Adolf Butenandt Institute

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The Adolf Butenandt Institute is part of the medical faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

Work areas

The main research areas of the institute are in the areas of molecular biology , physiological chemistry , metabolic biochemistry and protein analysis , which are divided between three chairs:

The chairs at the institute are cooperation partners of important national research programs:

  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) - Munich location (Spokesperson: Christian Haass)
  • Molecular Biology: DFG Collaborative Research Center Transregio 5 (coordinator at LMU: Peter Becker ); Cluster of Excellence "Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPSM)"
  • Physiological Chemistry: DFG Collaborative Research Center 594; Cluster of Excellence "Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPSM)"
  • Metabolic Biochemistry: DFG Collaborative Research Center 596 (Spokesperson: Christian Haass); Cluster of Excellence "Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPSM)"

The history of the institute

Institute founder Carl von Voit

The Munich Physiological Institute was founded in 1863 and headed by Privy Councilor Carl von Voit until his death in 1908. His successor was Eduard Buchner , a Nobel Prize winner who headed the institute until 1909. With Hans Fischer , another Nobel Laureate chaired the Chemical Physiology Department at the Institute of Physiology and 1915. Amandus Hahn followed him and became in 1942 Director of the Institute. From 1955 to 1960 the Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry Adolf Butenandt was head of the Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. He then became President of the Max Planck Society . His successor was the chemist Peter Karlson , who was head of the institute until 1964.

When Butenandt died in January 1995, Georg Zachau suggested that the institute be renamed the Adolf Butenandt Institute . Since July 7, 1995, the institute has been named after its former director. Before that, the letterheads bore the addresses of the respective chairs. Butenandt is often accused of having been involved in human experiments during the Nazi era, or of having been informed about them. The biochemist Norbert Hilschmann , himself a Butenandt student who was director at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, considers these allegations to be unfounded, while the historian Robert N. Proctor comes to the conclusion that Butenandt was involved in medical-military Research projects, etc. a. at the Air Force Research Station in Rechlin .

In 2002 Christian Haass and in 2005 Peter Becker received the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation. Walter Neupert received the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art on April 17, 2008 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Adolf Butenandt Institute: History 1863 - 1952 ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. Adolf Butenandt Institute: History 1952 - 1964 ( Memento from July 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. Adolf Butenandt Institute: History since 1995 ( Memento from July 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. Butenandt's acquittal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 2006, p. 164 ( online ).
  5. ^ Robert N. Proctor: Adolf Butenandt - Nobel Prize Winner, National Socialist and MPG President . Research program "History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism", Berlin 2000 online version (PDF; 165 kB)
  6. Adolf Butenandt Institute: Leibniz Prize Winner ( Memento from July 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. Bayern.de: Speech by the Bavarian Prime Minister Dr. Günther Beckstein on the occasion of the awarding of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art on April 17, 2008 in the Antiquarium of the Residenz in Munich on April 17, 2008 ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the archive.today web archive )