image: RIKEN and the Max Planck Society signed an agreement on April 27, 2011, to strengthen their collaboration by establishing a joint research center for systems chemical biology, a field that seeks to achieve a systematic understanding of biological systems from a chemistry perspective. view more
Credit: RIKEN
RIKEN (President Ryoji Noyori) and the Max Planck Society (MPG; President Peter Gruss) signed an agreement on April 27, 2011, to strengthen their collaboration by establishing a joint research center for systems chemical biology, a field that seeks to achieve a systematic understanding of biological systems from a chemistry perspective.
The joint research center will bring together the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute's natural chemical compounds bank NPDepo, Natural Products Depository, and BIOS, the biology oriented synthesis library belong to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Department of Chemical Biology (Herbert Waldmann, director), to create one of the world's leading chemical compounds bank of both synthetic and natural compounds.
The agreement also calls for strengthening the ongoing collaboration on disease glycomics and oligosaccharide synthesis between RIKEN ASI's Systems Glycobiology Research Group (Naoyuki Taniguchi, director) and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Peter Seeberger, director).
By bringing together their complementary technology and experience and working in close collaboration, RIKEN and the Max Planck Society hope to transcend the boundaries between different research fields to achieve a comprehensive understanding of life phenomena. It is also hoped that the resulting exchange of personnel, both young researchers and students, will foster the development of the next generation of scientists.
The year 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of Japan-Germany relations as well as the centennial of the Max Planck Society. Both RIKEN and the Max Planck Society will continue to work toward deepening the cultural and scientific interaction between their two organizations and countries.