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.

Research

Research Teams

Our independent research teams pursue their research in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease, Cancer Research, Diseases of the Nervous System, and Medical Systems Biology.

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Discover our research groups
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

Sequenzierung der Booten-RNA und ihrer Enden
Science

FLAM-seq: the full picture of messenger RNA and their tails

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) have developed a method enabling the complete sequence of messenger RNA molecules including their unique ends, which are called poly(A) tails.
Preibisch Paper 08/19

Google Maps for tissues

Modern light microscopic techniques provide extremely detailed insights into organs, but the terabytes of data they produce are usually nearly impossible to process. New software, developed by a team led by MDC scientist Dr. Stephan Preibisch and now presented in Nature Methods, is helping researchers make sense of these reams of data.
Hochauflösende mikroskopische Aufnahme einer einzelnen Herzmuskelzelle in welcher ein herzmuskelspezifisches Gen (TNNT2) sowie eine spezifische Kernfärbung zu sehen ist.
Science

How a mutation harms the heart

What does a protein forming the cell’s nuclear envelope have to do with a dangerous heart condition? Aided by stem cell experiments, a team of researchers from Stanford University and the MDC recently answered this question.
Berlin Skyline

Thomas Sommer (MDC) congratulates Berlin University Alliance on winning the Excellence Competition

The Berlin University Alliance has won the Excellence Competition. Thomas Sommer, Scientific Director (interim) of the MDC) congratulated the alliance, which includes three Berlin universities and Charité University Hospital.
PM Daumke Mitochondrien

Keeping a cell’s powerhouse in shape

A German-Swiss team around Professor Oliver Daumke from the MDC has investigated how a protein of the dynamin family deforms the inner mitochondrial membrane. The results, which also shed light on a hereditary disease of the optic nerve, have been published in Nature.
Genomics Platform

We are looking forward to the partnership with the BIH

The administrative agreement is signed, the Berlin Institute of Health ( BIH ) will become the third pillar of the Charité. "We are excited about the privileged partnership," says Professor Thomas Sommer, interim Scientific Director of the MDC.
Nashornkühe Fatu und Najin
Science

Rhinos from skin cells

With its large-scale research project BioRescue, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding research into the artificial reproduction of the functionally extinct northern white rhino. MDC researchers are among the project partners working together to create new animals from skin cells.
human cardiomyocytes that were derived from induced pluripotent stem cells

Straight to the heart

An international team of researchers are seeking to explore the heart at a depth that was previously impossible. They have now received a grant of nearly four million US dollars from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – as one of the 38 Seed Networks working on the Human Cell Atlas. MDC researcher Norbert Hübner is co-coordinator of the project.
The picture shows how the cells of a brain tumour (glioma cells) and microglia communicate with each other.
Science

Brain Tumor Meeting: No two gliomas are the same

In late May, some 350 scientists met at the MDC for the 10th Brain Tumor Meeting. The president of this conference series, Professor Helmut Kettenmann, recounts the event’s highlights and explains why brain tumor research needs to differentiate between men and women.
Long Night of the Sciences 2019
Institute & Campus

📺 That was the Long Night of the Sciences 2019 in Buch and Mitte

It was tropical hot, it was exciting, and it was playful, funny and inspiring. For the Long Night of Science 2019, the MDC attracted its visitors for the first time not only to the Campus Buch, but also to the new research building in Mitte.
molecule model
Science

How cells devour themselves

Cells sometimes love themselves to pieces – and develop a big appetite for their own components. A group of researchers led by Professor Oliver Daumke of the MDC has now discovered how certain molecules trigger this self-cleaning process.
Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2019

Creative minds, CRISPR, and cats

Anyone wishing to uncover the mysteries of life must explore the realm of molecules and genes. At the Long Night of the Sciences, visitors to the MDC will voyage through this fascinating cosmos in the company of experts.
Highveld Mole Rat

Pain free, thanks to evolution

African mole-rats are insensitive to many different kinds of pain. As an international research team led by the MDC’s Gary Lewin reports in Science, this characteristic has even allowed mole-rats to populate new habitats. Thanks to a genetic change, the highveld mole-rat is able to live alongside venomous ants with painful stings that other mole-rats avoid.

All News & Events

Publications

Strategies for in vivo reprogramming

Curr Opin Cell Biol

Sugars make the difference - Glycosylation of cardiodepressant antibodies regulates their activity in dilated cardiomyopathy

Int J Cardiol

The role of sodium in modulating immune cell function

Nat Rev Nephrol

Small molecules for modulating the localisation of the water channel aquaporin-2-disease relevance and perspectives for targeting local cAMP signalling

Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol

All Publications