RIKEN and Max Planck Society establish Joint Research Center for Systems Chemical Biology

RIKEN (President Ryoji Noyori) and the Max Planck Society (MPG; President Peter
Gruss) signed an agreement on April 27, 2011, to strengthen their collaboration by
establishing a joint research center for systems chemical biology, a field that seeks to
achieve a systematic understanding of biological systems from a chemistry perspective.

The joint research center will bring together the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute's
natural chemical compounds bank NPDepo, Natural Products Depository, and BIOS, the
biology oriented synthesis library belong to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular
Physiology, Department of Chemical Biology (Herbert Waldmann, director), to create one
of the world's leading chemical compounds bank of both synthetic and natural compounds.

The agreement also calls for strengthening the ongoing collaboration on disease
glycomics and oligosaccharide synthesis between RIKEN ASI's Systems Glycobiology
Research Group (Naoyuki Taniguchi, director) and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids
and Interfaces (Peter Seeberger, director).

By bringing together their complementary technology and experience and working in close
collaboration, RIKEN and the Max Planck Society hope to transcend the boundaries
between different research fields to achieve a comprehensive understanding of life
phenomena. It is also hoped that the resulting exchange of personnel, both young
researchers and students, will foster the development of the next generation of scientists.

The year 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of Japan-Germany relations as well as the
centennial of the Max Planck Society. Both RIKEN and the Max Planck Society will
continue to work toward deepening the cultural and scientific interaction between their two
organizations and countries.

Provided by RIKEN