About Bat1K 
The Bat1K consortium is an international initiative working to generate and analyse reference-quality genome assemblies for all living bat species. This study represents Phase 1 of the project. See more at www.bat1k.com

Press Release of the University of St Andrews

Carolyn Kirschner (left) and Rita Mateus (right) discuss the film. © Kostas Margitudis / MPI-CBG

The film was screened at MPI-CBG on September 15th, followed by a discussion with Carolyn Kirschner and Rita Mateus, a research group leader at MPI-CBG and the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL). Kirschner's film follows the zebrafish through various locations - from research labs to pet shops, server rooms, and its natural habitat in India - bringing artistic inquiry into dialogue with perspectives from "Physics of Life" research. At MPI-CBG, Carolyn worked together with Rita Mateus, Ivo Sbalzarini, and Sebastian Bundschuh.

S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology, and Arts), an initiative of the European Commission that promotes exchange and collaboration between arts, science, and technology.

The film is part of the exhibition “Thinking. Together. Who is actually part of the research” in the COSMO Science Forum in Dresden from September 15 to November 26, 2026: https://www.cosmo-wissenschaftsforum.de/

S+T+ARTS Ec(h)o Residency of Carolyn Kirschner: https://tu-dresden.de/kustodie/projekte/art-science-1/s-t-arts-echo-residency/carolyn-kirschner?set_language=en

Likewise, the PhD program of the institute, the International Max Planck Research School, has been adapting over the years. The new name, IMPRS Bio-MAP—International Max Planck Research School for Biology, Mathematics, AI, and Physics, reflects the continued evolution of the doctoral program and the uniquely interdisciplinary character of the institute The goal of the name change was that every intern, doctoral researcher, and research group leader sees themselves represented in the name of their doctoral school.

The current PhD call is now open for applicants! We are looking forward to new young scientists from biology, maths, physics, and everywhere in-between for the IMPRS Bio-MAP community.

Apply now!

The bioimaging community is increasingly converging on OME-Zarr as a standard for storing, sharing, and visualizing imaging data. OME-Zarr is an open, cloud-ready format that stores large microscopy images as chunked, multi-resolution data with respective metadata so that tools can read parts of a dataset without loading it all. While some tools already provide strong support, others are still in the early stages of adoption.

Stefan Hahmann, one of the hackathon organizers and software engineer in the group of Pavel Tomancak at MPI-CBG, says, “Microscopy data should not be locked into the tool it was created with. OME-Zarr aims to give the community a common format, and this week in Dresden is about making sure the implementations are closing the gaps to the written specifications. It is a fantastic opportunity: the developer community around Fiji/Java meets the Python side and the authors of the OME-Zarr specification, all in one room for a full week of moving the tools forward.”

Vladimír Ulman, co-organizer of the hackathon and researcher at CEITEC, Brno and IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, Ostrava, says, “A hackathon like this is hard to replace with online meetings, and we are very thankful to MPI-CBG and CSBD for hosting us in Dresden. The work we are doing this week on OME-Zarr and its accompanying tools enables fast and energy-efficient image processing—a major focus in my supercomputing work. Meeting here in Dresden makes this even better, as it significantly reduces our collective travel carbon footprint.”

The hackathon is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, by CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology in Brno, Czech Republic, and by German BioImaging – Gesellschaft für Mikroskopie und Bildanalyse e.V. (GerBI-GMB e.V.). 

Foundation and location: The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) was officially founded January 1, 1998. Dresden was chosen as the location for the new institute since the TUD Dresden University of Technology had a strong technical and engineering focus, and MPI-CBG could only benefit from it. The new research building was raised in record time – less than two years from groundbreaking to moving in on 22 January 2001.

Hub for interdisciplinary biological research: A key asset of MPI-CBG is a profound understanding of how to foster effective interdisciplinary research in the life sciences. Building on the institute’s success of combining physics with biology, the new portfolio includes mathematics and artificial intelligence.

2-day-celebration: The program for the anniversary festivities on August 24 and 25 includes an official ceremony with the Minister President of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer; the President of the Max Planck Society, Patrick Cramer; the State Secretary at the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture, and Tourism, Heike Graßmann; current and former MPI-CBG directors, and many more.

