Institute of Molecular Biology

Last updated
Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB)
Established2010
Focus developmental biology, epigenetics, DNA repair, ageing
Location
Mainz
,
Germany
Website www.imb-mainz.de

The Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) is a modern research centre on the campus of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. It is funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation and the state of Rheinland Palatinate. The scientists at IMB primarily conduct basic science in developmental biology, epigenetics, ageing, genome stability and related areas. [1]

Contents

History [2] [3]

Research [6]

IMB's mission is to answer key questions in how organisms grow, age, and develop disease through basic research in epigenetics, genome stability and related fields.

Research in these fields is carried out in the following research groups, led by one group leader each:

Joint Research Initiatives

IMB coordinates a number of joint research initiatives with institutions in Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg University, the University Medical Centre, and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research) and beyond.

Current joint Research Initiatives:

In addition, IMB runs an Advanced Training Programme with short courses in soft skills.

International PhD Programme (IPP) [21]

The International PhD Program is coordinated by the Institute for Molecular Biology. The participating groups are located at the following institutions:

The research groups in the IPP cover a broad range of expertise in ageing & disease, DNA repair & genome stability, epigenetics & nuclear dynamics, bioinformatics & computational biology, RNA biology, and gene regulation & evolution.

Core funding for the IPP comes from the three main participating institutions of IMB, JGU, and UMC.

International Summer School [22] [23]

The International Summer School (ISS) is a 6-week programme with a focus on "Gene Regulation, Epigenetics and Genome Stability". The ISS offers outstanding and enthusiastic undergraduate and Master's students from all over the world the opportunity to acquire excellent practical skills and hands-on training from leading scientists in molecular biology.

Postdoc Programme [24]

The IMB Postdoc Programme (IPPro) was established specifically to provide IMBs postdocs with the necessary scientific & technical support and tailored mentoring to fast-track their careers, including scientific seminars, courses & events, technical training, professional skills training, mentoring, and career development.

Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) [25]

Current members of the SAB:

Infrastructure

IMB is housed in a new 6,000 sq m research building with laboratories, offices, seminar rooms and a large auditorium. IMB is located in close proximity to many institutes of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, two Max Planck Institutes, the University of Applied Sciences Mainz, and the University Medical Center. Nearby Frankfurt and Darmstadt are also cities with extensive scientific activities, including the research of Goethe University Frankfurt, and the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epigenetics</span> Study of DNA modifications that do not change its sequence

In biology, epigenetics is the study of heritable traits, or a stable change of cell function, that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix epi- in epigenetics implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" the traditional genetic mechanism of inheritance. Epigenetics usually involves a change that is not erased by cell division, and affects the regulation of gene expression. Such effects on cellular and physiological phenotypic traits may result from environmental factors, or be part of normal development. They can lead to cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene expression</span> Conversion of a genes sequence into a mature gene product or products

Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, proteins or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype. These products are often proteins, but in non-protein-coding genes such as transfer RNA (tRNA) and small nuclear RNA (snRNA), the product is a functional non-coding RNA. The process of gene expression is used by all known life—eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and utilized by viruses—to generate the macromolecular machinery for life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regulation of gene expression</span> Modifying mechanisms used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products

Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products. Sophisticated programs of gene expression are widely observed in biology, for example to trigger developmental pathways, respond to environmental stimuli, or adapt to new food sources. Virtually any step of gene expression can be modulated, from transcriptional initiation, to RNA processing, and to the post-translational modification of a protein. Often, one gene regulator controls another, and so on, in a gene regulatory network.

Robin Holliday was a British molecular biologist. Holliday described a mechanism of DNA-strand exchange that attempted to explain gene-conversion events that occur during meiosis in fungi. That model first proposed in 1964 and is now known as the Holliday Junction.

Christoph Cremer is a German physicist and emeritus at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, former honorary professor at the University of Mainz and was a former group leader at Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, who has successfully overcome the conventional limit of resolution that applies to light based investigations by a range of different methods. In the meantime, according to his own statement, Christoph Cremer is a member of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing</span> Non-profit research institute in Germany

The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biology of Ageing, founded in 2008, is one of over 80 independent, non-profit-making institutes set up under the umbrella of the Max Planck Society. The overall research aim is to obtain fundamental insights into the aging process and thus to pave the way towards healthier aging in humans. An international research team drawn from almost 40 nations is working to uncover underlying molecular, physiological and evolutionary mechanisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research Institute of Molecular Pathology</span>

The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of Molecular Biotechnology</span> Austrian biomedical research organisation

The Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) is an independent biomedical research organisation founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The institute employs around 250 people from over 40 countries, who perform basic research. IMBA is located at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC) and shares facilities and scientific training programs with the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), the basic research center of Boehringer Ingelheim.

The European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA) is a nonprofit research facility based in Groningen, Netherlands, concerned with cross-disciplinary research on ageing. The institute is part of the University Medical Center Groningen and is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the province of Groningen, Collaboration of the Northern Netherlands (SNN), the European Union, the Noaber Foundation and the Pediatric Oncology Foundation Groningen. The total sum granted was €3.95M in 2011 and €7.4M in 2012. The main building was designed by Rudy Uytenhaak Architectenbureau.

