The researchers of the institute study the development of the immune system and analyse the genes and molecules which are important for its function.

The biologist Georges J. F. Köhler, a co-recipient of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was director of the institute from 1984 until his death in 1995.

The research fields were later expanded to include molecular mechanisms of lymphoid cell differentiation and the regulation of genes via extracellular signals.

[3] The institute also included an adjunct University Department on Molecular Immunology headed by Michael Reth from 2002 to 2017, the Spemann Laboratory from 1990 to 2021, which aimed to promote the early independence of junior scientists.

[5] Headed by Thomas Jenuwein, the department focuses on basic epigenetic mechanisms in normal development and complex diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

IMPRS-IEM is the successor program to International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMPRS-MCB), which established in 2006 on the initiative of scientists of the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and is run in cooperation with the University of Freiburg.