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MPI-TM Opens New Research Center for Natural Product Research with Chinese Partners

By combining the expertise of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, the new center aims to unlock the potential of microbial natural products for medicine, crop protection, and other applications.

Sr. Christian Schelhas and Dr Patrick Gonschorek are wokring together at a laboratory bench

Seeking Powerful Drug Candidates

A young project group in the department “Natural Products in Organismic Interactions” is dedicated to the identification of optimal targets for engineering bacterial enzymes and has received international recognition

The Microcosm Earth Center (MEC) welcomes Rebecca Hinrichs as a new Research Group Leader

Not only are bacteria tiny, they are also extremely adaptable. Rebecca Hinrichs studies how bacteria survive under stressful conditions, such as food scarcity or exposure to antibiotics. This research could pave the way for new methods of tackling antibiotic resistance.

Helena Schulz-Mirbach and Frederik Schmidt

Double Awards

The Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) presented Dr. Helena Schulz-Mirbach and Dr. Frederik Schmidt with the Doctoral Award in recognition of their exceptional contributions to microbiology.

Max Planck President Patrick Cramer honored the 2026 Communitas Prize winners during the meeting of the Scientific Council at the Harnack House in Berlin. From left to right: Lothar Willmitzer, Heinz Wässle, Patrick Cramer, Regine Kahmann, Thomas Frohmader.

Congratulations, Regine Kahmann!

Our former director Prof. Regine Kahmann received the Communitas Prize from the Max Planck Society in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the institution.

Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Life without microorganisms is simply impossible. Microbes were the first life forms on early Earth. They evolved the ability to capture carbon dioxide and nitrogen, providing life with energy and nutrients. Microbes also invented photosynthesis, brought oxygen to the atmosphere and gave birth to multicellularity and the evolution of higher life. Microbes are more numerous and diverse than all other living organisms and there is no ecological niche that is not covered by them. They live in constant interactions with their environment, affecting health, agricultural productivity, and the climate on a global scale.

Our mission is to understand the function, communication, and interaction of microorganisms with their environment, to describe them with mathematical models, and to modify them with synthetic biological approaches.
We specifically focus on the microbial metabolism of greenhouse gases, the synthesis and function of bioactive natural compounds, cellular communication and regulation networks, as well as their spatial and temporal organization. Our research scale ranges from the atomic level up to global ecosystems.

We currently employ over 300 people from more than 35 countries. Together with our two affiliated centers, and the , MPI-TM is one of Europe’s leading Institutes in the fields of Molecular and Synthetic Microbiology The Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (MPI-TM), with its two affiliated centres (SYNMIKRO and the Microcosm Earth Center (MEC), is one of Europe's leading institutes in the field of molecular and synthetic microbiology.
As part of the newly founded Microbes for Climate (M4C) Cluster of Excellence, we are collaborating with the Marburg University to research microbial metabolic networks and optimize them in order to develop sustainable solutions for the fields of health, the environment, and biotechnology.