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Molecular and Applied Plant Sciences majorPartners

Heidelberg is home to a very active community of plant researchers that are based at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS). All researchers involved in MAPS are world renowned leaders in their fields and addresses the global challenges of food security, green technology and climate change. The range of topics studied is wide: sulfur biochemistry, cell wall biology, cellular transport and trafficking systems, stem cell behaviour, root development and plant defences. In this research environment, MAPS has developed into an internationally distinguished master program that provides students from around the world with a high-level education at one of the leading universities in Germany. The MAPS curriculum covers a broad spectrum of topics and is integrally taught in English. The program is focused on intensive stays in the labs. Already by the second semester students spend most of their time actively doing research. The lectures and practical allow students to study the biochemistry, cell biology, physiology or developmental biology of plants using advanced equipment for high-end microscopy, genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. A key strength of the program is the international network of academic and industrial host labs that the program has built over the years. This offers many opportunities to our students to discover an even wider range of topics and methodologies.

Researchs Lab Partnerships

Outside of its home,  the Center for Organismal Studies, MAPS has strong links with many research labs on the Heidelberg campus, in Germany and also internationally.

Heidelberg Life Science Campus

  • Heidelberg Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH)
  • German Cancer research center (DKFZ)
  • Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology (IPMB)
  • European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)          

Germany

  • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Jena)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding (Cologne)
  • Freiburg University

 International

  • Escola Superior Agraria, Inst. Politécnico de Braganca (Portugal)
  • University of Padua (Italy)
  • University of Amsterdam (Netherland)
  • University of Dundee (UK)
  • James Hutton Inst. Dundee (UK)
  • Cambridge University (UK)
  • The Sainsbury Lab,  Norwich (UK)
  • Umea university (Sweden)
  • University of California Los Angeles (USA)
  • University of California Riverside (USA)
  • University of California Davis (USA)
  • Cold Spring Harbor laboratories (USA)
  • International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, Phillipines)
  • Tsinghua University (China)
  • University of Adelaide  (Australia)
  • AgriBio Institut, Melbourne (Australia)
  • CSIRO Agriculture & Food, Wine Innovation Waite Campus, Urrbrae (Australia)   

 Non-academic laboratories

  • Jochen Bogs, Dienstleistungszentren Ländlicher Raum (DLR), Germany
  • Julius Kuhn Institute, Dossenheim (Germany)
  • AlPlanta, RLP Agroscience, Neustadt (Germany)
  • FarmersCut, Hamburg (Germany)
  • BASF, Limburgerhof (Germany)
  • Ag Research Ltd.(New Zealand)