An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology has uncovered a hidden world of tiny partnerships thriving in wastewater treatment plants worldwide. The microscopic allies—specialized bacteria living inside single-celled hosts—play a surprising role in...
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology find that urea is a major energy source for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the open ocean, while coastal AOA prefer ammonium. The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that organic nitrogen plays a far greater role...
On November 18, 2025, the unifreunde Bremen association awarded the Bremen Study Prize for outstanding theses and dissertations. Our former doctoral student Jan Brüwer is one of the prize winners. We congratulate him warmly!
Antje Boetius, head of our Deep Sea Ecology and Technology Group at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, has been admitted to the Pour le Mérite order. It is one of the most prestigious honors for science and art in Germany.
Microorganisms in the Black Sea can produce large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, this gas never reaches the atmosphere because it is swiftly consumed by other microorganisms, which convert it to harmless dinitrogen gas (N2). Scientists from the Max Planck Insti...
Scientists have demonstrated the key role of a tungsten-containing enzyme in the production of ethanol from carbon monoxide performed by the microbe Clostridium autoethanogenum. This discovery resolves a long-standing biochemical debate and provides new insight into how bacteria can transform ind...
Congratulations, Lauren!
The Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology welcomes Dr. Alicia L. Bruzos as a Minerva Fast Track Fellow.
From September 20 to 21, it was once again time for the Bremer Forschungsmeile as part of the Maritime Woche!
An international meet-up in Bremen exploring the evolutionary links between specialized bacteria and algal hosts
New research reveals structures of the methane-converting enzyme Methyl-coenzyme M reductases (MCR) in unprecedented detail. MCRs were isolated from freshwater and marine methane-consuming microorganisms known as anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME). The results now published in Nature Communi...
Sugars are essential for life in the ocean, but some resist breakdown even by the hungriest marine microbes. Now, scientists have developed a new tool that allows them to observe, in real time, how microbial communities feed on complex carbohydrates such as sugars. This approach can help us under...
Six days of interesting talks, productive workshops, enriching coffee breaks and lots of science
40 employees tackled the route and mastered it with ease!
We are excited to announce the official launch of the Ecological Genomics Group at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology!
On 28 May 2025, the moment had arrived: The University of Greifswald and the University of Bremen received funding approval from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio (TRR) 420 CONCENTRATE. The researchers in the network are investigating sugar poly...
The award enables joint research with Max Planck Director Marcel Kuypers from Bremen
Some microbes living on sand grains use up all the oxygen around them. Their neighbors, left without oxygen, make the best of it: They use nitrate in the surrounding water for denitrification – a process hardly possible when oxygen is present. This denitrification in sandy sediments in well-oxyge...
Historic Success: University of Bremen acquires funding for two Clusters of Excellence for the first time – including “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface”