HZB Newsroom

Many diseases are linked to malfunctions of proteins in the organism. The three-dimensional architecture of these molecules is often highly complex, but it can provide valuable insights into biological processes and the development of drugs. X-ray diffraction at the MX beamlines of BESSY II can be used to decipher the 3D structure of proteins. To date, more than 5000 structures have been solved at the three MX beamlines. Here, we present a review and an outlook with  Manfred Weiss, head of the research group for macromolecular crystallography. 

This summer, it was all over the media. Driven by the climate crisis, the oceans have now also passed a critical point, the absorption of CO₂ is making the oceans increasingly acidic. The shells of certain sea snails are already showing the first signs of damage. But also the skeleton structures of coral reefs are deteriorating in more acidic conditions. This is especially concerning given that corals are already suffering from marine heatwaves and pollution, which are leading to bleaching and finally to the death of entire reefs worldwide. But how exactly does ocean acidification affect reef structures?

Prof. Dr. Tali Mass, a marine biologist from the University of Haifa, Israel, is an expert on stony corals. Together with Prof. Dr. Paul Zaslansky, X-ray imaging expert from Charité Berlin, she investigated at BESSY II the skeleton formation in baby corals, raised under different pH conditions. Antonia Rötger spoke online with the two experts about the results of their recent study and the future of coral reefs.

It took almost a year to prepare for the major evaluation in May 2025. Olaf Schwarzkopf (Matter and Information) and Tobias Sontheimer (Energy) coordinated the entire process on behalf of HZB’s board of Directors. We spoke with them about how it went – and what they took away from it all.

In June and July 2025, catalyst researcher Nico Fischer spent some time at HZB. It was his sabbatical, he was relieved of his duties as Director of the Catalysis Institute in Cape Town for several months and was able to focus on research only. His institute is collaborating with HZB on two projects that aim to develop environmentally friendly alternatives using innovative catalyst technologies. The questions were asked by Antonia Rötger, HZB.

The South African chemist Denzil Moodley is the first Industrial Research Fellow at HZB. He is playing a leading role in the CARE-O-SENE project. The Fellowship program aims to further accelerate the development of an efficient catalyst for a sustainable aviation fuel. An interview about the CARE-O-SENE project and why it is so important for scientists from industry and public research to work together.

Moses Oladele Alfred came to HZB on a Georg Forster Research Fellowship. The Nigerian chemist is an expert in low-cost materials for remediating environmental damage. But scientific expertise alone is not enough, he says: You also have to convince policymakers. He found support in a special program, training african scientists in communication and knowledge transfer.

The Science Year 2025 is dedicated to the topic of ‘Future Energy’ and the Helmholtz Association is conducting cutting-edge research in this field.  An interview with Bernd Rech, Vice-President Energy of the Helmholtz Association and Scientific Director at HZB, on topics such as: Where does Germany stand with the restructuring of its energy system? What contribution can research make? And what about hydrogen, nuclear energy and nuclear fusion, and the new challenges for a secure supply in times of cyber attacks?

The Ukraine Recovery Conference took place in Berlin on 11 and 12 June. On a side-event representatives from Helmholtz, Fraunhofer and Leibniz discussed how research can contribute to the sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine.
In this interview, Bernd Rech, scientific director at HZB, talks about the importance of research during the war and projects such as Green Deal Ukraina.

Prof. Dr. Jens Eisert heads the Quantum Computation and Simulation research group, which is jointly funded by Freie Universität Berlin and HZB. The theoretical physicist recently received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council ERC for his research project "DebuQC". But Eisert is not only an award-winning scientist, he is also concerned about global warming. Last year, on the initiative of Ryan Sweke, he and his team published a proposal that deserves attention: scientific publications on theoretical physics or chemistry could include a simple table listing the greenhouse gases emitted during the research. This would raise awareness of the fact that research is not climate neutral.

The HZB researcher Rutger Schlatmann has been elected as the new Chair of the platform ETIP-PV, which brings together representatives of science, industry and politics from all over Europe. We interviewed him about the current boom – and about why the photovoltaics ship has not yet sailed for the EU.

At the end of October 2022, the management appointed Ana Sofia Anselmo and Silvia Zerbe as new diversity officers. Together they will address diversity at HZB and drive it forward with employees. Ana works in the Director’s Office and is responsible for International Affairs. Silvia is deputy press spokesperson at HZB and is dedicated to internal communication at the centre.

Tandem solar cells, which combine two different perovskite semiconductors, promise high efficiencies and can be produced with very little energy input. Such modules could even be bendable. Together with partners from industry and research, HZB expert Prof. Steve Albrecht is working to realise this vision. His team recently succeeded in producing an all-perovskite tandem solar cell with a certified efficiency of 27.2 %. A conversation about the opportunities and challenges of the perovskite-perovskite technology.

In the research consortium CARE-O-SENE, scientists are looking for more efficient ways to produce synthetic kerosene for use in aviation. We interviewed Tobias Sontheimer of HZB and Dirk Schär of the participating company Sasol about what has to be done, what obstacles there are, and how aviation can be decarbonised.

Collaborative Research projects as “Sonderforschungsbereiche” funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft enable universities to build up their own research capacities. In the Transregio Sonderforschungsbereich 227 Ultrafast Spin Dynamic, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University in Halle-Wittenberg have also included HZB as a partner. The slicing facility of BESSY II plays a central role in this collaboration. With excellent results from the first phase, the Transregio-SFB 227 has completed its first interim review and is now preparing for the challenges ahead. A conversation with the two HZB physicists Niko Pontius and Christian Schüßler-Langeheine about the importance of such funding programmes for the research field.

Turning a scientific question into a product is the requirement that the winners of the HZB Technology Transfer Prize should fulfil. The team led by Tobias Henschel, Bernd Stannowski and Sebastian Neubert won more than just a prize.

Prof. Dr. Udo Heinemann works at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, where he has been researching in structural biology for 40 years. From 2008 to 2012, he was a member of the Advisory Board for the Protein Data Bank in Europe. In an interview, he speaks of the value added by the Protein Data Bank for research today, and why it is important that there are specialised beamlines for structural biology analysis in Berlin.

Bereits im dritten Jahr in Folge darf sich das HZB über einen außergewöhnlichen Erfolg bei der Feinwerkmechaniker-Ausbildung freuen. Shayne Fraiss beendete seine Ausbildung als Bester seines Jahrgangs in Berlin. Wir haben ihn und seine Ausbilder gefragt, was das Geheimrezept für diesen Erfolg ist.

Freie Universität Berlin and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) are now strengthening their cooperation in the field of quantum computing with a new research group. Quantum materials exhibit very interesting properties, which researchers want to use to make data processing significantly faster and more efficient than is currently possible. They can study these materials excellently at synchrotron radiation sources such as BESSY II. It has proven especially promising to predict the material properties in quantum simulations before running the experiments. Taking this approach allows such experiments to be conducted more targetedly.