The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology was founded in 1994. Lothar Willmitzer, our founding director, was appointed as head of the first department in 1994. Mark Stitt became the head of the second department in 2000 and Ralph Bock the head of the third in 2004. Currently the Institute consists of 25 groups led by young scientists and 400 members in total.

The mission of our institute is to study the dynamics of plant metabolism in the context of the plant system as a whole. Since this system is more than a collection of genes and their products, we focus our efforts on understanding how these components dynamically interact over time and under different conditions. By combining traditional plant physiology with molecular analytics and complex data analysis we are forming a holistic view of the structure, function and regulation of the three plant genomes (in the nucleus, the plastids and the mitochondria) and their expression as transcriptomes, proteomes and metabolomes. Our ultimate goal is to develop a systems approach that provides an integrated view of the structure and function of entire plant genomes and will allow modelling of the dynamics and plasticity of metabolism and growth in response to changing environmental parameters and developmental cues.

For detailed information check our website www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de