Matthias Mann

Biosketch

Matthias Mann studied physics and mathematics at Georg August University Göttingen and obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Yale University, where his work contributed to the 2002 Nobel Prize awarded to his supervisor John Fenn for electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Southern Denmark, he became group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, then Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Southern Denmark. In 2005, he was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, with an additional appointment as Director of the Proteomics Program at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen in 2007. Matthias Mann is recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern mass spectrometry-based proteomics and is among the highest cited researchers worldwide with over 1,000 publications and 350,000 citations. His honors include the Dr. H.P. Heineken Award for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Leibniz Prize, Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, Otto Warburg Medal, and the Order of the Dannebrog, the Danish order of chivalry, for his contributions to science.

Research Interests

Matthias Mann develops mass spectrometry-based proteomics technologies to study molecular mechanisms underlying cellular processes, with strong focus on clinical applications. His laboratory has pioneered key advances for three decades, consistently pushing the boundaries of protein detection and quantification. His contributions include foundational technologies like nanoelectrospray, SILAC quantitative proteomics and the MaxQuant software suite, which remains the most widely used platform in proteomics. Current research interests focus on single-cell and spatial proteomics through Deep Visual Proteomics (DVP), combining artificial intelligence-guided microscopy with ultra-sensitive mass spectrometry to analyze proteins within tissue context. Large-scale, high-throughput proteomics workflows enable drug discovery applications and biomarker identification across diverse disease contexts. His group develops open-source bioinformatics tools for data generation and handling, making advanced proteomics accessible to the broader research community. His translational research emphasizes precision medicine through two key approaches: Deep Visual Proteomics for tissue-based analysis, exemplified by identifying JAK inhibitors as treatment for toxic epidermal necrolysis, and plasma proteome profiling for early disease detection and therapeutic target identification, advancing population-scale medicine through large cohort studies in liver disease, neurodegeneration, and maternal health.