MDC Berlin

A young Berlin-based company called T-knife is a rising star in Germany’s biotech sector. Co-founder Dr. Elisa Kieback, along with colleagues, has catapulted the joint spin-off from the MDC and Charité to the top of the German biotech start-up universe.

Two events, three days: researchers, industry, policymakers and the public are invited to attend the LifeTime Conference 2.0 on June 16 and 17 and the Berlin Summer Meeting 2021 on June 18 to discuss the latest technologies, tools and methods to tackle disease. Both virtual events are free.

It’s nice that virtual events are now second nature to us. So this year, too, science enthusiasts won’t have to miss out on the “smartest night of the year.” On June 5, 2021, the MDC will offer a glimpse into its research – completely digitally.

Every year in Germany, around seven boys are born with an incompletely formed urethra and urethral sphincter. These children often remain incontinent. ECRC researchers want to find out whether a stem cell transplant could help them. The trial has been awarded approximately €4.3 million in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité.

Virchow 2.0 has been chosen as one of the 15 finalists in the second round of the BMBF’s Clusters4Future competition. The Berlin-based network, coordinated by the MDC, aims to build an AI-driven biomedical innovation ecosystem that will bring cell-based medicine to the clinic.

For many people, the day begins with a glance at the current incidence rate. Researchers at the MDC can now determine this a few days in advance. All they need are two vials of wastewater from Berlin’s sewage system.

Researchers from the ECRC in Berlin, together with scientists from the United States and Canada, have discovered a sugar molecule whose levels are reduced in the blood of patients with particularly severe multiple sclerosis. Their discovery could pave the way for a new therapeutic approach, the team reports in medical journal JAMA Neurology.

Dr Sebastian Diecke, who leads the stem cells technology platform at the MDC and BIH, doesn't just do science – he also combines it with art. A project by two Australian artists in which he was involved won an Award of Excellence at this year's Japan Media Arts Festival.

Small changes of sodium in the blood reduce the amount of energy produced in the mitochondria – the power plants of our cells. This has consequences for immune cells. An international research team has discovered the mechanism behind this phenomenon and published their findings in the journal "Circulation".

How can we use the knowledge gained so far to better overcome the COVID-19 crisis and prevent future pandemics? Two MDC labs are taking part in a collaborative Helmholtz project that aims to answer this question from an immunological, virological and economic perspective.