In early March, we embarked on our second Svalbard expedition of the year. And once again, it proved to be as challenging as it is fascinating. Despite harsh weather conditions, our team led by Katrin Knittel successfully collected all planned samples and returned with valuable material for furth...
Scientists have found a new type of iron-storing protein in a mixture of microbes containing methane-degraders. This discovery underscores the importance of characterizing proteins from microbes that cannot be isolated, thereby enabling the discovery of new enzymes for future applications.
A short research trip to Bremen became a lifetime experience: Manabu Fukui never imagined the city would become his second home, but three decades at the Max Planck Institute transformed his career and life through science, friendship, and unexpected adventures.
The ecologist Jean-Baptiste Raina will join the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in June 2026 to lead a new department exploring microscale microbial interactions and their impact on marine ecosystems. We are very happy to welcome him and look forward to our collaboration!
More than 300 pupils from Bremen and Lower Saxony took part in the 4th Bremen Ocean Day yesterday and were introduced into the world of marine science by internationally renowned researchers.
Climate scientist Tatiana Ilyina will be strengthening our executive board and expanding our research with a new Department of Ocean Biosphere Dynamics. We are very happy to welcome her and look into our shared future with confidence and joy!
Meet Alicia, Nahja and Laura – this is to all the inspiring women driving knowledge & equality in science!
Am 14. Februar 2018 ist es soweit: An der Universität Bremen findet der erste Bremer Ocean Day statt.
After seven years of dedicated research in our institute, we say goodbye to Tristan Wagner as he moves on to a new stage of his scientific career.
An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology has uncovered a hidden world of tiny partnerships thriving in wastewater treatment plants worldwide. The microscopic allies—specialized bacteria living inside single-celled hosts—play a surprising role in...
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology find that urea is a major energy source for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the open ocean, while coastal AOA prefer ammonium. The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that organic nitrogen plays a far greater role...
On November 18, 2025, the unifreunde Bremen association awarded the Bremen Study Prize for outstanding theses and dissertations. Our former doctoral student Jan Brüwer is one of the prize winners. We congratulate him warmly!
Antje Boetius, head of our Deep Sea Ecology and Technology Group at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, has been admitted to the Pour le Mérite order. It is one of the most prestigious honors for science and art in Germany.
Microorganisms in the Black Sea can produce large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, this gas never reaches the atmosphere because it is swiftly consumed by other microorganisms, which convert it to harmless dinitrogen gas (N2). Scientists from the Max Planck Insti...
Scientists have demonstrated the key role of a tungsten-containing enzyme in the production of ethanol from carbon monoxide performed by the microbe Clostridium autoethanogenum. This discovery resolves a long-standing biochemical debate and provides new insight into how bacteria can transform ind...
Congratulations, Lauren!
The Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology welcomes Dr. Alicia L. Bruzos as a Minerva Fast Track Fellow.
From September 20 to 21, it was once again time for the Bremer Forschungsmeile as part of the Maritime Woche!
An international meet-up in Bremen exploring the evolutionary links between specialized bacteria and algal hosts
New research reveals structures of the methane-converting enzyme Methyl-coenzyme M reductases (MCR) in unprecedented detail. MCRs were isolated from freshwater and marine methane-consuming microorganisms known as anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME). The results now published in Nature Communi...
Sugars are essential for life in the ocean, but some resist breakdown even by the hungriest marine microbes. Now, scientists have developed a new tool that allows them to observe, in real time, how microbial communities feed on complex carbohydrates such as sugars. This approach can help us under...
Six days of interesting talks, productive workshops, enriching coffee breaks and lots of science
40 employees tackled the route and mastered it with ease!
We are excited to announce the official launch of the Ecological Genomics Group at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology!
On 28 May 2025, the moment had arrived: The University of Greifswald and the University of Bremen received funding approval from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio (TRR) 420 CONCENTRATE. The researchers in the network are investigating sugar poly...
The award enables joint research with Max Planck Director Marcel Kuypers from Bremen
Some microbes living on sand grains use up all the oxygen around them. Their neighbors, left without oxygen, make the best of it: They use nitrate in the surrounding water for denitrification – a process hardly possible when oxygen is present. This denitrification in sandy sediments in well-oxyge...
Historic Success: University of Bremen acquires funding for two Clusters of Excellence for the first time – including “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface”
We congratulate to this outstanding honor.
Deployment of the in situ mass spectrometer developed by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the MARUM - Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen.
The Research Vessel METEOR is currently underway in the Atlantic, exploring hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, led by MPI researcher Christian Borowski. On board is the new remotely operated diving robot MARUM-QUEST5000 from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the Unive...
More than 300 pupils from Bremen and Lower Saxony took part in the 4th Bremen Ocean Day yesterday and were introduced into the world of marine science by internationally renowned researchers.
