Seminars
The CRC 1218 organizes a variety of seminars focused on mitochondrial research, offering a well-rounded education from both on-campus experts and internationally acclaimed scientists.
Lecture Series: CRC 1218 project leaders present their latest findings and cutting-edge methodologies regarding the topic “Fundamentals in Mitochondrial Regulation of Cellular Function”. The seminar is followed by a gathering over lunch to foster scientific exchange on campus.
MitoClubs: International guests of outstanding scientific reputation are invited to share their expertise and explore potential collaborations. Early career researchers have the opportunity to engage with the speakers during a dedicated lunch session.
Upcoming Events
MitoClub Seminar - 16 March 2026
Liron Bar-Peled, PhD
Title: “Identification of Druggable and Redox Vulnerabilities in Cancer”
Wednesday, 16.03.2026 at 2 pm!
Venue: MPI Age Auditorium
MitoClub Seminar - 18 March 2026
Prof. Dr. Johannes Herrmann
Title: tba
Wednesday, 18.03.2026 at 12 pm
Venue: MPI Age Auditorium
mitoRTG Lecture - 15 April 2026
Dr. Ina Huppertz
Title: tba
Wednesday, 15.04.2026 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall, ground floor
Past MitoClubs and Lectures
Past Lecture Series
"Mitochondrial Structure and Sub-Compartments:
Spotlight on Proteins and Lipids"
by Mafalda Escobar-Henriques, Project A03
Date & time: 04.05.2022 at 12 pm
Venue: COMB, Zülpicher Str. 47a lecture hall 4.30, 4th floor
"Insights to Mitochondrial Metabolism"
by Günter Schwarz, Project B08
NEW Date & time: 25.05.2022 at 12 pm
Venue: COMB, Zülpicher Str. 47a lecture hall 4.30, 4th floor
"The Complex Molecular Machines
of Oxidative Phosphorylation"
by Ulrich Brandt, Project A10
Date & time: 29.06.2022 at 12 pm
Venue: COMB, Zülpicher Str. 47a lecture hall 0.40, ground floor
"Mitochondrial Biogenesis Regulation"
by Elena Rugarli, Project A05
Date & time: 12.10.2023 at 4 pm
Venue: CECAD, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Metabolic Control of Immunity"
by Mauro Corrado, Project B12
Date & time: 25.10.2023 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Gene Expression in Mitochondria"
by Aleksandra Trifunovic, Project B01
Date & time: 22.11.2023 at 11 am
Venue: CECAD, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Mitochondria and innate imune signalling"
by Thomas Langer, Project A01
Date & time: 07.02.2024 at 12 pm
Venue: Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Auditorium
"Protein Homeostasis During Mitochondrial Import"
by Thomas Becker, Project B11
Date & time: 21.02.2024 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall
"Mitochondrial Stress Responses"
by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hoppe, Project B03
Date & time: 20.11.2024 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Mitochondria in the Nervous System: Fueling the Brain Through Metabolic Diversity"
by Dr. Elisa Motori, Project A11
Date & time: 11.12.2024 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Crosstalk between Cell Cycle and Mitochondria"
by Dr. Valentina Piano, Project A13
Date & time: 15.01.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"From Chaos to Clarity: A Researcher's Life in Research Data Management"
by Dr. Sergio Avila-Calero, INF-Project
Date & time: 19.02.2025 at 2 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Introduction to Proteomics: Quantification, Spatial Analysis, and Beyond"
by Prof. Dr. Marcus Krüger, Project Z02
Date & time: 12.03.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Mitochondria in Neuronal Function and Neurodegeneration"
by Prof. Dr. Matteo Bergami, Project A07
Date & time: 09.04.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"The role of mitochondria in cancer"
by Désirée Schatton/Christian Frezza, Project B14
Date & time: 14.05.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Exercise as a platform to discover unknown molecular mechanisms controlling mitochondrial function and aging"
by Hans-Georg Sprenger
Date & time: 25.06.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: MPI Age Auditorium
"Mitochondria in cell death and inflammation"
by Hamid Kashkar, Project B06
Date & time: 27.08.2025 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
“Mitochondrial control of immune cell function”
by Prof. Sabine Eming, Project B10
Date & time: 05.11.25 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
“Mitochondrial alterations in apoptosis”
by Prof. Ana García-Sáez, Project A12
date& time: 03.12.25 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
“Mitochondria and ROS Signalling”
by Prof. Jan Riemer, Project B02
date & time: 17.12.25 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall, ground floor
“Mitochondrial Stress Responses”
by Prof. Thorsten Hoppe, Project B03
date & time: 14.01.2026 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
"Mitochondrial Gene Expression"
by Prof. Aleksandra Trifunovic
date & time: 04.03.2026 at 12 pm
Venue: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall, ground floor
Past mitoClubs
Previous Seminars in 2026
MITO Club
Date: Wednesday, 21.01.2026
Time: 12 pm.
