The Institute works on fundamental biological issues that are of long-term medical significance. One main area of research is neurophysiology: What are the changes in the brain that underlie processes like learning and remembering? What does the three-dimensional circuit diagram of the billions of nerve cells in the brain look like? How can the processes in nerve cells in the living brain be made visible through new microscopic methods? The scientists also work to understand how perceptions of odours are stored in the brain, and how networks are formed which are capable of adapting to stress. A second main area of research at the Institute concerns the complex chemical reactions in living cells. These are performed by enzymes, and the research aims to determine the atomic structure of important enzyme molecules. [more]

How sensory stimuli are processed by neural networks is a key question of neuroscience. Olfactory conditioning experiments in mice demonstrate that odour processing is fast and stimulus-dependent. Selective genetic perturbation of the inhibitory circuitry in the first relay station of olfactory processing, the olfactory bulb, altered such discrimination times, with increased inhibition accelerating and decreased inhibition slowing down odour discrimination. This illustrates that inhibition can fulfil a key role in sensory processing. [more]

The Center for Free-Electron Laser Science is a novel joint enterprise of DESY, the Max Planck Society (MPG), and the University of Hamburg. CFEL is designed to advance science with next generation light sources. The three partners join forces to explore structural changes of atoms, molecules, condensed, biological, or warm dense matter on femtosecond time scales. CFEL envisions uncovering the "dynamics of matter" by uniting expertise from various disciplines and research institutions into a new interdisciplinary and synergistic effort. [more]