Last weekend, the expedition M208 led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel started. Among those on board are researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. The expedition with the research vessel METEOR is investigating the physical, chemical and bi...
Tiny algae darken the surface of glaciers and thus accelerate their melting. This is the case, for example, on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which plays an important role in our climate and is already melting increasingly fast due to global warming. A study by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Micro...
Researchers at three collaborating Max Planck Institutes have unveiled the process by which certain single-celled microorganisms convert carbon dioxide into energy-rich compounds in oxygen-free environments. An understanding of this mechanism has the potential to inspire and inform biological and...
Scientists from Bremen, Germany, find peculiar mitochondria-like symbionts all over the world, and unveil their surprising metabolic capacities. Their results are now published in Nature Communications.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research and University of Copenhagen introduce an innovative approach to image luminescence lifetimes. This simple approach uses readily-available cost-effective equipment, paving the way for advanc...
Scientists discovered significant numbers of animals living in cavities and caves below the deep-sea seafloor, some growing up to half a meter of length. The discovery, which underlines how many secrets still hide in the inaccessible deep sea and how important it is to protect this ecosystem, was...
In spring 2025, Prof Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute and Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, will be appointed president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California. MBARI is one of the most esteemed institutes for ma...
In the ocean‘s sandy seafloor, bacterial residents have neatly organized their housing space. Some enjoy the hustle and bustle in the pore water between the grains of sand and are specialized to use the fresh organic matter from the seawater flushing through the sediment. The majority of bacteria...
From September 21 to 22, it was once again time for the Bremer Forschungsmeile as part of the Maritime Woche!
On September 23, 2024, it was that time again: We welcome the 9 new MarMics to our institute!
Microbes were the only life form on Earth for most of the history of our planet. Even today, they still make up the majority of species that are vital to the health of our planet. They produce much of our oxygen, help plants grow, maintain biogeochemical cycles and thus sustain our ecosystems. A....
We congratulate our Director Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier, who has been awarded the prestigious Award for Interdisciplinary Research from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now reveal how a bacterial parasite infects and reproduces in the nuclei of deep-sea mussels from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. They show how a single bacterial cell invades the mussel’s nucleus where it reproduces to over 80,...
We are happy to announce that our researcher, Luis Humberto Orellana Retamal, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant.
We are pleased and excited to welcome a new research group to our institute as of January 2025: Under the heading of Dr. Matthias Fischer, the researchers will explore the biology of giant viruses and their parasites.
Methane-oxidizing bacteria could play a greater role than previously thought in preventing the release of climate-damaging methane from lakes, researchers from Bremen report. They also show who is behind the process and how it works.
On 22 July, we welcomed a group of pupils from the Japanese province of Öta to our institute.
Fucoidan, a sugar released by algae, can trap carbon dioxide (CO2) for centuries but remains poorly understood due to its complex and diverse molecular structure. Dr. Conor Crawford developed an automated method to recreate fucoidan to study which types are most effective at storing carbon. With ...
Lucinid clams, inconspicuous inhabitants of the seafloor and one of the most diverse group of animals in the ocean, rely on symbiotic bacteria for their survival. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now reveal the evolutionary journey of these tiny ...
It MA(t)TERs is a conference that focuses on MArine and TERrestrial microbiology, organized jointly by the PhD Reps from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and the MPI for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. This year, it included a contest to choose a new logo to a...
The BRIESE Prize 2023 goes to Dr Hagen Buck-Wiese from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. The jury honours his outstanding research, which makes a significant contribution to understanding what happens to the carbohydrates that marine algae produce through photosynthesis ...
Marine microbes control the flux of matter and energy essential for life in the oceans. Among them, the bacterial group SAR11 accounts for about a third of all the bacteria found in surface ocean waters. A study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germa...
Exciting facts and beautiful pictures about our research on seagrasses can currently be seen in several television programmes.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have discovered a new partnership between a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. The newly-discovered bacterial symbiont is closely related to the nitrog...
Scientists take a leap towards estimating the number of strains that make up a natural bacterial population
Decoding the conversations between microbes of hypersaline environments reveals deep insights into the origins of complex life.
More than 300 pupils from Bremen and Lower Saxony took part in the 4th Bremen Ocean Day yesterday and were introduced into the world of marine science by internationally renowned researchers.
On February 27, 2024, the 4th Ocean Day will allow 500 pupils to dig deep into marine science in Bremen.
Researchers from Bremen, Germany, studied the composition and function of bacteria in the seabed off Svalbard, during alternating periods of polar night and midnight sun. To do this, they specially developed a sampling device, the Ellrott grab. Contrary to bacterial communities in the overlying w...
By tightly regulating nitrogen uptake, microorganisms avoid overeating nitrogen and thus wasting energy. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now reveal how some methanogenic archaea manage to do so.
