How do marine bacteria convert sugar into energy? This question is the subject of a new Emmy Noether junior research group at the University of Bremen. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the team led by marine biologist Dr. Greta Reintjes with around one million euros over the next si...
Forty employees of our institute took the opportunity to visit the Science Campus Braunschweig-Süd, which bundles expertise and infrastructure against infectious diseases, yesterday as part of a work excursion.
On September 25, 2023, it was that time again: We welcome the 13 new MarMics to our institute!
Humanity continuously emits greenhouse gases and thereby worsens global warming. Increasing research efforts go into developing strategies to convert these gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), into valuable products. CO2 accumulates dramatically over the years and is chemically very stable, thus ...
Five weeks after setting sail from Tromsø, Norway, the Alfred Wegener Institute's research vessel Polarstern makes a stop at the northernmost point on Earth. On board are scientists from the HGF-MPG Joint Research Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Mi...
We congratulate our director Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier, who has been awarded the prestigious Award for Environmental Research from the American Society for Microbiology.
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Anna Karnkowska (University of Warsaw, Poland)
“Transitions in the evolution of eukaryotes: lessons learned from microbial eukaryotes.“
Dr. Jana Geuer, who is a Postdoc at the Max Planck institute for Marine Microbiology in the Metabolic Interactions Research Group of Prof. Manuel Liebeke, has embarked on an exciting scientific journey with the sea4soCiety consortium. Their mission? To uncover new molecular processes for carbon s...
Good research needs good conversations. In intensive exchange with colleagues and in a comfortable environment, our employees can optimally unfold and develop their scientific potential. In addition to first-class research infrastructure, this also requires small oases of tranquillity that enable...
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Samuel Pontrelli (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Host: Margot Bligh)
“Uncovering metabolic crossfeeding networks in marine microbial communities“
Nitric oxide (NO) is a central molecule in the global cycling of nitrogen, and also toxic. Little is known about if and how microbes can use NO as a substrate for growth. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have now managed to grow a microbial comm...
Studies at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Basin with the deep-diving submersible Alvin
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have uncovered the molecular secrets of a methane-generating microbe that can transform sulfate into sulfide – a ready-to-use cellular building block. This discovery opens up exciting opportunities in biofuel produ...
The seafloor is home to around one-third of all the microorganisms on the Earth and is inhabited even at a depth of several kilometers. Only when it becomes too hot does the abundance of microorganisms appear to decline. But how, and from what, do microorganisms in the deep seafloor live? How do ...
Seawater is full of bacteria, hundreds of thousands live in every litre. But the sheer number of bacteria living in the water does not necessarily mean a lot. More important is how active they are and how quickly they duplicate, as demonstrated in a study by researchers from the Max Planck Instit...
Algal blooms in the ocean play a pivotal role in global carbon cycling. Such blooms entail successive blooms of specialized bacteria that collectively remineralize gigatons of algal biomass on a global scale. This biomass is largely composed of distinct polysaccharides, and the microbial decompos...
Almost 60 employees take part in the company run!
Phytosterols are good for your health, but humans and other animals are not able to make them themselves. To acquire phytosterols, humans are increasingly turning to supplements, green smoothies, or a Mediterranean diet with plenty of plant-based foods. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute f...
Hello everyone! My name is Bruna and I will be working on the sea4soCiety project investigating the role of dissolved organic compounds present in coastal ecosystems. More specifically, I will apply Mass spectrometry techniques to identify compounds exuded by Salt Marshes plants and found in pore...
Zukunftstag am MPI 2022
Scientist Eileen Kröber, currently a PostDoc in the Symbiosis Department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, has successfully applied for the establishment of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the new group fo...
Sina Schorn receives this year's MARUM Research Award for her dissertation "Microbial activities and interactions in anoxic methane-rich environments". The award is presented to young marine scientists who have written outstanding master's or doctoral theses.
The HIFMB-MPG-Bridging Group for Marine Omics, led by Prof. Dr. A. Murat Eren, is a cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity.
Hey everyone! My name is Malin. I joined the MS group of the symbiosis department for my PhD. My research will be focused on the characterization of the gut microbiome and metabolic interactions occurring between the host and microbes. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with Kie...
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 11:30 a.m. (11:30 Uhr)
Noelle Held (Institute of Pollution and Biogeochemistry, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH-Z & Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag)
“Microbial decision-making and the link to marine biogeoche...