The MPI-CBG is celebrating its 25th anniversary since opening its building in Dresden on January 22, 2001. From the beginning, the institute has made a significant contribution to promoting scientific excellence and innovation and has played a key role in strengthening Dresden and Saxony’s position as an internationally recognized hub for research and discovery. 

After the official foundation on January 1, 1998, MPI-CBG, the four founding directors Wieland Huttner, Anthony Hyman, Kai Simons, and Marino Zerial, initiated the appointment process for a biophysicist as the fifth director and appointed Jonathon Howard from the University of Washington in Seattle. Ivan Baines completed the team in November 1999 and built a central infrastructure for all research groups to have access to the latest technologies. Construction for the new research building began in 1999 on the former tram depot on Pfotenhauerstraße in Dresden. The building was designed by the Finnish architects Heikkinen-Komonen and Henn Architekten from Munich and cost 55 million euros.

"How do cells form tissues?" is the central scientific mission driving research at MPI-CBG. With the goal to understand how emergent properties at the tissue and organ levels arise from molecular and cellular activities. This endeavor requires integration across biological scales, combining molecular and cell biology with biophysical theory, mathematics, and systems-level approaches. Through this multi-scale approach, MPI-CBG seeks to establish links between fundamental cellular processes and the architecture of complex biological structures.

From the beginning, MPI-CBG was planned as a whole new infrastructure forming a biotechnology network, with open interactions between universities, institutes, and industry. In collaboration with the TUD Dresden University of Technology, the „International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering“ was established in April 2001, with spokesperson Wieland Huttner. MPI-CBG was also an integral part of founding DRESDEN-concept in 2010, which was a part of TUD’s application in the Excellence competition. The mission of DRESDEN-concept is to strengthen cooperation among its partner institutions. Over the years, there were six spin-off companies based on research results from MPI-CBG.

The two-day program for the 25th anniversary on August 24 and 25, 2026, features keynote lectures by Elly Tanaka, director at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Vienna Biocenter, and Michael Bronstein, founding director of AITHYRA Research Institute for Biomedical Artificial Intelligence in Vienna. An official ceremony with Saxon Minister President Michael Kretschmer, Max Planck Society President Patrick Cramer, and State Secretary at the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture, and Tourism, Heike Graßmann, takes place on August 24. Both days feature about 130 talks from current and former employees of MPI-CBG.

Prof. Stephan Grill, Managing Director at MPI-CBG
“Our fantastic institute turns 25 years old! The task at the beginning was clear: create a new world-class institute in Dresden with the vision to understand how cells form tissues. We tackled major research questions in molecular, cell, and developmental biology. We built a strong connection to physics and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. Together, these efforts turned us into a lighthouse, transforming research fields and leading the way in many scientific areas. In 2017, we added the Center for Systems Biology Dresden to our campus. In 2018, we made a major shift to organoids. And we keep moving. Living systems generate structure at all scales, and mathematics is essential for unravelling the problem of emergence in cells and tissues and across scales. Twenty-five years in, this institute is at its very best.”

Sebastian Gemkow, Saxon Science Minister
“The MPI-CBG’s 25-year history shows what can be achieved when curious researchers, ambitious ideas, and a strong scientific environment come together. Excellent science requires modern infrastructure, a long-term commitment, and stability. That is why we, as the Free State of Saxony, invest in our universities and research institutions and are committed to making Saxony an attractive location for the best minds from all over the world. Today we are also celebrating our shared commitment to scientific excellence, confident that its full potential will unfold in the future, particularly in basic research.”

Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of Saxony
“The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics is widely known far beyond the borders of Saxony for its excellent basic research. It is renowned for its outstanding work—thanks in part to close interdisciplinary collaboration with other research institutions and universities—and for valuable discoveries that pave the way for innovations in fields such as biomedicine and biotechnology. The institute is a vital part of the scientific ecosystem here in the Free State of Saxony. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this success story. Congratulations on your anniversary!”

Maike Sander combines scientific excellence with outstanding responsibility in scientific leadership and is an important role model for women in science.

Jesse Veenvliet investigates as an early-career scientist  fundamental mechanisms of cell and organ development, opening new perspectives on how complex biological systems emerge.

Annika Zink and Alessandro Prigione demonstrated in their publication in Cell, how patient-derived stem cell models can accelerate the search for treatments for rare diseases. Their research spans iPSC-based disease models, brain organoids, and drug screening extending all the way to the first individualized treatments for patients with Leigh syndrome.

