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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

15Apr

mitoRTG Lecture by Dr. Ina Huppertz - 15 April 2026

Title: tba | Date: Wednesday, 15.04.2026 at 12 pm | Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall, ground floor

19Mai

mitoRTG Lecture by Prof. Dr. Christian Frezza - 13 May 2026

Title: Mitochondrial Metabolism II | Date: Wednesday, 13.05.2026 at 12 pm | Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall, ground floor

17Jun

mitoRTG Lecture by Dr. Valentina Piano - 17 June 2026

Title: Crosstalk between Cell Cycle and Mitochondria | Date: Wednesday, 17.06.2026 at 12 pm | Venue: CECAD Lecture Hall, ground floor

29Jul

mitoRTG Lecture by Dr. Sebastian Willenborg - 29 July 2026

Title: tba | Date: Wednesday, 29.07.2026 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, 18.03.2026
Time: 12 pm.
Prof. Johannes Hermann, University of Kaiserslautern
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, 16.03.2026
Time: 2 pm.
Liron Bar-Peled, PhD, Harvard Medical SchoolHarvard Medical SchoolHarvard Medical School
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor
Host: Elisa Motori, University of Cologne, Institute of Biochemistry | CECAD
 
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
Previous seminars in 2022
MITO Club
10.11.2022(Thursday)
Aleksandra Filipovska | Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Australia 
Seminar title: Mitochondria as the nexus of metabolic regulation
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor | Time: 12 pm
Host: CRC 1218
 
PI Seminar
21.09.2022 
Mauro Corrado, University of Cologne, Germany 
Seminar title: Metabolic control of T cell immunity
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor | Time: 12 pm
Host: CRC1218
 
MITO Club
31.08.2022
Hauke Hillen, Max-Planck-Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Germany
Seminar title: Molecular basis of gene expression in human mitochondria
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor |Time: 11 am
Host: Thomas Langer, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing
 
MITO Club
20.06.2022
Oleh Khalimonchuk, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Seminar title: Touching base: Mechanisms linking mitochondrial membranes and processes
Place: Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing | Auditorium, ground floor | Time: 12 pm
Host: Lena Pernas, Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing