The Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology is a research institute for microbiology in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1991 and is one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Its sister institute is the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, which was founded a year later in 1992 in Bremen.
There are currently around 19 research groups at the institute. The research at MPI-Marburg broadly focuses on understanding the functioning of microorganisms at the molecular, cellular and community levels. In particular, the focus is the mechanisms of cellular and community adaptation of bacteria in response to changes in the environment[1].
The Institute consists of three departments:
The current Managing Director of MPI-Marburg is Prof. Dr. Regine Kahmann, who also heads the Department of Organismic Interactions [2].
The Emeritus Group at MPI-Marburg is headed by renowned biochemist and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize recipient, Prof. Rudolf K. Thauer, who was also the founding director of the institute when it was established in 1991.
Other than the three departments, there are 4 independent research groups at the institute.
MPI-Marburg is scheduled to expand with a new Department for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), in collaboration with the Max Planck Society and the University of Marburg [3]. The new department will serve as a research centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) with about 100 scientific positions expected to be made available. A grant of about 21 million Euro has been allocated for the period of 2010-12 alone [4].
The Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology operates the International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology [1] program, in collaboration with the Philipps University of Marburg. The degrees are conferred by the University, as is the case for all other IMPRS programs in the MPG. Apart from the University, the MPI has close collaborations with research centres in the city and overseas. More specific information on their collaborations can be found on their cooperations page.