Summer Symposium spotlights Structural Biology

International guests from science and industry discussed current developments in structural biology—all of whom share a common history with the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.

There are scientific connections that endure for decades and shape research. This year’s Summer Symposium of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research demonstrated this impressively: Six renowned external guests—primarily from academia, but also from industry—as well as Ilme Schlichting, the Institute’s director, spoke about their work in the field of Structural Biology

A Strong Scientific Network

For the symposium, the external speakers returned to their former places of work: Five of them had conducted research at the institute under Ilme Schlichting in her department Biomolecular Mechanisms; the sixth guest speaker, Joachim Ullrich, former president of the German Physical Society, played a key role alongside her in advancing the field of biosciences.

Deciphering Structures, Understanding Mechanisms

As a physicist, Joachim Ullrich brought additional interdisciplinary perspectives to the program. The focus of the presentation, which he shared with Ilme Schlichting, was the development of so-called X-FELs—X-ray free-electron lasers—which scientists use to examine the structures of proteins, for example, and to observe and understand their mechanisms.

Scientific Excellence with a Lasting Impact

Anyone glancing at the Summer Symposium program quickly recognized another common thread: excellent research often begins in one place but has a global impact. The invited speakers now hold leadership positions at leading universities, research institutions, or companies and are shaping the future of their fields. The fact that most of them spent formative years of their scientific careers at the institute lent the event a special atmosphere.

Through this combination of scientific excellence and personal connections, the Summer Symposium demonstrated how research that originated at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research continues to shape structural biology to this day, and how enduring scientific networks are formed.