Max Planck Research Groups

The MPG continually supports up to three Independent Research Groups in our institute, each for a period of five to six years. Highly competitive young scientists lead these groups, which operate outside of the departmental structure of the Institute.
The Group “Systems and Synthetic Metabolism” studies the biochemical logic and design principles of metabolic pathways and their applications in metabolic engineering of microbes. The group focuses on engineering synthetic alternatives to central metabolic pathways, aiming to uncover optimality in metabolic designs and to offer novel solutions for humanity’s needs in chemical and energy production. [more]
Our group, led by Dr. Marco Incarbone, is interested in plant host-virus interactions and more specifically those occurring in plant stem cells and reproductive tissues. Understanding these interactions is extremely important, since they determine whether a viral infection is transmitted from parent to progeny or not. [more]
Viruses can cause extreme change in the cellular environment of their host. Our goal is to understand what are the conserved mechanisms deployed by plant viruses to shape a cellular environment conductive to replication of their genetic material and the matching plant pathways that protect host cell against virus-induced damage. [more]
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