Science

Spatially resolved transcriptomics are changing the way we understand complex tissues, as Nature Methods wrote when it crowned the technology “Method of the Year 2020.” A SCOG virtual workshop has now provided an overview of the latest findings and developments in this exciting field.

Cancer cells are quick-change artists. A team led by Dr. Gaetano Gargiulo and Michela Serresi of the MDC has investigated in depth the molecular mechanisms that drive this constant metamorphosis. The researchers are now publishing their findings in the journal Science Advances.

Ein hochrangiges internationales Panel wird am 3. März 2021 die neueste Forschung zur Pandemie, zu Coronaviren und ihren Varianten, zu Impfstoffen und Therapien vorstellen. Das virtuelle Symposium zu COVID-19 haben das MDC und die Initiative „Immunologie und Inflammation “ der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft organisiert.

The immune system actually wants to fight SARS-CoV-2 with antiviral signaling molecules. But a research team from Charité and MDC has now shown how such a signaling molecule can promote the replication of the virus. The results have been published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Leif S. Ludwig has received the Hector Research Career Development Award for his research into the DNA of cellular power plants, the mitochondria. The award supports particularly talented young scientists as they embark on the first steps of their research careers.

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.

Research and conservation are not exempt from the negative effects of the pandemic. The BioRescue research project, a program aiming at saving the northern white rhino from extinction, exemplifies the challenges research and conservation face in an international consortium during these times.

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.

February 11 marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The Berlin Institute of Health (BIH ) and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) are hosting a joint virtual event that will feature a film screening, a keynote lecture and a panel discussion. We want to examine and discuss what changes are needed to make science more diverse, equitable and inclusive.

A year ago, BIH , MDC and Charité launched the joint research focus "Single Cell Approaches for Personalised Medicine". Its aim is to use innovative single cell technologies to answer clinical questions. This aspiration will be put into practice by four new junior research groups, which have now started.