Max Delbrück Center

The signaling molecules of the immune system should trigger a response only where necessary. To prevent a life-threatening spread to the rest of the body, connective tissue can absorb these molecules like a sponge. A team led by Thomas Blankenstein presents this mechanism in “Nature Immunology.

Muscle cells are very good at repairing damage. But if this fails, stem cells step in to regenerate the tissue. Carmen Birchmeier investigates the molecular signaling pathways that underlie these and other vital mechanisms.

Combining single-cell data with a self-learning algorithm reveals how structural changes in chromosomes can trigger cancer. This new method could pave the way for personalized cancer treatments, writes a team led by Ashley Sanders in “Nature Biotechnology”.

Leif S. Ludwig, a researcher at the Max Delbrück Center and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), will receive the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Young Investigator Award 2023 for a new method to analyze the formation of blood cells, as the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation announced today.

Organoids have to be fed and cared for continuously so that they can mature. So far, it is mostly a manual process – not suitable for industrial drug screening. Now, the European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Mina Gouti a Proof of Concept Grant to tackle scalability and reproducibility.

A group of international researchers – among them Stephan Mathas from the ECRC – has found that changing a single segment of the genome causes a previously unknown immunodeficiency in humans. The paper, which appears in Science Immunology, reports the discovery of a point mutation in the transcription factor IRF4.

Digitalization is in full swing, and the Max Delbrück Center is no exception. Arno Edinger and his team in the IT Department are responsible for implementing this process throughout the research center. The aim is not to digitalize employees out of existence, but rather to free them from annoying routine tasks that waste their time.

“Mach Ideen groß” is the theme of this year’s nationwide “Jugend forscht” competition, which is again being held at Campus Berlin-Buch. The Max Delbrück Center, along with the other sponsoring institutions, will be hosting 29 projects by Berlin’s young STEM talents.

Il-Kang Na, BIH Johanna Quandt Professor and head of a research group at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), became the new director of the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program on January 1, 2023. Her own journey has made her a role model for aspiring clinician scientists.

After 25 years at the Max Delbrück Center, Dana Lafuente is leaving. She has made her mark as an administrative coordinator, on Campus Berlin-Buch, and in the Society of Friends, always advocating for the interests and concerns of all employees. Now she plans to do something different: open a mushroom school. Max Delbrück would understand.