About us

International think tank and world-class research center

The Max Planck Institutes of Biology, Biological Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (Tübingen site) and the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory are located at the Max Planck Campus Tübingen. In total, more than 1200 employees from over 50 nations work and conduct research here. We are part of the 86 research institutions of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science.

The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful scientific organization in the field of basic research. For more than 70 years, it has been synonymous with knowledge-oriented basic research in the life sciences, natural sciences and humanities. Around 23,800 employees work and conduct research at 38 locations in Germany as well as in Rome, Florence, Luxembourg, Nijmegen and Florida. The individual institutes are headed by world-renowned scientists who choose their own research topics, enjoy the best working conditions and have a free hand in selecting their teams. This great freedom of research goes hand in hand with a high degree of responsibility.

Excellent conditions for outstanding research

Interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and ways of thinking are essential building blocks for the worldwide reputation and success of the Max Planck Society. This is demonstrated in important rankings: The Max Planck Society has been among the world's top 5 in the Highly Cited Researchers Index for many years.

Scientific prizes and awards are an important indicator of the quality of research achievements. Internationally, the Nobel Prize ranks first among scientific prizes. The Max Planck Society has 30 laureates in the natural sciences. At the time the prize was awarded, they were scientific members of the Max Planck Society or its predecessor, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.

At the Tübingen research campus, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus for their research on the genetic control of early embryonic development in 1995. Eric Wieschaus and the biologist identified and systematized genes that control the formation of the body plan and segments in the egg of the fruit fly ('Drosophila melanogaster').

In addition, many scientists of the Max Planck Society are among the winners of prestigious scientific awards from Germany and abroad, such as the German Leibniz Prize, the Japan Prize or the Fields Medal.

Max Planck Institute for Biology

The departments and research groups at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen combine the major topics of development and evolution. In our research, we explore elementary processes such as the development of complex organisms, which occur countless times in animals and plants, but the details of which are far from all known. We want to know how complex substances, such as proteins, arose during evolution, how living organisms adapt to their location and how new species arise - in short, how evolution works.

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics researches information processing in the brain. We address the question of how a consistent picture of the environment is generated from the diverse and ongoing sensory information and how the appropriate behavior emerges. We use experimental and theoretical methods as well as computer simulations to investigate the processes that allow us to perceive, decide, act, and learn. Many of our scientific findings have laid foundations in AI research and will continue to shape this discipline in the future.

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems combines cutting-edge research in theory, software and hardware in the field of intelligent systems at two locations, in Stuttgart and Tübingen: In Tübingen, the research areas of machine learning, machine vision, robotics, and social informatics investigate how intelligent systems process information to perceive, act, and learn. The institute in Stuttgart hosts leading expertise in micro- and nano-robotics, robotic materials, haptics, human-machine interaction, bio-hybrid systems, and medical robotics.

Friedrich Miescher Laboratory

The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory (FML) was named after Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss physician who discovered DNA in Tübingen. The laboratory is dedicated to the promotion of young scientists and currently hosts four research groups from all areas of biology. We investigate the molecular basis, mechanisms and evolutionary processes underlying adaptation and speciation in natural populations.