Max Planck Florida Institute

The Max Planck Florida Institute develops novel approaches to understanding the structure, function, and development of neural circuits.

The Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFIN) is part of Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, whose accomplished researchers investigate particularly challenging fields within the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences and the humanities. The MPFIN is the first Institute the German-based Max Planck Society has established in the United States. Research at the MPFIN is focussing on brain function and neural circuits, using the most advanced techniques to visualize microscopic molecular processes. Understanding the functional organization of the nervous system, its capacity to produce perception, thought, language, memory, emotion, and action, remains the ultimate challenge for biology. Neural circuits, the complex synaptic networks of the brain, hold the key to understanding who we are, why we behave the way we do, and how the debilitating effects of neurological and psychiatric disorders can be ameliorated.