Ashok Venkitaraman is a British cancer researcher of Indian origin. He is the Director of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, a Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, and Program Director at A*STAR, Singapore. From 1998 to 2020, he was the inaugural holder of the Ursula Zoellner Professorship of Cancer Research at the University of Cambridge, a Professorial Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and from 2006 to 2019, was the Director of the Medical Research Council Cancer Unit.

Robert Anthony Martienssen is a British plant biologist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute–Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator, and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Birnstiel</span> Swiss molecular biologist (1933–2014)

Max Luciano Birnstiel was a Swiss molecular biologist who held a number of positions in scientific leadership in Europe, including the chair of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich from 1972–86, and that of founding director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna from 1986 to 1996. His research focused on gene regulation in eukaryotes. His research group is sometimes cited as the first to purify single genes, the ribosomal RNA genes from Xenopus laevis, three years before the successful isolation of the lac operon. He is also recognized for one of the earliest discoveries of a gene enhancer element. Birnstiel died in 2014 of heart failure during cancer treatment.

Bernd Kaina, born on 7 January 1950 in Drewitz, is a German biologist and toxicologist. His research is devoted to DNA damage and repair, DNA damage response, genotoxic signaling and cell death induced by carcinogenic DNA damaging insults.

Tapas Kumar Kundu is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the head of the Transcription and Disease Laboratory of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is known for his studies on the regulation of Gene expression and his contributions in cancer diagnostics and the development of new drug candidates for cancer and AIDS therapeutics. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India and a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2005, for his contributions to biological sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.

Amparo Acker-Palmer is a German-based Spanish cell biologist and neuroscientist. Her research focuses on the similarities of the mechanism of nerve and blood vessel development. She has worked alongside her husband, Till Acker, who is a neurobiologist, in researching tumor therapies. In her career, she has won several awards, including the Paul Ehrlich & Ludwig Darmstaeder Prize for Young Researchers in 2010. In 2012, Amparo Acker-Palmer was elected as member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Ferguson-Smith</span> Mammalian developmental geneticist (born 1961)

Anne Carla Ferguson-Smith is a mammalian developmental geneticist. She is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships at the University of Cambridge. Formerly head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, she is a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge and serves as President of the Genetics Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Jenuwein</span> German scientist

Thomas Jenuwein is a German scientist working in the fields of epigenetics, chromatin biology, gene regulation and genome function.

Ana Pombo is an appointed Professor (W3) of Biology at Humboldt University and senior group leader at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch with the focus on "Epigenetic Regulation and Chromatin Architecture". Since May 2018, Pombo is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Mansuy</span> Neuroscientist

Isabelle M. Mansuy is a professor in neuroepigenetics in the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and the Department of Health Science and Technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. She is known for her work on the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance in relation to childhood trauma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Boehm (biologist)</span> German immunologist

Thomas Boehm is a German immunologist. He is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg im Breisgau. He has won a variety of prizes for his research work.

References

  1. ↑ e.V, MAINZER WISSENSCHAFTSALLIANZ. "Institute of Molecular Biology". www.wissenschaftsallianz-mainz.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  2. ↑ Mainz, I. M. B. "History". IMB Mainz. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  3. ↑ www.boehringer-ingelheim.ca https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.ca/en/procurement/research-development/institute-molecular-biology . Retrieved 2022-08-04.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ "Christof Niehrs is appointed founding director of the Institute of Molecular Biology at Mainz University". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  5. ↑ "106 Millionen Euro für Spitzenforschung: Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung und Land Rheinland-Pfalz fördern gemeinsam Mainzer Institut für Molekulare Biologie". mwg.rlp.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  6. ↑ Mainz, I. M. B. "Research at IMB". IMB Mainz. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  7. ↑ "Baumann Lab | People". www.baumannlab.org. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  8. ↑ "Peter Baumann". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  9. ↑ "Petra Beli joins the Institute of Molecular Biology and obtains a prestigious Emmy Noether award to study the cellular response to DNA damage". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  10. ↑ "Prof. Dorothee Dormann | Gutenberg Research College". www.grc.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  11. ↑ "Leading RNA biologist René Ketting joins the Institute of Molecular Biology as Scientific Director". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  12. ↑ "Home - Lemke Lab". 2020-06-15. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  13. ↑ Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität. "Brian Luke receives Heisenberg Professorship". www.uni-mainz.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  14. ↑ "Mitglieder". Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  15. ↑ "Mitglieder". Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  16. ↑ "Home". SFB 1361. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  17. ↑ "About". cha-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  18. ↑ "Resilience, Adaptation and Longevity". reality.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  19. ↑ "Science of Healthy Ageing Research Programme (SHARP)". cha-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  20. ↑ "Home". SFB 1361. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  21. ↑ "IMB starts international PhD program on "Dynamics of Gene Regulation, Epigenetics and DNA Damage Response"". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  22. ↑ "IMB starts international PhD program on "Dynamics of Gene Regulation, Epigenetics and DNA Damage Response"". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  23. ↑ "International PhD Programme on Gene Regulation, Epigenetics and Genome Stability". www2.daad.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  24. ↑ Mainz, I. M. B. "IMB Postdoc Programme (IPPro)". IMB Mainz. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  25. ↑ Mainz, I. M. B. "Scientific Advisory Board". IMB Mainz. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  26. ↑ "Peter Baumann elected as new EMBO member". www.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-08-04.

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