Matthias Mann

Matthias Mann studied physics and mathematics at the University of Göttingen before obtaining his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Yale University. As a graduate student in Professor John Fenn’s laboratory, he contributed to the development of electrospray ionization for large biomolecules—work that earned Dr. Fenn the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. Specifically, Dr. Mann developed an algorithm to determine the molecular mass of multiply charged ions—termed deconvolution—which remains widely used today.

During his postdoctoral work in Denmark, he developed one of the first search engines to identify proteins by their peptide masses in sequence databases. From 1992 to 1998, Dr. Mann led the Protein & Peptide Group at EMBL, pioneering foundational proteomics technologies, including the peptide sequence tag algorithm, nanoelectrospray, and efficient peptide extraction methods. From 1998 to 2005, he was Professor of Bioinformatics in Denmark, where he developed SILAC and mapped the first protein complexes and organelles using proteomics approaches.

Since 2005, Dr. Mann has served as Director of the Proteomics and Signal Transduction Department at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich. From 2007 through 2025, he also served as Director of the Proteomics Program at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen. A pioneer in mass spectrometry–based proteomics, he has developed foundational technologies and computational workflows for quantitative protein analysis, with an emphasis on body fluid proteomics, single-cell spatial proteomics, and post-translational modifications.

With nearly 1,000 publications and an h-index of 282, he is among the most highly cited researchers globally. His honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Heineken Prize (shared with Ruedi Aebersold), the Otto Warburg Medal, Germany’s Leibniz Prize, and the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine.

The Work 

John Yates, Ruedi Aebersold, and Matthias Mann collectively established the foundations of modern proteomics -the large-scale study of proteins- by solving three interdependent problems: how proteins can be measured at scale, how those measurements can be made quantitative and reliable, and how complex protein data can be interpreted biologically.  

Yates pioneered shotgun proteomics through the development of the computational methods that interpret tandem mass spectra to identify proteins enabling large-scale, unbiased identification of proteins from complex mixtures, fundamentally transforming biological research.  

Aebersold transformed protein analysis by moving the field from 2D gel electrophoresis to quantitative proteome analysis and later to targeted approaches and to the measurement of the functional state of the proteome, establishing proteomics as a rigorous, systems-level and quantitative science.  

Mann transformed the field through innovations spanning mass spectrometry methods, computational analysis, and biological application. His development of MaxQuant, one of the most widely used computational platforms in proteomics, set new standards for protein identification and quantification. His laboratory pioneered methods that enabled the accurate measurement of over ten thousand proteins and their modifications in single experiments, and extended mass spectrometry-based proteomics into clinical diagnostics through plasma proteomics and into spatial biology through Deep Visual Proteomics.

The Impact 

By making it possible to comprehensively study the molecules and their functionally relevant properties that carry out key cellular functions and serve as targets for many drugs, Yates, Aebersold and Mann made contributions to protein analysis that reshaped biomedical research and medicine. 

Proteomics is now central to understanding disease mechanisms, enabling advances in cancer research, neurodegenerative disease, immunology, infectious disease, and precision medicine. Their collective work has opened new avenues of understanding the biological processes of proteins in the cell and their disruption in disease, enabling drug discovery, and strengthening the pathway for translation of basic research into clinical benefit.