Together, the three award-winning scientists exemplify research that seeks to understand fundamental biology, unlock new possibilities, and ultimately make a tangible difference. The 2026 GSCN awardees will present their research at the GSCN Conference 2026 in Berlin.

The GSCN 2026 Young Investigator Award goes to Jesse Veenvliet of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden.

The GSCN 2026 Hilde Mangold Award goes to Maike Sander of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin.

The GSCN 2026 Publication of the Year Award goes to Annika Zink, Alessandro Prigione, Ole Pless, Markus Schuelke, Annika Wittich, et al. for their publication, “Pluripotent stem-cell-based screening uncovers sildenafil as a mitochondrial disease therapy” published in Cell on March 19, 2026.

About the awardees

Jesse Veenvliet, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, receives the GSCN 2026 Young Investigator Award. With this award, the German Stem Cell Network recognizes an outstanding early-career scientist whose innovative work with stem-cell-based embryo models is helping uncover fundamental principles of embryonic development.

Veenvliet studies how cells organize themselves during early development to pattern and shape the mammalian embryo. His team develops stem cell-based embryo models — three-dimensional cellular systems that make it possible to investigate key developmental processes under controlled laboratory conditions — and uses quantitative approaches to reveal how complex biological organization emerges during embryonic development.

A major contribution of his work has been the development of stem cell-derived trunk-like structures that reproduce key features of the developing embryonic trunk, alongside strategies to identify and control the biological processes underlying phenotypic variation in embryo models, helping to make these systems more reproducible and embryo-like. His group combines developmental and stem cell biology with quantitative imaging, omics, biophysics, and data science to uncover principles that govern the robust formation of the mammalian body plan, focusing on the role of the physiological microenvironment.

Jesse Veenvliet:

Jesse Veenvliet leads a Max Planck Research Group at the MPI-CBG since 2021 and is also associated with the Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence at TU Dresden and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden. In 2025, he was elected to the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. Beyond his research, Veenvliet is actively engaged in public and interdisciplinary discussions about the societal and ethical dimensions of stem-cell-based embryo models and their responsible use.

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Maike Sander, Scientific Director and Chair of the Board of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin receives the GSCN 2026 Hilde Mangold Award. With this award, the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN) honors an internationally outstanding scientist whose research has made major contributions to the understanding of the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells, and who has demonstrated exceptional scientific and institutional leadership.

Through her research, Maike Sander has gained fundamental insights into pancreatic development, beta-cell plasticity, and regenerative strategies for diabetes. A particular focus of her work is understanding how beta cells can be generated from stem cells and how this knowledge can be harnessed for future therapeutic applications.

In addition to her scientific achievements, Sander plays a prominent role in shaping and advancing biomedical research. She is Scientific Director and Chair of the Board of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin and also serves as Vice President of the Helmholtz Association for the research field Health, which brings together the expertise of more than 9,000 researchers and professionals across six Helmholtz Health research centers.

Through her achievements in research and her commitment to scientific leadership, Maike Sander embodies a unique combination of scientific excellence and institutional responsibility. As an accomplished scientist and leader, she is also an important role model for women in science, demonstrating how excellence in research can go hand in hand with taking on responsibility and shaping the future of science.

Maike Sander:

Maike Sander studied medicine at Heidelberg University and completed her scientific training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). After holding positions at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she established an internationally recognized research program on the biology and regeneration of insulin-producing beta cells, she returned to Germany in 2022. Her research has made major contributions to understanding beta-cell development and plasticity and to developing new strategies for beta cell regeneration and the treatment of diabetes. Her scientific achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Humboldt Research Award, the Grodsky Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the 2022 Albert Renold Prize from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. She is a member of several prestigious scientific academies and societies, including the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and EMBO. Since November 2022, she has served as Scientific Director and Chair of the Board of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin. In 2025, Maike Sander also took on the role of Vice President of the Helmholtz Association for the research field Health, where she contributes to shaping the strategic direction of health research across the Helmholtz Association.

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The GSCN 2026 Publication of the Year Award goes to Annika Zink, Alessandro Prigione, Ole Pless, Markus Schuelke, Annika Wittich, et.al. for their 2026 Cell publication, “Pluripotent stem-cell-based screening uncovers sildenafil as a mitochondrial disease therapy”. The study demonstrates how patient-derived stem cell models can accelerate the search for treatments for rare diseases and help translate discoveries from the laboratory toward clinical application.