Joint declaration of the Bremen research institutions united in the U Bremen Research Alliance and the State Rectors' Conference
We would like to thank the Andreas Rühl Foundation for funding the research project "Animals degrade the bioplastic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)" of our postdoctoral researcher Caroline Zeidler.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 1112 at 11:00 a.m.
Alicia L. Bruzos (University of Caen, Normandy, France)
"Contagious cancers and their spread among marine bivalves"
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 10:00 a.m.
David Richardson (University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom)
"Respiring Rocks - solving the conundrum of electron transfer to the microbe-mineral interface"
Tristan Wagner from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology wins an ERC Consolidator Grant.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 10:00 a.m.
Jose M Martin Duran (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)
"The symbiosis of Osedax worms and the genomic adaptation to digest vertebrate bones"
Researchers around Susanne Erdmann from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen take a look at data that has so far been mostly discarded as contamination, revealing the previously underestimated role of extracellular vesicles (EVs). These are important for the exchange of gene...
North German researchers are developing a method that reveals the chemical communication between microbes and their host.
Some bacteria are able to tap into unusual sources of nutrients in the surface water of the oceans. This enables them to increase their primary production and extract more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In doing so, however, they release the potent greenhouse gas methane.
How do marine bacteria convert sugar into energy? This question is the subject of a new Emmy Noether junior research group at the University of Bremen. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the team led by marine biologist Dr. Greta Reintjes with around one million euros over the next si...
Forty employees of our institute took the opportunity to visit the Science Campus Braunschweig-Süd, which bundles expertise and infrastructure against infectious diseases, yesterday as part of a work excursion.
On September 25, 2023, it was that time again: We welcome the 13 new MarMics to our institute!
Humanity continuously emits greenhouse gases and thereby worsens global warming. Increasing research efforts go into developing strategies to convert these gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), into valuable products. CO2 accumulates dramatically over the years and is chemically very stable, thus ...
Five weeks after setting sail from Tromsø, Norway, the Alfred Wegener Institute's research vessel Polarstern makes a stop at the northernmost point on Earth. On board are scientists from the HGF-MPG Joint Research Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Mi...
We congratulate our director Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier, who has been awarded the prestigious Award for Environmental Research from the American Society for Microbiology.
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Anna Karnkowska (University of Warsaw, Poland)
“Transitions in the evolution of eukaryotes: lessons learned from microbial eukaryotes.“
Dr. Jana Geuer, who is a Postdoc at the Max Planck institute for Marine Microbiology in the Metabolic Interactions Research Group of Prof. Manuel Liebeke, has embarked on an exciting scientific journey with the sea4soCiety consortium. Their mission? To uncover new molecular processes for carbon s...
Good research needs good conversations. In intensive exchange with colleagues and in a comfortable environment, our employees can optimally unfold and develop their scientific potential. In addition to first-class research infrastructure, this also requires small oases of tranquillity that enable...
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
in the MPI lecture hall 4012 at 3:00 p.m. (15:00 Uhr)
Samuel Pontrelli (ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Host: Margot Bligh)
“Uncovering metabolic crossfeeding networks in marine microbial communities“
Nitric oxide (NO) is a central molecule in the global cycling of nitrogen, and also toxic. Little is known about if and how microbes can use NO as a substrate for growth. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have now managed to grow a microbial comm...
Studies at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Basin with the deep-diving submersible Alvin
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have uncovered the molecular secrets of a methane-generating microbe that can transform sulfate into sulfide – a ready-to-use cellular building block. This discovery opens up exciting opportunities in biofuel produ...
The seafloor is home to around one-third of all the microorganisms on the Earth and is inhabited even at a depth of several kilometers. Only when it becomes too hot does the abundance of microorganisms appear to decline. But how, and from what, do microorganisms in the deep seafloor live? How do ...
Seawater is full of bacteria, hundreds of thousands live in every litre. But the sheer number of bacteria living in the water does not necessarily mean a lot. More important is how active they are and how quickly they duplicate, as demonstrated in a study by researchers from the Max Planck Instit...
Algal blooms in the ocean play a pivotal role in global carbon cycling. Such blooms entail successive blooms of specialized bacteria that collectively remineralize gigatons of algal biomass on a global scale. This biomass is largely composed of distinct polysaccharides, and the microbial decompos...
Almost 60 employees take part in the company run!
Phytosterols are good for your health, but humans and other animals are not able to make them themselves. To acquire phytosterols, humans are increasingly turning to supplements, green smoothies, or a Mediterranean diet with plenty of plant-based foods. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute f...
Hello everyone! My name is Bruna and I will be working on the sea4soCiety project investigating the role of dissolved organic compounds present in coastal ecosystems. More specifically, I will apply Mass spectrometry techniques to identify compounds exuded by Salt Marshes plants and found in pore...
Zukunftstag am MPI 2022