Keynote

Elisabeth Binder, Director, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich

The program features a keynote lecture by a Max Planck Director from a different institute. Since its establishment in 2010, the Epigenetics Meeting is proud to host colleagues from five different institutes of the the Max Planck Society: Herbert Jäckle (MPI-BPC, 2010), Stefan Jentsch (MPIB, 2012), Hans Schöler (MPI Münster, 2014), Manfred Gahr (MPI-BI, 2016) and Anthony Hyman (MPI-CBG, 2018), Patrick Cramer (MPI-NAT, 2024).

2026 Keynote: Elisabeth Binder

Speaker gesturing during a presentation at Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics. — Elisabeth Binder during a talk at the MPI of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg

Elisabeth Binder during a talk at the MPI of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg

Elisabeth Binder and her laboratory elucidate the molecular, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms by which stress and adverse life events influence mental health and disease. Binder pioneered integrative approaches to dissect gene–environment interactions underlying risk and resilience to psychiatric disorders, with a particular focus on mood and anxiety disorders. Her work revealed how stress hormones shape brain development and function across the lifespan, beginning prenatally, and how maladaptive stress responses contribute to disease vulnerability. By combining epigenomics, molecular manipulations, induced pluripotent stem cell–derived model systems, cerebral organoids, and deeply phenotyped longitudinal human cohorts, the Binder laboratory mapped molecular signatures of stress exposure to systemic and behavioral outcomes. Binder defined mechanisms of lasting stress-hormone–induced epigenetic change, identified genetic modifiers of stress responsiveness, and developed biomarkers for early intervention and personalized psychiatry. Her work provides key concepts and a biological foundation for a new, mechanism-based taxonomy of psychiatric disorders, enabling improved prevention and treatment strategies.

Department Genes and Environment

Binder Lab at the MPI of Psychiatry, Munich (Germany) more

Born 1971 in Vienna, Austria. Study of medicine at the University of Vienna and PhD in Neuroscience at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. Since 2004 Assistant Professor of Depts. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine. Since 2007 Research group leader at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry. Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry since 2013.

(sources: MPI- PSYCH, MPG)