Research

Matthias Mann is known for his important contributions to the field of proteomics. The physicist and mathematician has had a decisive influence on large-scale proteomics and therefore on our ability to detect the proteins associated with biological systems. His greatest achievement is considered to be the development of mass spectrometric procedures, which originated in the field of physics, in the field of molecular biology. Beyond the technical advancement of these methods, Mann and his colleagues have developed bioinformatics tools that can analyse and interpret the huge amounts of data resulting from mass spectrometric measurements. His method can also be applied to medical purposes - for example to compare the proteome of healthy cells with tumour cells.

His department "Proteomics and signal transduction" at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry develops and applies powerful tools of 'proteomics' with the overall aim of the analysis of the entire protein complement in protein complexes, cells, tissues and organisms.