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Since September 1, 2026, Stephanie Möllmert has been an independent research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. Her group „Reproductive Mechanobiology“ focuses on the forces and mechanical conditions within the female reproductive tract, particularly in the fallopian tubes and uterus.
- Through her research, Stephanie Möllmert aims to uncover how physical forces and biochemical signals jointly regulate the function of the female reproductive tract.
- The strong expertise in cell biology and microscopy at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research enables the physicist to directly link mechanical measurements of functional tissues to biological processes.
- Stephanie Möllmert’s long-term goal is to develop a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of the reproductive tract, which can serve as a basis for developing new approaches to diagnosis or therapy.
“With my research group, I would like to establish an experimental platform for quantitative mechanobiology using living reproductive tissues. The interdisciplinary work at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research offers me ideal conditions for this,” says Stephanie Möllmert, looking ahead to her new role.
“We are very pleased to have Stephanie Möllmert join our institute,” says Joachim Spatz, Managing Director at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, welcoming the new research group leader. “She brings extensive expertise in tissue mechanics, Brillouin microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. This perfectly complements our research and provides a foundation for new experimental approaches and research questions at our institute.”
Focus on the physics of the female reproductive tract
Stephanie Möllmert’s research group will focus on investigating the mechanobiology of the female reproductive tract, particularly in the fallopian tubes. Today, many processes in reproductive biology are described primarily in terms of hormones, receptors, and molecular signaling pathways. These processes occur in a tissue that moves and exerts forces, alters its mechanical properties, and transports fluids. However, these physical processes in the female reproductive tract have received little attention in research to date.
“I am fascinated by the fact that we already know a great deal about biological processes at the molecular level, yet their physical conditions are often scarcely quantified,” explains Stephanie Möllmert.
For the physicist, the central questions are therefore whether these complex processes can be traced back to measurable physical parameters and mechanistic principles, and how biochemical regulation and the physical properties of the tissue interact. She wants to understand under what conditions a biological system functions physiologically.
In the long term, Stephanie Möllmert’s goal is to develop a comprehensive mechanistic model of the reproductive tract that explains how normal reproductive function arises, how it changes with age or due to disease, and what new avenues for diagnosis or therapy might result from this understanding.
Academic career
After completing her undergraduate studies and earning her Ph.D. in physics in 2017 at Dresden University of Technology, Stephanie Möllmert conducted research at the University’s Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering. In 2019, she joined the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light / Max Planck Zentrum für Physik und Medizin in Erlangen as a project leader, where she most recently led the independent research group “Reproductive Mechanobiology.” At the same time, Stephanie Möllmert has been leading a project within the Collaborative Research Center “Exploring Brain Mechanics” of the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 2023.
About the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
The interdisciplinary Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, located in Heidelberg and Heilbronn, is dedicated to the investigation and manipulation of molecular processes in living cells, cell groups, and organoids. The institute's departments combine expertise from the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and materials science to develop conceptually new methods and technologies for basic biomedical research. Another goal of the institute, and in particular of its new division in Heilbronn, is to seamlessly combine basic research and applications, thereby accelerating the translation of scientific findings into practice.
Stephanie Möllmert, new research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, is i ...
Copyright: MPL, Elisabeth Offial
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Stephanie Möllmert, new research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, is i ...
Copyright: MPL, Elisabeth Offial
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