circRNAs (zirkuläre RNAs) in neuralen Zellen

Understanding the molecular basis of health and disease

Technology Platform Flow Cytometry

Innovating medical therapies and clinical diagnostics

Technology Platform Bioinformatics

Developing game changing methods and technologies

MDC_Juli_2017_5615.jpg

Supporting scientific education and career development

Research at the MDC

Research at the MDC aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of health and disease, and translate those findings into medical practice.

Menschen auf der Berliner Mauer nahe dem Brandenburger Tor am 9. November 1989

My 9th of November

Thirty years after the peaceful revolution and the fall of the Wall, the MDC is publishing some of the many eyewitness accounts, memories, and reflections of its employees.

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Jonathan Alles und Angela Merkel

New research building in Berlin Mitte

With a clear commitment to research and health science, Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the new MDC research building for the Berlin Institute for Molecular Systems Biology.

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Explore our new building
induced pluripotent stem cells in a pluripotency test

Research News & Events

Heinemann
Institute & Campus

“We are counselors to people who are worried about something”

Professor Udo Heinemann serves alongside Jens Reich as Ombudsperson for Good Scientific Practice. He was elected by the Scientific Council in September 2019. We spoke with him about rules and misconduct in research and how he perceives his role as an adviser in conflict situations.
Neuromuscular_Organoid

Neuromuscular organoid: It’s contracting!

MDC researchers established a new model to study neuromuscular development and disorders. For the first time two distinct human tissues co-developed in the lab from one progenitor cell type and self-organized into a complex, functional neuromuscular organoid.
grizzly bears
Science

Learning from the bears

Grizzly bears spend many months in hibernation, but their muscles do not suffer from the lack of movement. In the journal “Scientific Reports”, a team led by Michael Gotthardt reports on how they manage to do this. The grizzly bears’ strategy could help prevent muscle atrophy in humans as well.
Satellitenzellen

Strong change of course for muscle research

Scientists have discovered a new subtype of muscle stem cells. These cells have the ability to build and regenerate new muscles, making them interesting targets for the development of gene therapies.
Max Delbrück
Science

The simplicity behind complexity

50 years ago today, on December 10, 1969, a reserved and modest man accepted the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Stockholm. This man was Max Delbrück, a native of Berlin. An article by Detlev Ganten.
Influenza Selbach Lab

What blocks bird flu in human cells?

Normally, bird flu viruses do not spread easily from person to person. But if this does happen, it could trigger a pandemic. Researchers from the MDC and RKI have now explained in the journal Nature Communications what makes the leap from animals to humans less likely.
Pipetten

Make EU health research count!

Ahead of the European Council negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework, academic and industry leaders supporting the LifeTime initiative, have called members of the European Union into action. They ask to preserve the existing Horizon Europe budget and put forward ten recommendations to strengthen EU health research.
Pipette_Rajewsky
Science

A life-or-death decision

Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, kills off billions of cells in the human body every day, but without it life would not be possible. A team of researchers led by Professor Klaus Rajewsky, an immunologist at the MDC, has now published a study in the journal Genes & Development that sheds new light on cellular survival strategies.
NovoSpaRc

3D maps of gene activity

A three-dimensional computer model enables scientists to quickly determine which genes are active in which cells, and their precise location within an organ. A team led by Nikolaus Rajewsky, Berlin, and Nir Friedman, Jerusalem, has published the new method and their insights gained from this in Nature.
folder

Two MDC researchers among top-quoted scientists worldwide

Two scientists from MDC have been named Highly Cited Researchers: Sofia Forslund and Nikolaus Rajewsky.
Proben, Wyler

Fighting the herpes virus

New insights into preventing herpes infections have been published in Nature Communications. Researchers from the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the MDC used single-cell RNA sequencing to better understand the viral infections.
Ana Pombo
Science

The art of DNA folding

Ana Pombo wants to understand the rules that govern our genome. This quest has led her to discover how important our genetic architecture is for the functioning of life. In the long term, she hopes her research will help understand diseases with complex origin such as autism and epilepsy.

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Publications

Reflection of neuroblastoma intratumor heterogeneity in the new OHC-NB1 disease model

Int J Cancer

The pitfalls and promise of liquid biopsies for diagnosing and treating solid tumors in children: a review

Eur J Pediatr

Functional roles of Grainyhead-like transcription factors in renal development and disease

Pediatr Nephrol

Fast myocardial T(1) mapping using cardiac motion correction

Magn Reson Med

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