Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP), founded in 1994, is one of the largest plant research institutes in Europe. It contains over 20 research groups organized in three departments and has more than 300 researchers. Its mission is a system-oriented analysis of the uptake, synthesis, transport and storage of plant metabolites. The institute has large facilities for plant growth under controlled environmental conditions and is well equipped for a wide spectrum of modern techniques and analytical platforms for plant research, including transcript profiling, proteomics, metabolite profiling and genetic engineering.

Prof. Ralph Bock is the Director of Department III “Organelle Biology, Biotechnology and Molecular Ecophysiology” and will lead the MPI-MP scientific team. He possesses over 20 years of experience in plant molecular biology and biotechnology research and has participated in successful EU networks in FP6 and FP7 (Plastomics, PharmaPlanta, Co-Extra, METAPRO).

Within DISCO, the working group of Prof. Bock will contribute its expertise in the fields of plastid transformation, genomics, plant genetics and plant molecular biology.