Imaging

The details of many immune defense mechanisms are still unknown, but a new study sheds light on one such mechanism. Writing in “The EMBO Journal”, researchers led by Oliver Daumke and Misha Kudryashev of the Max Delbrück Center describe exactly how GBP1 proteins render bacteria harmless by encapsulating them.

Grizzly bears in hibernation or a pineapple in an MRI scanner – at the “Science Day” at the “Robert Havemann” high school in Berlin-Karow, researchers from the Max Delbrück Center presented students of grades 11 and 12 unusual facets of their research.

Organoids help researchers understand biological processes in health and in disease. It is, however, difficult to influence the way in which they organize themselves into complex tissues. Now a group led by Nikolaus Rajewsky has found a new way to do so. They report their work in Nature Methods.

Scientists have created a new zebrafish xenograft platform to screen for novel treatments for an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma, according to a new study by the Gerhardt and De Smet labs published in “EMBO Molecular Medicine.”

People with Huntington’s disease lose control of their bodies and minds. The symptoms are caused by protein clumps in the nerve cells. Supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, Andrea Quezada aims to create atomic models of these fibrils at the Max Delbrück Center.

Sensory cells in the vagus nerve can detect and locate food in the esophagus. Their signals help transport the food onward to the stomach. Signal failure leads to swallowing disorders, say a team led by Carmen Birchmeier at the Max Delbrück Center. They have published their findings in “Neuron.”

When physicist Thoralf Niendorf encounters the impossible, it spurs his creativity. Using ultra high-resolution MRI technology, he peers deeper and deeper into healthy and diseased tissue. He develops novel methods that visualize biological processes within the cell.

As a PhD student at the international iNAMES Research School, neuroscientist Gamze Güney is researching temperature perception at the Max Delbrück Center. As part of the “We at the MDC” series, Güney talks about the first iNAMES symposium at MDC-BIMSB and her time at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

The Image Data Analysis Platform has a new leader in Deborah Schmidt. She and her team create software that processes and analyzes image data from biomedicine, material sciences, or environmental research – something that benefits the entire Helmholtz Association.

Mikhail Kudryashev's scientific career has been defined by his intensive work on the structure of proteins, those tiny building blocks of life. He has now been appointed to a Heisenberg Professorship at the Charité as of August 1, 2022.