Research Profile

Science at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research has, ever since its founding in 1927 as a Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, benefited from the work of notable scientists and excellent science on the border between physiology, physics, chemistry and biology.

In its nearly 100-year history, the institute has experienced several fundamental reorientations. Since the appointment of three new directors in 2016 and 2017, the central topic of research has been to observe in real-time and manipulate the complex dynamics of interactions between macromolecules in living cells in healthy and disease.

With its new location on the ‘Bildungscampus’ in Heilbronn, made possible by long-term funding from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation since 2025, the institute's work has expanded to include research into artificial intelligence in biomedicine. Added to this is the newly developed “First in Translation” concept, which aims to seamlessly combine basic research and applications, thereby accelerating the transfer of scientific findings into practice.

The current four current departments based at the founding location in Heidelberg contribute to the success of the research with their unique expertise in complementary areas: the determination of atomic structures (Ilme Schlichting), optical nanoscopy (Stefan Hell), design of new reporter molecules (Kai Johnsson), and cellular material research and biophysics (Joachim Spatz). They are developing new tools for biomedical research that will lead to new results, insights, and medical advances.

The two new departments at the Heilbronn site—one created by the relocation of Joachim Spatz's department and the other by a new establishment—complement the spectrum with biomedical research using AI. Even in the wake of these forward-looking changes, the idea of the institute's founder, Ludolf von Krehl, continues to shape its scientific profile: to promote medical research through close collaboration between physiologists, biologists, physicists, and chemists at a single institute.

Biomolecular Mechanisms - Ilme Schlichting

In the general excitement of a time when three-dimensional protein structures of whole genomes are being determined automatically, it is often forgotten that a structure in itself does not tell one how the molecule works or folds.

Cellular Biophysics - Joachim Spatz

The primary scientific goal of the department is to develop technologies, based on physics, chemistry and materials science, for unraveling fundamental problems in cellular science, biomedical science and the engineering of life-like materials. For example, the department fundamentally investigates the organization and decision-making processes of cell collectives and organoides as well as the assembly and function of synthetic cells, designer immune cells and tissues.

Chemical Biology - Kai Johnsson

The Department of Chemical Biology focusses on the visualization and manipulation of biological activities in live cells. The in vivo localization and quantification of protein activities, metabolites and other important parameters has become a central quest in biology, but the majority of cellular processes remain invisible, to date. We address this challenge by developing conceptually new tools to unravel the complexity of living cells.

Optical Nanoscopy - Stefan W. Hell

The Department of Optical Nanoscopy is focused on conceiving, exploring, validating and applying optical microscopy methods with resolution far beyond the classical diffraction limit. The primary scientific direction of this new department is to push the performance of nano-optical molecular analysis in (living) cells and tissues.