The research focuses on Leigh syndrome, a severe inherited mitochondrial disorder that typically develops in childhood. There is currently no approved drug treatment for the disease. Research into rare diseases such as Leigh syndrome is particularly challenging because of small patient numbers and suitable disease models.

To overcome these challenges, the international research team generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients and used them to produce neural cells and three-dimensional brain organoids and to test those with more than 5,500 drugs. They identified PDE5 inhibitors and ultimately sildenafil as a particularly promising therapeutic candidate. Its beneficial effects were subsequently confirmed in brain organoids and animal models.

Most notably, the research progressed from stem cell models toward patient treatment. Sildenafil was used on an individual basis in six patients with Leigh syndrome, with the study reporting improvements in motor function and resistance to metabolic crises. Based on these findings, the European Medicines Agency granted sildenafil Orphan Drug Designation, and a multinational placebo-controlled clinical trial is being planned to further assess its safety and efficacy in patients with Leigh syndrome.

With the GSCN 2026 Publication of the Year Award, the GSCN recognizes a study that exemplifies the translational potential of stem cell research: patient-specific cellular models can provide new insights into disease, enable systematic drug discovery, and open new therapeutic avenues for patients with rare and currently difficult-to-treat disorders.

Read the publication "Pluripotent stem-cell-based screening uncovers sildenafil as a mitochondrial disease therapy" in Cell 189(6), 1656–1679.e42, DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2026.02.008.

Further information on the GSCN awards and the award recipients can be found here: www.gscn.org/scientific-resources/german-stem-cell-network-awards

The three GSCN awards each carry a prize of €1,500, and the award recipients will give a presentation as part of the Presidential Symposium at the GSCN Conference in Berlin on Thursday, 10 September 2026.

Her work will focus on understanding the microenvironment within biomolecular condensates, liquid-like droplets within a cell that form without membranes and are used by cells to organize many of their internal processes. Smita aims to investigate how microenvironmental conditions vary within condensates, how they differ across different types, how they are established and maintained, and how they influence protein structure, activity, and ultimately condensate function. To address these questions, she will primarily use fluorescent sensors, which are small-molecule sensors to track specific molecules, building on her expertise in sensor development acquired during her PhD. This technique will be complemented by other orthogonal techniques - measurements that use different physical principles to measure the same property of the same sample in order to reduce bias and uncertainty.

Smita comes from Kolkata (India), and she recently obtained her PhD in chemistry at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. She joined MPI-CBG in March 2026, where she will continue her research for the next two years.
She says,

With a chemistry background, I didn’t have the opportunity so far to explore biological perspectives, but I think it’s important to understand the complexity beyond the chemistry applications, so I decided to shift to the biology field. In the Hyman lab, I am getting this new view, and I am learning a lot. Also, I always lived in big cities, so I like Dresden because it is small, pretty, and everything is nearby.

Congratulations, Smita!

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports researchers from all over the world through the Humboldt Research Fellowship. It enables postdoctoral researchers to conduct long-term research in Germany for 6 to 24 months.

The aim of the Discrete Laplacians workshop was to bring together different research communities that work on the Laplace equations and their many applications, ranging from topology and graph theory to data science and numerical analysis.

Discrete Laplacians appear broadly throughout mathematics and the applied sciences. They are a key concept in connecting continuous methods and theories to their discrete analogs and underlie many of the modern tools in applied mathematics and data analysis, with numerous applications in biology, physics, social sciences, and other disciplines.

The organizers of this workshop included Karel Devriendt (former postdoc in the group of Türkü Özlüm Çelik), Otto Sumray (postdoc in the group of Daniela Egas Santander, Ivo Sbalzarini, and Anne Grapin-Botton), Yu Tian (postdoc in the group of Carl Modes and Anne Grapin-Botton), and Giulio Zucal (postdoc in the group of Türkü Özlüm Çelik and Stephan Grill).

The organizers explain the term “Laplacian” as a reference to the 18th-century French mathematician and scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace. He studied the diffusion of heat and the mathematical properties of the equations that describe this diffusion, which are now called the Laplace equations. In time, these equations turned out to have a much broader applicability beyond just heat diffusion and can be used, for instance, to describe the structure of biological networks or even to analyze the PageRank algorithm that underlies Google’s search engine.