Prof. Thomas Misgeld, Technical University of Munich
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
Previous seminars in 2025
MITO Club
Date: Wednesday, 19.11.2025
Time: 12 pm.
Prof. Alexis Jourdain, Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Seminar on “Mitochondrial Auxotrophies”
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: Wednesday, 26.09.2025
Time: 12 pm.
Isshin Shiiba, Ph.D., Gakushuin University, Japan
Seminar on “Novel Physiological Functions of Mitochondrial Organelle Contacts”
Place: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Department of Mitochondrial Proteostasis Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: Wednesday, 23.07.2025
Time: 12 pm.
Prof. Roland Knorr, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne
Seminar on “Organelle Morphogenesis: Condensates Shaping Autophagosomes and Autophagosome-like Mitochondria”
Place: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall ground floor
Host: Elisa Motori, University of Cologne, Institute of Biochemistry | CMMC
MITO Club
Date: Wednesday, 16.04.2025
Time: 12 pm.
Dr. Tatjana Kleele, Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Seminar on “ How mitochondrial remodeling determines cellular fate and metabolism”
Place: CECAD Research Center, Lecture Hall ground floor
Host: Elisa Motori, University of Cologne, Institute of Biochemistry | CMMC
Previous seminars in 2024
MITO Club
Date: Friday, 20.09.2024
Time: 12 pm.
Min Jiang School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China,
Seminar on "Decoding the Maternal Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA"
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing, Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Dusanka Milenkovic, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: Thursday, 18.04.2024
Time: 12 pm.
Nora Voegtle, ZMBH, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Seminar title: Surveillance of OXPHOS stoichiometry: A stop-and-go mechanism controls mitochondrial respiration
Host: Jan Riemer | University of Cologne, Institute for Biochemistry | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: Friday, 12.04.2024
Time: 12 pm.
Martin Picard | Mitochondrial PsychoBiology Lab, Columbia University, USA
Seminar title: Mitochondrial psychobiology in immune and brain cells
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: Monday, 18.03.2024
Time: 12 pm.
Martin Graef | Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences , USA
Seminar title: Mitochondria scaling and genome maintenance by autophagy
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Aleksandra Trifunovic, University of Cologne, Institute for Mitochondrial Diseases and Ageing | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: Thursday, 29.02.2024
Time: 3 pm.
Diana Stojanovski, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Seminar title: Mechanisms of mitochondrial disease linked to protein biogenesis dysfunction
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: Monday, 19.02.2024
Time: 12 pm.
Takumi Koshiba | Department of Chemistry, Fukuoka University, Japan
Seminar title: MicroRNAs target mitochondrial-mediated antiviral innate immunity by regulating mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic demand
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
Previous seminars in 2023
MITO Club
Date: 06.12.2023
Time: 11:30 am.
Alessandro Prigione | University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany
Seminar title: iPSCs and brain organoids in mitochondrial medicine
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: 22.11.2023
Time: 1 pm.
Lea Dietrich | Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysics | Germany
Seminar title: Imaging cryo-mitos @work
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Ana J. García Sáez, University of Cologne
MITO Club
Date: 15.11.2023
Time: 2 pm.
Andreas Reichert | Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany
Seminar title: Mitochondrial inner membrane architecture and dynamics or 'How and why to get in shape?'
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elena Rugarli, University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics | CECAD
MITO Club
Date: 08.11.2023
Time: 2 pm.
Timothy Wai| Institut Pasteur and CNRS UMR 3691, France
Seminar title: Mitochondrial membrane dysfunction and sequelae
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: 18.10.2023
Time: 12 pm.
Marino Zerial | Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
Seminar title: Role of forces in membrane dynamics and tissue morphogenesis
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: 31.05.2023
Time: 12 pm.
Stefan Jakobs | University of Göttingen | Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Germany
Seminar title: Focusing on mitochondria with super-resolution microscopy
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: 10.05.2023
Time: 12 pm.
Payam Gammage | Beatson Institute, UK
Seminar title: mtDNA mutations in cancer: context-specific drivers with therapeutic potential
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: 15.03.2023
Time: 2 pm.
Inmaculada Martinez Reyes | Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany
Seminar title: Mitochondria in cancer and immunity
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
MITO Club
Date: 28.02.2023 (Tuesday)
Time: 12 pm.
Nils-Göran Larsson | Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Seminar title: The organization of the respiratory chain and its role in metabolism
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing