The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology is a non-university research institute of the Max Planck Society located in the heart of Berlin in Berlin-Mitte. It was founded in 1993. Arturo Zychlinsky is currently the Managing Director. The MPIIB is divided into four internal research groups, two partner groups and an Emeritus Group of the founding director Stefan H. E. Kaufmann. The "Regulation in Infection Biology" department headed by Emmanuelle Charpentier was hived off as an independent research center in May 2018. The Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens is now administratively independent of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. In October 2019, Igor Iatsenko and Matthieu Domenech de Cellès established new research groups at the institute, Mark Cronan started his position as research group leader in March 2020.
The Department of Cellular Microbiology is headed by Arturo Zychlinsky. The group's research focus is the hypothesis that chromatin may have evolved to have an immune function in eukaryotes. The group is testing this hypothesis by looking at "Neutrophil Extracellular Traps", which were discovered by the group, and by studying the role of histones in the immune system.
The Vector Biology research unit is headed by Elena Levashina. It is studying the role mosquitoes play in regulating the development of malaria parasites.
Marcus Taylor is the leader of the "Visualisation of Immune Signalling" research group. His group is trying to decipher cellular information transfer in the context of infections and immune responses.
Igor Iatsenko heads the new research group "Genetics of Host-Microbe Interactions". Its aim is to understand the mechanisms of how the host discriminates and responds to different microbial challenges.
Matthieu Domenech de Cellès is the leader of the new research group "Infectious Disease Epidemiology". Their focuses on the population biology of infectious diseases, with a view to understanding how individual-level mechanisms of infection translate into population-level dynamics.
Mark Cronan heads the research group "In vivo cell biology of infections". The group is investigating how granulomas develop in the course of a tuberculosis infection and how host-directed therapies can be used to protect host organisms against infections.
The Emeritus Group of Stefan H. E. Kaufmann, focuses on various aspects of the infection and immunology of tuberculosis as well as rational vaccine research.
