History

The Gene Center was established in 1984 by Ernst Ludwig Winnacker as a joint enterprise between the LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institutes in Martinsried with the aim of establishing gene technology in Germany for medical and industrial applications.

The Gene Center was initially accommodated in the MPI of Biochemistry in Martinsried until it moved to its current building in Großhadern in 1994, thereby setting the stage for establishment of the LMU’s new HighTechCampus, dedicated to life sciences education and research.

In 2016, the new Center for Molecular Biosystems Munich building BioSysM was constructed as part of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy and houses Gene Center groups that use integrative molecular systems biology approaches to study innate immunity and cellular responses to genome and mitochondrial stress and groups that develop computational methods for the analysis of high dimensional data and spatial “omics".
 

The Gene Center was directed by Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker from 1984-1998. From 1999 to 2003, the Gene Center was directed by Rudolf Grosschedl, and from 2004 to 2013 by Patrick Cramer. In 2014/2015, the Center was headed by Eckhard Wolf as Managing Director and Ulrike Gaul as Director of the Department of Biochemistry.

Karl-Peter Hopfner has been directing the Gene Center since October 2015. He held the position as Department Director from 2015 to 2019 and has been holding this position again since 2023. From October 2019 to 2023, Roland Beckmann headed the Biochemistry Department.

 Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker (right) and Patrick Cramer (left)
at the ceremony of the award "Ausgewählter Ort 2006"
(Initiative Deutschland - Land der Ideen)

From its beginning, the Gene Center has played a leading role in shaping science and science policy in Germany.  We look back on the remarkable development of the Gene Center, which has been instrumental in advancing the progress of scientific research and supporting the careers of numerous talented researchers. As one of the pioneering institutes to introduce independent junior groups and, later, tenure track professorships, the Gene Center has demonstrated its commitment to fostering early academic independence, which remains at the core of its mission. Futhermore, the Gene Center contributed to the development of Munich/Martinsried as a thriving hub for the emerging biotech industry it stands as today.