MDC Berlin

Does the booster shot protect against Omicron? Are there warning signs that point to a potentially severe progression? What is known about Long COVID, and which drugs help best after an infection? MDC molecular biologist Dr. Emanuel Wyler answers these and other questions on Twitter – and in our video right here.

Both researchers study communication, but at different levels: Dr. Stefanie Grosswendt and Dr. Alison Barker have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants. The prestigious grants provide about €1.5 million in funding over a period of five years.

Biotechnologist Claudia Crocini is starting a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the MDC in January 2022. Her research examines how the biomechanical properties of tissue ensure a healthy heartbeat. This might open up a new avenue for treating heart disease.

Researchers at the MDC teamed up with Berlin’s water supply company, Berliner Wasserbetriebe, to develop a computer-based tool that can determine the distribution of coronavirus variants in wastewater – and thus in the population. The tool is now available to other scientists.

Michael Gotthardt’s research at the MDC looks at how the cardiovascular system and skeletal muscles function, with the ultimate goal of improving patients’ lives. To this end he is working to develop drugs for conditions such as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, for which there is no effective therapy to date.

This year 45 PhD students at MDC successfully defended their doctoral theses. At a graduation ceremony they celebrated the end of an important phase of their lives together with family, friends and colleagues.

Cardiovascular conditions affect life in the intestines. But the opposite is also true: Bacteria in the gut influence the course of cardiovascular disease. A team led by MDC researcher Sofia Forslund reports in "Nature" on the opportunities and risks this presents as well as the role played by drugs.

The 40-year-old scientist from the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology at the MDC has been selected as one of 26 researchers for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. Starting in January 2022, Lupiáñez and his team will receive both financial and practical support for a period of four years.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was previously considered largely untreatable. An MDC team led by Michael Gotthardt has now succeeded for the first time in improving cardiac function with the help of a synthetic nucleic acid, as the researchers report in the journal "Science Translational Medicine".