Our research

Energy homeostasis and its neuronal control

The overarching research goal of the MPI for Metabolism Research is to define the physiological regulatory principles in energy and glucose homeostasis as well as the genetic factors and environmental cues that alter energy and glucose homeostasis in disease. By achieving this goal, we aim to ultimately identify novel therapeutic targets as a first step to developing new treatments for obesity and obesity-associated diseases.

To this end, researchers of the Institute employ state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies to pursue translational research approaches ranging from studies on unravelling the underlying molecular mechanisms in cultured cells to defining regulatory mechanisms in model organisms. Finally, hypotheses derived from these approaches are tested and validated through functional imaging in control human subjects as well as patients suffering from obesity and obesity-associated diseases.

Research groups

The overall aim of the group is to unravel the fundamental regulatory principles of how neurons sense nutritional cues and then to determine the neurocircuitry responsible for the coordinated adaptation of behavioral and autonomic outputs. more
The focus of the group is to decipher both the molecular and cellular mechanisms of obesity-associated diseases such as the development of insulin resistance, of hepatocellular and of colorectal carcinoma. more
The group investigates the regulatory principles of the sensory regulation of feeding behaviour and whole-body energy metabolism from embryos to adults.   more
The group investigates mechanisms of synaptic transmission in the control of feeding behaviour and metabolism. more
The Translational Neurocircuitry Group complements and extends the basic research currently being pursued on metabolic processes with studies on human physiology as well as on clinical diseases and pertaining states. The group investigates the interplay of body and brain and its link with human behaviour and cognition. more
The research focuses on developing computational assays of neuronal and cognitive processes and applying them to clinical problems in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. more

Scientific Services

The IT and Software Development Service Group is responsible for running the standard central infrastructure, such as file servers, compute clusters and core switches, as well as providing support, backup, long-term archiving (WORM tape), security and the kind of services found at many research institutes: identity management, mail, WLAN, eduroam, cloud-type services, databases, source code repositories and several web-based services. Where feasible, we use virtual environments with a high-availability configuration. more
The Multimodal Imaging Group provides up-to-date imaging technologies and cutting-edge methodological expertise. Imaging modalities include positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT). The focus of research activities is on functional imaging, i.e. visualization, localization, and quantification of functional processes in the living organism. more
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