Participating institutions

Founded in 1527, the Philipps-Universität Marburg (University of Marburg, UMR) is among the oldest universities in Germany. Today it covers almost all academic disciplines, from natural sciences, medicine to the humanities, law, economics and social sciences. UMR has a particularly strong history in microbiological research which is tightly intertwined with the foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (MPI-TM) in Marburg: Rudolf Thauer, who founded the MPI-TM in 1991, was also Professor of Microbiology at UMR. This tight connection has continued to develop into several shared focus areas, and, among many other successful joint projects, resulted in the creation of our program in 2003. Several departments of UMR participate in the IMPRS-µLife: the Department of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Mathematics and Computer Science as well as the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

 

The MPI-TM is one of 85 Max Planck Institutes in Germany and abroad. It is dedicated to basic research on how microorganisms function at the molecular, cellular, and community levels and how they interact with the living and the non-living environment. Research at the institute is carried out in four departments, each headed by a director, that in total host 6 departmental research groups. As of the end of 2023, the institute will also host 7 department independent groups, which brings the total count of research groups at MPI-TM to 13.

 

The Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) was established in 2010 as a collaboration between MPI-TM and UMR. The overarching scientific goals of SYNMIKRO is (1) to dissect microbiological systems by quantitatively characterizing the dynamic interplay of their individual components and (2) to build synthetic systems for basic research and application. The SYNMIKRO building lies in direct vicinity of the UMR microbiology research groups and MPI-TM. The new building hosts 10 groups from both MPI-TM and UMR. It is a core of thriving interaction between MPI-TM and UMR and make Lahnberge campus an excellent environment for it world-renown microbiology research - made in Marburg.