One of the participants said, “The workshop was great because we could have different angles of view on this topic, and the organization was very nice. Looking forward to the next one. Also, Dresden is terrific! I really enjoyed the city center!”

Event website: https://plan.events.mpg.de/event/617/

More upcoming events of the MPI-CBG Math community

Countess Bettina Bernadotte, President of the Council, opened this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which marks its 75th anniversary. “Science is, ultimately, a shared human endeavor, as also mentioned in Alfred Nobel’s will. And that is the reason why our anniversary motto reads: ‘Science Transcending Borders.’ For 75 years, Lindau has shown that curiosity travels farther than borders can draw lines. Science does not ask where we come from. It asks what we can discover together.”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany, addressed participants and guests during the Opening Ceremony on June 28th and said, “As researchers, you are also breaking down barriers between people from different countries and generations, scientific cultures, traditions, and disciplines.”

Ramesh Adakkattil says, “I am incredibly happy and privileged to have attended the 75th Nobel Laureate meeting on the beautiful island of Lindau. I very much enjoyed interacting with Nobel Laureates from across the disciplines of science, learning about their scientific endeavors and life experiences, and also deriving inspiration to pursue a career in science. What was so special to me is the time I spent with the many outstanding and dedicated young scientists from different parts of the world, who all shared a similar passion and excitement for science. I take home that science, by the nature of itself, may not be rewarding every day, but when it does prevail at the end of hard work, perseverance, and careful observation, the good days will feel really good. All we have to do is to believe in the process!”

Since their foundation in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have developed into a unique international scientific forum. The annual meetings provide an opportunity for an exchange between different generations, cultures, and disciplines. Once every year, around 30 Nobel Laureates convene in Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: 600 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The theme of the Lindau Meetings alternates between the three Nobel Prize scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, and physiology and medicine. Every five years an interdisciplinary meeting takes place, while the Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences is held every three years.

Press Release of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Three short, illustrative presentations focused on research at MPI-CBG. In her presentation, Katrin Boes—who grew up in Kaltwasser—explained, among other things, what basic research is and why it is so important. Eric Geertsma's presentation featured a video he created himself to demonstrate what proteins are and how their function contributes to human health and disease—for example, in hearing or how defective proteins can lead to cerebral edema. Ina Hollerer asked in her presentation whether science contradicts itself and used the atomic model to show that science can only ever create models based on the knowledge available at the time and that these models continue to evolve over time.

After the presentations, the guests asked many questions, and there was time for in-depth discussions. Using a microscope, the guests were able to observe the nematode C. elegans. The guests showed great interest not only in the scientific content but also in learning more about how scientists think and work.

Katrin Boes, Ina Hollerer, Eric Geerstma (from left to right). © Evelin Bergmann

“Heimspiel Wissenschaft” was funded by the BMBF as part of the Science Years initiative between 2022 and the end of 2024 as a joint project of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), the science communication agency con gressa GmbH, and the #WisskommLab at Heidelberg University. The project is continuing with con gressa as the organizing partner in consultation with the HRK.

“Heimspiel Wissenschaft – Max Planck Edition” is exciting for the Max Planck Society (MPG) as a non-university research institution. The MPG is primarily dedicated to basic research, which can be challenging to communicate to a broad public. The “Heimspiel” format offers an exciting approach that creates opportunities for direct exchange and brings science closer to audiences in rural areas. After all, this format is not primarily about traditional academic lectures. Rather, the focus is on personal interaction: Who are the people behind the research? What is their daily life like? What brought them to the MPG?

Eaton made foundational contributions to understanding how tissues acquire their shapes and sizes, through her work on Drosophila wing morphogenesis and her pioneering studies on the long-range dispersal of morphogens. Beyond her own discoveries, she played a key role connecting biological and physical approaches to study living systems, and was a central figure in establishing Physics of Life as a field. This award reflects her enduring legacy and the spirit of interdisciplinary thinking that she brought to the study of life itself.

The Suzanne Eaton Awards for Physics of Life recognize outstanding scientific contributions to the physics of living systems, encompassing theoretical, experimental, and computational work at the interface of physics and biology. The Awards are presented in two tiers: the Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award and the Suzanne Eaton Rising Star Award. 

The Selection Committee has chosen L. Mahadevan, Professor at Harvard University, as the recipient of the inaugural 2026 Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award. The inaugural 2026 Rising Star Award will go to Anna Erzberger, group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). 

