MDC Berlin

For almost three decades, Claus Scheidereit has been at the MDC researching a “gene switch” that plays a decisive role in certain cancers. As his time as a lab head comes to an end, he is on the verge of developing new drugs for cancer therapy.

The PROSPER research project is bringing together researchers at four different sites in Germany to study whether a specific nutritional supplement can protect premature babies from blood poisoning. The BMBF is supporting the project, in which a group from the ECRC is involved, to the tune of €1.9 million.

The molecular tool CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to treat inherited blood disorders, but this may cause unintended genetic alterations. A team led by MDC researchers Klaus Rajewsky and Van Trung Chu has now presented an approach in “Science Advances” that minimizes such adverse consequences.

For his outstanding doctoral thesis on sexual communication in fruit flies, the Max Planck Society awards an Otto Hahn Medal to neuroscientist Mohammed Khallaf Ali. At the MDC, he works in the Lewin lab and is dedicated to the sensation of touch and pain in animals.

Blood vessels must adapt their growth to the nutrients available in their surroundings so that they can keep organs adequately supplied. A team led by Michael Potente has identified two proteins that are important for this process and published their findings in Nature Metabolism.

Maike Sander has been selected to direct the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). The Supervisory Board appointed the diabetes researcher and professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine as the Scientific Director and Chair of the Board on June 16, 2022.

Pediatric oncologist Anton Henssen and a group of researchers from the US and the UK have won funding for a Cancer Grand Challenge. The international team will receive almost €24 million to research the role that ring-shaped strands of DNA play in the development of cancer, and how to fight them.

This spring, the MDC, BIH and Charité hosted the first e:Med Summer School on single-cell- based systems medicine, with the goal of ensuring that basic findings in the field are translated into clinical practice. The event welcomed 20 young biomedical researchers, data scientists and clinicians from around the world.

Hanna Zimmermann has spent years studying how the retina can be used to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases. She is now starting her own research group, the Applied Research on the Visual System Lab, at the ECRC – and has also been named a junior professor at Charité. She will receive an endowed professorship from the Einstein Center Digital Future for this purpose.