Research

Overview current research groups

The Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) in Freiburg is an interdisciplinary research institution that conducts basic research in two key areas of modern biology: Immunobiology & Epigenetics

In currently 11 research groups, we are seeking to discover the biology underlying human health and answers important questions about life processes. The faculty is subdivided into five permanent departments (currently Biological Physics, Chromatin Regulation, & Developmental Epigenetics) and eight research groups that carry out autonomous research projects.

Jumana AlHaj Abed

AlHaj Abed lab focuses on understanding how maternal and paternal chromosomes communicate using genomic approaches and super-resolution imaging.

Asifa Akhtar

The Akhtar lab is interested understanding how the two epigenetic mechanisms of histone acetylation and long non-coding RNA are able to fine-tune gene expression in order to achieve the appropriate levels for a given cell.

Thomas Boehm

The lab investigates the evolution of adaptive immune systems and their design principles. In particular, the lab studies the development and function of the thymus and T-cells by a comparative approach examining a number of species, ranging from basal vertebrates to humans.

Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid

The lab investigates the mechanisms that maintain HSC quiescence. By using a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches the lab tries to understand which signaling pathways and extracellular biochemical stimuli keep HSC dormancy.

Ibrahim Cissé

The lab investigates the behavior of individual molecules and biomolecular phase transition in living cells emerging from so-called weak and transient biomolecular interactions.

Ayele Argaw-Denboba

The lab aims to decipher the regulatory role of gut microbiota in gametogenesis, embryogenesis and epigenetic inheritance mechanisms.

Laboratory Valentin Flury

The lab dissects the regulatory mechanisms maintaining chromatin states across the cell cycle.

Rudolf Grosschedl

The labs aims to to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of B lymphocytes from hematopoietic stem cells and the regulation of ES cell pluripotency.

Valérie Hilgers

The lab investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying neuron-specific RNA signatures and aims to understand how RNA processing affects neuronal development and function.

Nicola Iovino

The lab unravels the mechanisms that regulate epigenetic reprogramming of gametes, germline epigenetic inheritance, and de novo establishment of epigenetic memory by using Drosophila early embryo as a model system.

Thomas Jenuwein

The lab focuses on histone modifications and heterochromatin formation. The team investigates single molecule alterations as well as genome-wide signatures for heterochromatin.

Starting in March 2025

Juliane Glaser

The lab studiesepigenetic mechanisms that govern mammalian embryonic development. The main focus is on transposable elements and how those contribute to both pathologic and healthy developmental phenotypes.