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Sukhwan Yoon (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea)
"Microbial reduction of nitrous oxide: the decade-long ecophysiologica...
Reactive oxygen species – very reactive molecules containing oxygen – have a great impact on mineralization processes in tidal sandflats, study finds. Their investigation is thus important for understanding marine carbon cycling.
Disconnected from the energy of the sun, the permanently ice-covered Arctic deep sea receives miniscule amounts of organic matter that sustains life. Bacteria which can harvest the energy released from submarine hydrothermal sources could thus have an advantage. On research missions with the rese...
Hello! As a new laboratory assistant at Business Academy Aarhus in Denmark, I am thrilled to be embarking on a journey of discovery and exploration in the field of GC-MS. I am eager to gain hands-on experience in the laboratory and contribute to ongoing research projects. Throughout my internship...
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Johan Decelle (University of Grenoble, France)
will give a digital seminar with the title:
"Exploring the intimacy of cell-cell interactions in plankton at the nanoscale"
You are welcome to join.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Alexander Probst (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
will give a seminar with the title:
"Rogue 1b: An archaeal CRISPR Cas story"
You are welcome to join.
Thursday, February 2, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00 Uhr) (Don´t forget to bring a mask!!!)
Karen Wiltshire (Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Host: Rudolf Amann)
will give a seminar with the title:
"The North Sea in the fast lane of Clim...
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 1112 at 2:00 p.m. (14:00 Uhr) (Don´t forget to bring a mask!!!)
Maria Chuvochina (The University of Queensland, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, Host: Bernhard Fuchs)
will give a seminar with the title:
"Navigating the space of prokaryotic taxonomy ...
Antje Boetius will receive the Ernst Ludwig Winnacker Award from the Bayer Foundation.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology reveal how a methane-generating microbe can grow on toxic sulfite without becoming poisoned.
Thursday, January 12, 2023
in the new MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00h) (Don´t forget to bring a mask!)
Peter Stief (University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark)
will give a seminar with the title
"Marine snow under pressure: Mineralization, bacterial colonization, and diatom li...
Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers...
Deutscher Hochschulverband würdigt Meeresforscherin als „Anwältin der Meere und herausragende Wissenschaftskommunikatorin“
An interview with the coral researcher and PhD-student in the Microsensor Group Daniel Schürholz.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have successfully enhanced cultivation of a microorganism that can fix nitrogen (N2) while producing methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3) and investigated exciting details of its metabolism.
The director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology is now part of the Academy of Sciences of Northern Germany . Today, the new members will be officially welcomed at the Academy's annual celebration in Hamburg.
To what extent does polymetallic nodule mining impact the ecosystem in the deep sea? This is what the MiningImpact expedition SO295 with the research vessel SONNE is investigating for the next two months in the exploration contract areas of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the North Pacific. During...
AWI Director Antje Boetius will receive the Carl-Friedrich-von-Weizsäcker-Prize 2022 for her many years of work as a marine researcher and microbiologist. Endowed with €50,000, the award from the Stifterverband and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is presented for valuable scien...
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved a third funding phase for the research group FOR 2406 "Proteogenomics of Marine Polysaccharide Degradation" (POMPU). In this research group, researchers from Bremen and Greifswald work together in an interdisciplinary and cross-locational manner t...
From September 24 to 25, it was once again time for the Bremen Research Mile as part of the Maritime Week!
On September 26, 2022, we welcomed 15 new MarMics (students in our International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology) to our institute, the second largest class ever.
With a scientific symposium our institute celebrates its first 30 years
Dying reefs and once-vibrant corals that have since lost all colour: climate change is having massive effects on the architects of undersea cities. As waters grow warmer, the phenomenon of “coral bleaching” continues to spread. Yet not all corals are equally susceptible. An international team led...
How can we know what bacteria eat? In contrast to animals, they have no trunks, specialized teeth or beaks that provide clues whether the preferred food consists of leaves, meat, small insects or grain. However, bacteria have specific enzymes, which can tell us a lot about their favorite dish. An...
An international research team headed by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Aarhus University and the Science for Life Lab in Uppsala has developed tiny particles that measure the oxygen concentration in their surroundings. In this way, they can track fluid flow and oxyge...
