The institute is named after the Viennese-born biochemist and Nobel laureate Max Ferdinand Perutz.

The Max Perutz Labs Vienna were founded in 2005, named after the Viennese-born biochemist Max Ferdinand Perutz, who emigrated to England after graduating in Chemistry from the University of Vienna.

He was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry together with John Kendrew in 1962, for their studies of the structures of globular proteins.

[2] Max Perutz Labs former group leader Emmanuelle Charpentier received the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR/Cas9 system, done partly in Vienna.

[3][4][5][6][7] As of June 2019, scientists of the Max Perutz Labs have been awarded 14 ERC grants.