Home | Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Group of people standing on outdoor steps in front of a building on a sunny day.

Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

We investigate how organisms interact with chemical signals.

Hands holding a small scientific apparatus connected to tubes in a lab setting.

We do research in the lab to better understand interactions at a molecular level.

Photo: Anna Schroll

Hand in blue glove holding tweezers near a green plant leaf.

We do research in the glasshouse and in the field to better understand interactions and signals in their natural environment.

Photo: Anna Schroll

Slogan “Wir treten ein für ein weltoffenes Thüringen" (in English: We stand for a cosmopolitan Thuringia”) with colorful overlapping shapes.

We support the Initiative “Weltoffenes Thüringen”.

We are committed to ensuring that people from different backgrounds live and work together in a respectful manner.

Audience seated in a conference room listening to a speaker presenting slides.

Training and international collaborations are key features of our work.

Group of runners posing in front of a Jena Firmenlauf event banner.

We believe diversity and inclusion leads to the best science.

Jonathan Gershenzon

Evolutionary Neuroethology

Madagascar periwinkle Catharanthus roseus

Sarah O'Connor

Martin Kaltenpoth

Clonal raider ants (Ooceraea biroi) marked with colored dots to distinguish individuals within a colony during behavioral tracking. Photo: Anna Schroll

Yuko Ulrich

Shabnam Mohammadi

Activity in the insect brain is made visible by using calcium imaging.

Silke Sachse

Male (left) and female (right) moths of the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis. The caterpillars of this pest mainly attack the stems of maize plants.

David Heckel

African cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis on the leaf of a sweet potato plant (Ipomoea batatas).

Axel Mithöfer

Scheme of a membrane pore and its dependency on temperature

Ute Hellmich

Research News

Biofluorescence discovered in the fire salamander

May 27, 2026

Ultraviolet-induced blue-green biofluorescence reveals a previously undetected trait in a well-studied amphibian.

Ant larvae control parental care by using odor signals

April 09, 2026

Researchers have discovered a brood pheromone released by larvae of clonal raider ants that temporarily suppresses egg-laying in adult ants.

Millions-of-years-old insect symbioses are surprisingly fragile

April 01, 2026

An introduced bacterium displaces the sawtoothed grain beetle's symbiotic partner, leading to the complete collapse of a previously stable symbiosis within a few generations.

Current News and Announcements

Publications

Mai, D. T.; Gershenzon, J.: Two-component plant defenses are better than one. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 123 (24), e2613743123 (2026)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

Güney, G.; Cedden, D.; Körnig, J.; Ulber, B.; Beran, F.; Scholten, S.; Rostás, M.: Physiological and transcriptional changes associated with obligate aestivation in the cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala). Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 173, 104165 (2024)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

van de Peppel, L. J. J.; Grabe, V.; Lehenberger, M.; Becker, F. F. M.; Holighaus, G.; Biedermann, P. H. W.: The evolution of fungus farming in ship-timber beetles (Coleoptera: Lymexyloidea). Systematic Entomology 51 (2), e70056 (2026)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

News

Ute Hellmich becomes Max Planck Fellow - New research group on Signaling Dynamics

May 04, 2026

Starting May 1, the biochemist and professor of Biostructural Interactions at Friedrich Schiller University Jena will also lead a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

Wilhelm Boland receives Leibniz-HKI's Xience Award 2026

April 13, 2026

awards news

The former Max Planck director is honored with the Leibniz-HKI's highest award for his groundbreaking scientific achievements and longstanding support of natural product research.