The Max Planck Society has awarded biochemist Ute Hellmich from Friedrich Schiller University Jena a Max Planck Fellowship. The fellowship gives her the opportunity to lead her own small research group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena for the next five years in addition to her professorship. The fellowship promotes collaboration between outstanding university faculty members and researchers at the Max Planck Society—a central pillar of the strategic focus on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. “We are very much looking forward to Ute Hellmich becoming a Max Planck Fellow at our institute and contributing her expertise to our research. She has been a faculty member at our International Max Planck Research School for several years and is a co-advisor to some of our doctoral researchers. The fellowship will further intensify this collaboration,” says Jonathan Gershenzon, managing director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.
Molecular sensors for environmental changes
Since 2021, Ute Hellmich has been a professor of Biostructural Interactions at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry, as well as at the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Ute Hellmich investigates how cells sense environmental signals, such as temperature changes or osmotic stress. Cells detect these signals through specialized receptors and convert them into an appropriate response, such as gene activation or changes in cell function. Ion channels play a particularly important role in this process. These tiny openings in the cell membrane allow ions such as sodium and potassium to pass through. The channels act as a rapid alarm and adaptation system, opening or closing within milliseconds to react immediately to heat, drought, and other stresses. At the same time, ion channels also contribute to long-term adaptation by helping cells to adjust to changing environmental conditions and maintain stability under stress.
From molecules to behavior: The new research group “Signaling Dynamics”
As a Max Planck Fellow, she will now lead the Max Planck Fellow Group “Signaling Dynamics” at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. This new research group will focus on the temperature perception of insects, which is essential for understanding their adaptation to different climate zones and their interaction with pathogens. For example, when parasites move from cold-blooded insect hosts to warm-blooded mammals, they must cope not only with elevated body temperature and fever-induced temperature spikes, but also altered nutritional conditions and immune responses. Therefore, cells constantly perceive multiple signals simultaneously and determine which are relevant. This decision-making process is complex because signals can amplify or suppress each other; they do not simply add up.
Interdisciplinary research for complex questions
The exact molecular mechanisms by which cells recognize and integrate polymodal signal inputs are still poorly understood. Ute Hellmich and her research group aim to combine their expertise in biochemistry and biophysics with the diverse research at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, particularly in the areas of insect behavior and insect interactions with bacterial symbionts and plants.
“Collaborating with experts at the Max Planck Institute enables us to link molecular processes with animal behavior in a way that transcends the boundaries of a single discipline,” says Ute Hellmich. “Through this interdisciplinary approach, we aim to develop creative strategies for understanding how cells process signals at different levels and how these processes ultimately shape the relationship between living organisms and their environment.”
By closely integrating molecular biology, physics, chemical ecology, and behavioral research, Ute Hellmich and her group aim to develop a new, holistic understanding of biological signaling processes – a step toward research that takes a holistic approach to complex biological processes.