As of March 1st, 2022, our institute is hosting a new Max Planck Research Group, led by Dr. Laetitia Wilkins. Wilkins and her team focus on the research of marine host-microbe interactions, their evolution, and their role in ecosystem function and stability.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now report that seagrasses release large amounts of sugar, largely in the form of sucrose, into their soils – worldwide more than 1 million tons of sucrose, enough for 32 billion cans of coke. Such high concentrations of sugar are s...
Zukunftstag am MPI 2022
"The faster, the more effective" – this is the idea the junior researcher from Bremen follows in her research project. Now she has won first place in the regional competition and second place in the state competition of Jugend forscht.
Jan-Hendrik Hehemann has been awarded the ERC Consolidator Grant, one of the European Research Council's most highly endowed awards. He will each receive around 2 million euros for his basic research on marine carbon cycling in the coming years.
Tiny predatory bacteria attack microorganisms. These ultramicrobacteria are widely distributed, for example, in sewage treatment plants and in the seafloor. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now present this exciting finding in the journal Applied and Envir...
Clarissa Karthäuser receives this year's MARUM Research Prize for her dissertation "Sinking particles control fixed nitrogen-loss from the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone". The award is presented to young marine scientists who have written outstanding master's or doctoral theses.
Seagrass meadows play an important role in the marine carbon cycle and our climate. On the one hand, they sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground, on the other hand, they emit the potent greenhouse gas methane. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Micro...
Massive sponge gardens thrive on top of seamounts in the Central Arctic Ocean, one of the most oligotrophic seas on Earth. They appear to feed on the remnants of an extinct fauna. Microorganisms support the sponges in exploiting this fluffy material as a source of food and energy. Scientists from...
Hi my name is Tomasz and I will be working as laboratory assistant in MS-group in Symbiosis department. An internship in the institute is part of my studies: Chemical and Biotechnical Science at the Business Academy Aarhus. I have always enjoyed working in a field of chemistry and this is the rea...
Hello everyone!
My name is Jana and I will be working on the sea4soCiety project to better understand the role of metabolites in carbon sequestration within coastal environments. Previously, my research focused on the interaction between organic matter and metals in aquatic systems. I am particu...
Microorganisms can convert oil into natural gas, i.e. methane. Until recently, it was thought that this conversion was only possible through the cooperation of different organisms. In 2019, Rafael Laso-Pérez and Gunter Wegener from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology suggested that a...
On December 3, 2021, the University of Bremen and the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation honored pupils in the region for their outstanding pre-scientific work. Winning the prize in the Physics category is Svenja Paulsen, who carried out parts of her now award-winning project work with us at the Max Plan...
The ARB software, a graphically oriented package comprising various tools for sequence database handling and data analysis, has moved one step further. With their latest update, users now profit from many new features as well as improved stability.
Seagrasses cover large swathes of shallow coastal seas, where they provide a vital habitat. They also remove large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in the ecosystem. However, seagrasses need nutrients to thrive, particularly nitrogen. Up to now, researchers have as...
Grace D'Angelo presented her poster entitled, 'Exploring Carbon Cycling in Complex Microbial Communities with Metaproteome-derived Stable Isotope Fingerprints' at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference. This project and poster are part of collaborative work with the Kleiner ...
Carbon occurs on the Earth in a variety of structures and forms. Elemental Carbon is usually formed under conditions of high pressure and temperature. Researchers have now, for the first time, identified microorganisms that produce elemental carbon. The team, which includes Dr. Gunter Wegener of ...
Bacteria from the group Verrucomicrobiota specialize in consuming hard to degrade sugars during spring blooms in the North Sea.
On September 27, 2021, we welcomed 9 new MarMic Master students to the International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology.
A new study in ISME Journal provides exciting insights into the life of marine viruses in the North Sea during the spring bloom. Off the offshore island of Helgoland, researchers led by Nina Bartlau from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology found a dynamic viral community that can str...
The group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and AWI director is honored for her science communication.
Every year, the Max Planck Society (MPS) awards 20 trainee prizes to the best trainees at its 86 institutes and research facilities. This year, one of the prizes goes to Mandy Knutzen, a chemical laboratory assistant trainee at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Marine Microbiology.
Developing innovative and socially accepted approaches to improve the natural potential for carbon storage in vegetation-rich coastal ecosystems: that is the goal of the new research consortium sea4soCiety, in which the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen is participating. Germ...
Developing innovative and socially accepted approaches to improve the natural potential for carbon storage in vegetation-rich coastal ecosystems: that is the goal of the new research consortiumsea4soCiety, in which the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in...
It was long assumed that cyanobacteria were mainly responsible for fixing nitrogen on early Earth, thus making nitrogen available to the biosphere. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now show that purple sulfur bacteria could have contributed subst...
Life on Earth today relies on the presence of oxygen. However, the process behind the step-wise rise of oxygen levels in the atmosphere, which took place over nearly two billion years, remains under debate. An international team of scientists around Judith Klatt from the Max Planck Institute for ...
We congratulate Dr. Dolma Michellod on the successful defense of her PhD thesis entitled, "Investigating the lipid profile of animal-microbe symbioses."
A new laser ion source was installed in our lab. With the brand new AP-SMALDI-5AF we are able to do routine measurements at spatial resolution down to 5 µm. Additionally we increase measurement speed and sample throughput up to ten fold if a lower mass resolution is acceptable.
Whether summer or winter, midnight sun or polar night – the sand on the ocean floor is always inhabited by the same bacteria. Although the microbial communities differ between different ocean regions, they do not change between the seasons. Presumably, there is simply no room for change. Research...
Scientists from three Max Planck Institutes (MPI), the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg, the MPI for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the MPI for Biophysics in Frankfurt and the Radboud University in Nijmegen have successfully determined the structure of the enzyme which produces a large p...
This pandemic year has seen us confined to our homes and restricted from travelling the world. Not so for some microscopic bacteria in the ocean: Throughout the globe, they partner up with clams from the family Lucinidae, which live unseen in the sand beneath the shimmering blue waters of coastal...
Correlative chemical imaging in symbiosis: Our workflow, combining mass spectrometry imaging and microCT in a multimodal 3D atlas of a symbiotic invertebrate is now online in PNAS. Congrats Benedikt!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023773118
Hot vents in the deep sea are home to microbes that feed on ethane. They were discovered recently from scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. Now the researchers from Bremen succeeded in finding an important component in the microbial conversion of the gas. They were able...
Even if they seem very common for us – earthworms are special because they keep our soil healthy, all over the world. From the outside they appear simple and inconspicuous. But what the earthworm looks like from the inside, from its organs to the microbes and parasites that colonize it, has been ...
Study finds new explanation for the accumulation of organic compounds in oxygen-depleted marine areas.
Deep down in the ocean, valuable raw materials are stored, such as nodules of manganese, iron, cobalt and copper. The resources from these nodules could help meeting our increasing demand for rare metals. However, in addition to the nodules, there is another treasure down there: A complex ecosyst...
The mass2adduct paper, which describes a method for identifying adducts in mass-spec imaging data, was recently published. Congrats to the team consisting of Moritz Janda, Brandon KB Seah, Dennis Jakob, Janine Beckmann, Benedikt Geier, and Manuel Liebeke. Find out more at these links:
In the deep waters that underlie the productive zones of the ocean, there is a constant rain of organic material called 'marine snow'. Marine snow does not only look like real snow but also behaves similarly: Large flakes are rare and fall quickly while highly abundant smaller flakes take their t...
Deep down in the seafloor anaerobic microbes consume large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas when it enters atmosphere. Even though this process is a crucial element of the global carbon cycle, it is still poorly understood. Gunter Wegener from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microb...
Sponges: They are considered to be one of the most primitive forms of animal life, because they have neither locomotion organs nor a nervous system. A team around deep-sea scientist Antje Boetius has now discovered that sponges leave trails on the sea floor in the Arctic deep sea. They conclude t...
Dennis Jakob presented a poster at the virtual It Ma(t)Ters conference on his Master's thesis work combining spatial metabolomics with spatial transcriptomics. With this work, Dennis won one of the poster prizes voted on by the conference attendees.
This year, two researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology are receiving the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society – a great honour for the researchers and our institute.
Scientists of the JPI Oceans project “MiningImpact” are embarking on a 6-week expedition to the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific. Their goal is to carry out independent scientific monitoring of the test of a pre-prototype nodule collector machine conducted in parallel from a ...
Bald eagles, as well as other wildlife, have been succumbing to a mysterious neurodegenerative disease in the southern United States since the 1990s. New research by a team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Germany and the University of Georgia, USA, and including researcher...