The Partner Institute of the Max Planck Society, IBioBA, participated in the 74th General Assembly of Members and the appointment of the new president in the framework of the Max Planck Society’s 75th anniversary celebrations.
The director of IBioBA, Damián Refojo, and Eduardo Arzt, external scientific member of the German Max Planck Society (MPS) and founder of the Institute, attended the inauguration ceremony of Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer, the new president of the MPS. The ceremony was held last Thursday, the 22nd of June, in Goettingen, Germany.
“The Max Planck Society is undoubtedly one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific institutions, not only in Germany but worldwide. It is a personal joy but also of enormous importance for IBioBA, as a partner institute, to be here at the inauguration of the new president, representing the dozens of students, researchers, technicians and administrative staff of IBioBA, in the framework of the 75th anniversary of the Max Planck Society”, said Refojo.
They were also present at the 74th annual general membership meeting of the Max Planck Society, together with more than 800 internal and external guests. The event was opened with a public lecture by Prof. Dr. Melina Schuh, director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, and included both public activities with the participation of German authorities, as well as internal activities of the members of the Society.
A long-standing link
The relationship between the MPS and Argentinean science goes back more than 30 years of various scientific collaborations, joint projects and Argentinean visits to various Max Planck Institutes in Germany. This history was the basis for the idea of developing a more important level of collaboration: on 20 November 2007, an agreement was signed with the MPS for the creation of a Partner Institute of the Max Planck Society, the Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires (IBioBA- CONICET- MPSP).
“Our relationship goes back many, many years. My scientific collaborations with Max Planck groups were the foundations of our Institute, which over time were strengthened until the creation of IBioBA as the only partner institute in Latin America”, says Arzt.
Since its inception, IBioBA has aimed to contribute to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge, to contribute to the education and training of scientists of excellence, and to strengthen the scientific collaboration between Argentina and Germany. Its mission is to conduct cutting-edge research to gain new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying relevant human diseases, and to foster the translation of this knowledge into new individualized therapies.
IBioBA research focuses on three lines of research (Neuroscience, Cellular Plasticity and Molecular Targeting), in which 10 teams are involved. It also has three platforms – scientific service units (Confocal Microscopy, Cytometry and Cell Sorting, and Bioinformatics Platform) and houses the Max Planck Guest Laboratory for Heart and Lung Research (MP-HL Lab). There are more than 60 scientists, together with technical and administrative staff, who work every day with great dedication for the development of cutting-edge science and technology in our country.
75 years of one of the world’s most renowned research societies
The Max Planck Society was formally founded in Goettingen in 1948 on the basis of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG), which was dissolved after the Second World War. The society was named after the renowned physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Planck and has since established itself as one of the world’s most renowned research organizations, with 38 Nobel laureates to date, including researchers from its predecessor organization, the KWG. The 85 institutes carry out basic research in the biomedical sciences, physics and chemistry, and the humanities.