To honour both recipients, an award ceremony will be held at the Annual Meeting of the Physics of Life Excellence Cluster in Dresden (Germany). The event will take place on November 20, 2026 from 9 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and livestreamed for international viewers on the Physics of Life YouTube channel. 

Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life Award recipient: L. Mahadevan (Harvard University)
L. Mahadevan is the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at Harvard University. His work has helped define physics of life by showing how a small set of theoretical principles closely linked with experiments determine the shapes and motions of multicellular tissues, organs, organisms and their collectives. From gastrulation to gut looping and brain folding, from stem to leaf and flower morphology, his contributions to the field have shown the importance of growth and activity driven instabilities for the emergence of complex functional shapes. Separately, he has illustrated how plants exploit instabilities to turn slow biological processes into fast, robust motion, how rapid muscle contraction rates are ultimately limited by slow water movements, and how the brain, body and environment work together to coordinate the dynamics of locomotion in such instances as crawling worms, slithering snakes and walking and swimming fish. 
Further work by his group on active and collective systems — from cytoskeletal assemblies to cell sheets, and social insects including termite swarms, ant colonies and bee clusters — has framed living collectives as adaptive, sentient matter that uses distributed physical intelligence to solve physiological problems on scales much larger than individuals. The breadth of topics covered by his research is a testament to his remarkable creativity, which has helped exchange ideas between physics, biology, engineering and mathematics, for the benefit of each discipline. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 
“It is a tremendous honor to be the inaugural recipient of the Suzanne Eaton Physics of Life prize. Suzanne Eaton’s infectious enthusiasm for science without boundaries has long been a driver for the field, and I was fortunate to have been part of the circle that she influenced and led. Working at the interface of physics and biology with a wonderful group of students, postdocs and colleagues has been a privilege that I am grateful for, and the award is a recognition of our collective efforts.”

Rising Star Award: Anna Erzberger, EMBL Heidelberg
Anna Erzberger is a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg, where her research investigates the theoretical principles of self-organisation in complex systems, using cellular and multicellular systems as paradigms. Her contributions span the mechanics of early mammalian development, the emergence of supracellular fluidity in patterning processes, and the role of active surfaces and shape fluctuations in cellular signal processing. In 2025, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant and selected as an EMBO Young Investigator. 
“Having our work recognized in association with Suzanne Eaton’s legacy is an incredible honor. To me, her achievements and the way of conducting science revealed under what conditions an enormous domain of problems can become scientifically accessible. A big part of that was an uncompromisingly collaborative approach, that continues to serve as the highest standard of effective interdisciplinarity in our community.”

With its new slogan, “Wo Neugier Wissen schafft" (Where curiosity creates knowledge), and a refreshed design, the Dresden Science Night offered over 800 program items all over Dresden.

Thank you to all volunteers and to our curious visitors!

Overview of the full program at MPI-CBG

Stephan Grill receives 2.5 million euros of funds to pursue research on the ERC project “DNA Sequence-Dependent Structure Formation in the Cell Nucleus.” This project connects biology with physics and theory with experiment, aiming to build a physical theory of genome organization across scales. It will bring an understanding of how DNA sequences control structure formation processes inside the cell nucleus, with broad implications for development and disease.

Only about 1.5% of the human genome makes proteins. Stephan Grill explains, “The remaining 98.5% have been referred to as junk, but this DNA isn’t junk. Instead, it harbors the regulatory blueprint of life. It provides a landscape for the weak association of special proteins that act in concert to build larger assemblies. Where and how these assemblies form ultimately depends on the letter code of DNA, but how the sequence of letters controls the formation of larger architectures in the nucleus remains unclear. These architectures, however, are important; they structure the inside of the cell nucleus to allow the letters to be read out. Our interdisciplinary approach will shed new light on this old unsolved problem, shedding light on how our DNA works and how changes in DNA sequence might cause disease.”

In 2017, Stephan Grill already received an ERC Advanced Grant for his research project on “Chiral Morphogenesis,” and in 2011, he received an ERC Starting Grant.

Congratulations, Stephan!

The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe program. A record of 3,329 proposals was submitted to this competition, up 31% from 2,534 last year. 9.6% of proposals were selected for funding. Estimates show that the grants will create more than 3,000 jobs in the teams of new grantees. The new grantees will be based at universities and research centers in 24 EU Member States and associated countries, notably in the UK (62 grants), Germany (46), Switzerland (32), Spain (29), and France (26). Among the winners are 52 Germans, 45 Britons, and 29 Italians, as well as researchers of 30 other nationalities.

