Philipp Brand receives ERC Starting-Grant to study neural circuits, microbes, and behavioral evolution

"Memories last a lifetime, but they're built out of molecules that have very short lifetimes. So how do you get permanence in a system like that?" – Erin Schuman. Meet Erin Schuman, 2026 Kavli Prize Laureate in Neuroscience and Director at the @maxplanckinstituteforbrain6013 Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. Driven by a childhood wonder for how animals store memories over long periods, her groundbreaking research upended decades of neuroscience dogma. Through a simple yet revolutionary experiment, Schuman and her team discovered that neurons don't wait for proteins to travel all the way from the cell body. Instead, local "factories" right at the synapse synthesize thousands of messenger RNAs on demand—providing the molecular building blocks needed to construct long-term memory. In this portrait, Schuman shares her journey from an eager young learner to uncovering the hidden cellular machinery inside our brains. 00:00 –The paradox of lifetime memories 00:15 – A childhood love for learning & brain mystery 00:48 – The experiment that shocked neuroscientists 01:27 – Discovering local protein synthesis at the synapse 01:53 – Visualizing ribosomes and mitochondria inside the cell 02:19 – The ultimate unsolved question of memory longevity #neuroscience #brain #memory #kavliprize #biology #science #maxplanck #stem

The Max Planck Society meets for its Annual Meeting in Frankfurt am Main. Highlights will included the presentation of the Max Planck Startup Award of the Stifterverband and the Plenary Assembly featu...

New study shows ribosome biogenesis can occur within neuronal branches, challenging traditional textbook biology.

The 2025 Louis-Jeantet Prizes are awarded to Gilles Laurent, director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and to Veit Hornung, professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of ...