MDC Berlin

What comes after my PhD, and how will my title help me? Not just at the MDC, young researchers are asking this question. The Career Day offers them opportunities to receive inspiration and pointers for their career planning.

The Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Professor Martin Lohse, is resigning from his office in full agreement with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in order to devote more time to his scientific work. The MDC is one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutions.

Although classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma is generally easily treatable today, many aspects of the disease still remain a mystery. A team at the MDC led by Professor Claus Scheidereit has now identified an important signaling molecule in the biology of this lymphoma: LTA. It helps the cancer to grow unimpeded – for example, by activating genes for immune checkpoint ligands that protect tumor cells from the body’s built-in defense system.

An international team of clinicians, geneticists and molecular biologists joined forces to hunt down the genetic source of leaky kidneys, a symptom of kidney damage and disease. This gene could be investigated further as a potential treatment target, according to a study recently published in “eLife”.

About 500 scientists, clinicians, patients, and stakeholders from 20 European countries and beyond have gathered in Berlin at the LifeTime Opening Conference. The pan-European initiative aims to revolutionize healthcare. It applies breakthrough technologies to the progression of human diseases and intends to find and implement new methods for personalized prevention, early diagnosis and treatment.

Anton Henssen specializes in rare tumors in children. As the new group leader at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), the physician hopes to contribute to ensuring that the knowledge gained in cancer research benefits patients as quickly as possible.

The research results of the MDC should benefit patients as quickly as possible. With the "Pre-GoBio" programme, the MDC is therefore funding three projects which are particularly promising for medical applications, with a total of 825,000 euros..

A heart seems to be pure physics: valves open and close, blood flows, electrical impulses control the heartbeat. A German-British research team is now looking at it in a different way. It will break down the heart into its smallest components - the cells - and unlock their secrets. The project is now being funded with 2.5 million euros for three years.

An MDC research team has discovered surprising new properties in fluconazole, a long approved fungal drug. The substance helps to draw water from urine. The researchers found this in rodents. The fungicide could help patients with rare genetic diseases in whom the water transport of the kidneys is impaired. Nevertheless, the path to therapy is not easy.

He is a molecular biologist and physician, GDR revolutionary and civil rights activist, bioethicist and still today a formative researcher and ombudsman at the Max Delbrück Center. On the 80th birthday of Professor Jens Reich.