Besides Stephan Grill, two other Saxon researchers also received an ERC Advanced Grant: Beate Escher (Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung UFZ in Leipzig) and Anton Wallner (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf).

Saxony's Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow congratulates,

Congratulations to the awardees on this tremendous success! Securing one of the EU’s most competitive research grants is a remarkable achievement. This award is not only a milestone in their individual scientific careers but also a significant gain for Saxony as a location for research.

Angela Rösen-Wolff, Vice Rector Research and Technology Transfer at TU Dresden, also shares her congratulations,

The ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Professor Stephan Grill is a tremendous recognition of his achievements, to which he has contributed for many years, including his work in the ‘Physics of Life’ Cluster of Excellence. I congratulate him on this great success.

About the ERC

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organization for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialization. A new ERC Plus Grants scheme has been open for applications since June 2026.

ERC Press Release

Press Release of the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (in German)

News Article of the Max Planck Society

TU Dresden Press Release

Two awardees this year accomplished their PhD thesis at or in connection with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG). One awardee is now researching at MPI-CBG and did his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MIS) in Leipzig. 

Kristin Böhlig, one of the awardees, did her PhD in the group of André Nadler at MPI-CBG. She receives the medal for her PhD thesis on “Diacyl and ether lipid probes for mechanistic analysis of lipid transport, metabolism and lipid-protein interactions.” Kristin says: “During my PhD, we developed a new technique to image single lipids in cells. Using a new chemical labeling strategy, we were able to see where specific lipids are located and how they are transported in cells. With the new imaging method, we were able to answer the question of how cells transport specific lipids to their target organelle membranes, and we could show that non-vesicular lipid transport by proteins is the primary mechanism that maintains the membrane composition of specific organelles. I am very grateful to receive the Otto Hahn Medal for my work and want to especially thank my supervisor, Dr. André Nadler, for his outstanding support and my colleagues for great teamwork during my PhD.” As next career step, Kristin works now as postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Chemical Biology in the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry at TU Dresden. 

Alison Kickuth, the second awardee, worked in the group of Jan Brugués, research group leader at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life at TU Dresden and fellow at MPI-CBG. For her PhD thesis on “The Physical Mechanism of Unilateral Cytokinesis,” Alison received one of this years’ Otto Hahn Medal. She says, “During my PhD, I found it fascinating how embryonic cells manage to divide reliably even when the geometry of life seems to work against them. I had the opportunity to use biophysical tools to investigate how an incomplete contractile ring, a temporary cellular structure that “pinches” a dividing cell into two daughter cells, can still drive cell division in early zebrafish embryos. We were able to uncover a mechanical ratchet mechanism, in which the cytoplasm alternates between stiff and fluid states, enabling a contractile ring without loose ends to progressively divide the cell. Our work solves a fundamental physical problem in vertebrate development.” Alison now works as a postdoctoral researcher in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. 

Giulio Zucal, an ELBE postdoctoral fellow mentored by Türkü Özlüm Çelik and Stephan Grill at MPI-CBG and the Center for Systems Biology, also received an Otto Hahn Medal for his PhD work. He accomplished his thesis with the title “Continuous methods for discrete structures” at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MiS) in Leipzig. Giulio works in mathematics and its applications to biology and data science. In his PhD he developed rigorous mathematical tools to explore the structure and underlying geometry of networks, drawing on ideas at the intersection of the continuous and discrete worlds. At MPI-CBG his research focuses on random discrete structures, network dynamics, spectral hypergraph theory and the study of protein sequence space. “I would like to thank all the amazing people who helped me through my PhD journey: my family, friends, supervisors, mentors and collaborators. Their constant support, combined with the inspiring environment at MPI MiS, made this award possible,” says Giulio.
The medals was awarded on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society on June 17, 2026, in Frankfurt a. M.

Congratulations from all of us!

The Max Planck Society honors up to 30 young scientists and researchers each year with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements since 1978. The award is named after the German chemist and Nobel laureate Otto Hahn (1879–1968), who was president of the MPG from 1948 to 1960.

