Max Planck Institute for Medical Research | News

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Dr. John Wray

Phone:+49 6221 486-277Fax:+49 6221 486-585

Email: john.wray@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de

Joachim Müller

Phone:+49 6221 486-312Fax:+49 6221 486-398

Email: muellerj@vw.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de

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2008 395.97 kB
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2010 285.08 kB
2011 261.75 kB

Yearbook

Contributions to the Yearbook of the Max Planck Society

In its Yearbook, the Max Planck Society reports on the scientific research performed at its institutes. The Yearbook includes reports from all the Max Planck facilities, the scientific presentations held at the Annual General Meeting, as well a CD-ROM containing a bibliographic database of all the scientific publications of the Max Planck Society since 1998.

The contributions of the Institute to the Yearbook are available as Fulltext as of 2004; the volumes prior are available in part as abstract. The PDF versions can be obtained / downloaded via the file list on the right.

2012

From Precursor to Poison - the Deadly Mechanism of Zeta-Toxins

2012

Mutschler, Hannes; Meinhart, Anton

Toxin-Antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic elements that can be found in the genomes of nearly all bacteria. They encode for a toxin protein as well as its cognate antitoxin. When the antitoxin is degraded, the toxin is released and the host bacterium dies. Based on this mechanism, the epsilon/zeta TA-family not only helps pathogenic bacteria to stabilize resistance genes but also to increase their virulence. The discovery of the working principle of zeta toxins at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research now allows to explain both of these phenomena.

2011

Processing of odours in the mouse olfactory bulb

2011

Schaefer, Andreas T.

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.

2010

In vivo acetylcholine receptor dynamics at neuromuscular junctions

2010

Yampolsky, Pessah; Pacifici, Pier-Giorgio; Chevessier, Frédéric; Mersdorf, Ulrike; Barenhoff, Karina; Koenen, Michael; Witzemann, Veit

Synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity require interactions between pre- and postsynaptic components. The neuromuscular synapse as model and genetically manipulated mice were used to study the dynamics of acetylcholine receptors. Direct in vivo analysis shows how newly synthesized receptors are integrated into the existing synapse and how receptor stability changes when muscle is inactivated by innervation.

2009

Hippocampus and spatial short- and longterm memory

2009

Seeburg, Peter H.; Sprengel, Rolf

Glutamate is the most prevalent neurotransmitter at excitatory synapses of our nervous system and thus indispensable for the activity and accomplishments of our brain. Genetic manipulations in the model organism mouse permit an evaluation of the role of synaptic key components activated by glutamate in spatial learning paradigms. A mouse mutant reveals that a particular synaptic component is essential for a sense of familiarity with a recently encountered spatial environment, and hence functions as a molecular building block in learning and memory.

2008

In the eye of the beholder – Signal processing in the retina

2008

Euler, Thomas; Hausselt, Susanne E.; Castell, Xavier; Denk, Winfried

Our eyes receive a permanent stream of visual information, which needs to be interpreted promptly and correctly. To deal with this enormous amount of data, processing starts already in the back of our eye, in the retina, where important features of the viewed scene are extracted. To elucidate the organization and function of the underlying neuronal microcircuits is one of the research topics of the department of Biomedical Optics at the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg.

2007

Insights into the mechanisms of blue light switches

2007

Jung, Astrid; Domratcheva, Tatiana; Schlichting, Ilme

Many organisms exhibit photoreceptors in order to adapt to changing light conditions. The photoreceptor family of phototropins and the only recently identified BLUF (sensor of blue light using FAD) photoreceptors control a number of interesting cellular processes depending on blue light signals. By quantum chemical and structural investigations, important insights into the mechanism of function of these light switches have been gathered at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.

2006

Genetic alterations of glutamate receptors in the mouse: synaptic excitation, plasticity and role in learning

2006

Seeburg, Peter H.; Sprengel, Rolf; Köhr, Georg; Osten, Pavel

A dogma in the Neurosciences states that learning causes long-lasting changes in chemical synapses of the brain. The goal of the Department of Molecular Neurobiology at the MPI for Medical Research is to describe the function of key molecules for such changes. Most synapses in the brain are excitatory in nature and operate with the chemical transmitter L-glutamate, which when released upon an impulse from the sending part of the synapse (presynaptic specialization), diffuses across the synaptic cleft and binds to postsynaptically localized specific receptors. Binding of glutamate opens an inherent pore in the receptors, such that for a brief moment (several msec) positively charged ions (cations) flow into the nerve cell, shifting the cell from its resting state to an excited state by depolarizing its membrane potential. Genetic manipulation of glutamate receptors (GluRs) in the mouse alters synaptic function and may impair or – more rarely – enhance learning abilities. The following investigations highlight important functional aspects of glutamate receptors in spatial learning for which the hippocampus, a prominent brain structure, is essential, and also in olfactory learning in olfactory synapses. Moreover, the expression of functionally altered GluRs can evoke neurodegenerative diseases such as epilepsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

2005

New insights into the brain – Monitoring glial cells in the intact neocortex

2005

Helmchen, Fritjof; Nimmerjahn, Axel

In addition to neurons the brain contains several types of glial cells. While neurons are responsible for fast signal transmission and processing, the functional roles of glial cells have largely remained elusive, in part because methods to investigate these cells in the intact brain were lacking. The development of novel staining methods and in vivo application of two-photon fluorescence microscopy has now enabled to visualize glial cells with high spatial and temporal resolution in the intact neocortex and to study their behavior. Using this combined approach, wave-like oscillations of the intracellular calcium concentration were resolved in the network of astrocytes. These waves might be involved in long-range signaling in the neocortex. In addition, microglial cells, the defense cells of the brain, were found to be not at rest in the healthy brain; they continually survey the surrounding parenchyma with their motile processes showing an astonishingly high level of structural plasticity that far exceeds what is known from other cell types. Moreover, microglial cells took immediate protective actions upon rupture of a blood vessel by targeting and shielding the injured site with their processes. These new results highlight the importance of glial cells as fundamental elements of the brain, both under normal physiological conditions as well as following brain damage such as for example caused by a stroke.

2004

High-Resolution Microscopy in the Brain

2004

Denk, Winfried; Euler, Thomas; Friedrich, Rainer

The goal of the Department for "Biomedical Optics" is the development of novel methods to better understand computation in the brain. There are two main lines of attack: measuring activity and reconstructing circuits. Fast information transmission in the brain is mediated mainly by neuronal processes, called axons, only which electrochemical excitation actively propagates. Along those axons we find in a more or less regular pattern special cellular organelles, which are able to connect, by chemical or electrical means, to neighboring neuronal processes (dendrites) and thus allow the transmission of information to those cells. Those connections, called synapses, are most likely where information is permanently stored (long-term memory). To understand, however, what actually happens when a face of a smell is recognized, it is necessary to know, on one hand, what is the spatial distribution of chemical and electrical activity down to the finest branches. On the other hand, we need to know how the network of connections, which makes activities in different areas dependent on each other, is arranged.