MDC Berlin

All living things are built from proteins. Biologist Matthias Selbach uses the technique of mass spectrometry to understand the various functions of proteins and to systematically hunt down those that cause – or can prevent – disease.

What side effects should I expect from the vaccines against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus? Have they been developed too fast? To support a factual debate, our experts from the fields of immunology and RNA biology answered frequently asked questions.

Those who need to change their eating habits to normalise their blood pressure should start with a fast. In the journal “Nature Communications”, MDC and ECRC scientists explain why patients can use it as a tool to improve their health in the long term.

His career brought him to Montreal, Marrakech, Heidelberg, and Berlin. Detlev Ganten is a citizen of the world. His greatest impact has been in Berlin, where he founded the MDC, was the head of Charité, and initiated the World Health Summit. What motivates this determined fighter for science and global health?

Targeted treatment of basal-like breast cancer could be facilitated by YAP inhibitors in the future. As reported by an MDC team headed by Walter Birchmeier in the scientific journal "Cancer Research", this type of cancer requires the support of the YAP protein to stimulate the growth of cancer stem cells.

The Käthe Beutler Building has opened. Germany’s Federal Research Minister, Berlin’s Governing Mayor, the Chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin and many guests inaugurated it. Around 200 specialists will work at the Berlin Center of Translational Vascular Biomedicine – for the benefit of patients.

Three oscillating proteins cause new muscle cells to emerge from muscle stem cells in a balanced manner. In a paper being published in the journal "Nature Communications", a team led by MDC researcher Carmen Birchmeier explains in detail how this process works.

Erich Wanker wants to find out to what extent misfolded, and hence pathological, amyloid proteins structurally alter other proteins in the neurons – and thus contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s dementia. He has now received €120,000 in funding from the non-profit "Alzheimer Forschung Initiative" to pursue this research.

Scientists must decide on the right experimental method for each and every research question – including whether or not to use animal experiments. Here we provide an overview of what alternative methods can achieve in biomedicine, how they are used at the MDC and where their limits lie.