News article from MPI MiS

Full list of awardees

With its new slogan, “Wo Neugier Wissen schafft,” (Where curiosity creates knowledge) and a refreshed design, the Dresden Science Night invites you on a journey of discovery. With 35 organizers and over 700 program items, Dresden once again becomes a stage for research and innovation in 2026.

At MPI-CBG, we offer experience for all ages. You can explore our institute’s pond, collecting water samples to discover its diverse life with guidance from our scientists. Learn about the essential role of microscopes in research. Kids have the possibility to pipette liquids, observe fruit flies under microscopes, and go on a tour to our zebrafish aquariums. 

Learn about animal welfare in research at the "Fur, Feathers & Co" station and join us for “From Cells to Molecules,” where you can observe the journey of life from a single cell and see how lasers make proteins visible. Discover the liver's vital functions at the “Building Livers, One Cell at a Time” station, visit the “Wondrous Miniature Pancreas” exhibit to see how organoids (miniature organ models) help understand this complex organ.

Engage hands-on at “Proteins: Come and Explore Nature’s LEGO Box,” where you can isolate proteins and test their functions through experiments and explore molecular repair processes at “How Cells Hold DNA Together with Molecular Glue,” observing proteins at work in DNA repair.

We show the intersection of math and biology at “Mathematics for Biology and Fun!” with interactive activities, including a mini-chess game against an AI. What is biophysics? Learn about it at the “Forces in Action: From Embryos to Molecules” station and experience the “Smallest Pong Game in the World” to learn about optical trapping and nanoscopic forces. At the TU Dresden, Faculty of Physics, we offer a biophysics talk “Keine schale Sache: Im Wurm live dabei, wenn Leben entsteht.”

We also offer guided tours in Russian and Ukrainian to our science stations. Interested people can ask at the reception desk for a guide.

We are looking forward to your visit!

The full program at the MPI-CBG for 2026 is available here.

The program of the Dresden Science Night 2026 can be found here.

Maria is specifically interested in developing mathematical models for biological and industrial applications. In the past, she worked with the vacuum cleaner company Dyson Ltd. on how to optimize filters in air purifiers and vacuum cleaners. “In these filters, you have billions of fibers that interact with dust particles when dirty air flow goes through,” Maria explains. “Which also means you would need billions of equations to describe the system,” she adds. Maria’s team managed to break down this complex problem and derive an effective model of the filtration process, which allowed Dyson engineers to speed up the design and development time of optimized filters.

In Dresden, she wants to strengthen collaborations with groups working on biological problems. “Being among mathematicians all the time is honestly quite boring,” Maria says with a smirk. So far, she has been discussing project ideas with the groups of Stephan Grill and Heather Harrington.

In the past, she worked with entomologists to describe the collective traffic behavior of foraging ants. “And I really didn’t know anything about ants!” Maria admits. They discovered that some ants stop and act as dynamic obstacles, concentrating the traffic into narrower lanes to improve overall flow. “When we introduced pillars in the experiments, we observed the same effect,” Maria says. The findings could also inspire new strategies for managing pedestrian traffic in crowded environments.

Maria found her first month in Dresden in April already very stimulating. Now, she is eager to visit more labs and open to discussing biomedical and biophysical research questions where crowding or excluded-volume effects may be important. She is looking forward to connecting and collaborating with interested groups at MPI-CBG in June and July. “And I really don’t care whether it’s ants, proteins, or cells,” Maria says. “For me, they are all interacting particles!”

Nine participants were judged on content, clarity, and charisma. Taking home the 1st prize and the Audience Award was Artem Govorukhin from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Govorukhin won with his presentation, “No Oxygen + FLASH = Bye-Bye, Tumor!” which explored innovative approaches in cancer therapy.

The 2nd prize was awarded to Urša Uršič, representing both the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and the Excellence Cluster Physics of Life at TUD Dresden University of Technology. Urša’s talk, “How to be at the right place just in time? A story of a dividing embryo,” offered a glimpse into developmental biology.

Congratulations!

Both winners will participate in a two-day communication and media training course to prepare them to compete in the FameLab Germany final on July 1, 2026, in Bielefeld.

FameLab is an international competition for science communication initiated by the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK and has also been held annually in Germany since 2011. In over 20 countries, FameLab brings scientists to the stage under the motto “Talking Science.” Dresden was the venue for the East German preliminary round. The 2026 event was organized by DRESDEN-concept and Dresden Marketing.