Hübner Lab

Dr. Eleonora Adami is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Delbrück Center. The molecular biologist and geneticist studies heart failure by applying single-cell genomics approaches in the Hübner lab.

Evolutionarily young miniproteins are unique in humans, and researchers have recently discovered thousands of them. Writing in Molecular Cell, Norbert Hübner and colleagues from the BIH and other institutions describe the origins of these tiny proteins and explain that they probably influence important cellular processes.

An overactive enzyme that causes an inherited form of high blood pressure also appears to protect against hypertension-induced cardiac damage. A team of researchers from the Max Delbrück Center, ECRC, and DZHK led by Enno Klußmann explains in the journal Circulation how this could fundamentally change the way hearts can be protected from damage.

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports in “Science”. MDC researcher Norbert Hübner is one of the senior authors.

An international consortium brings together 7,200 segments of the human genome that are virtually unexplored and presents a roadmap for integrating them into genome databases in “Nature Biotechnology”. They could hold information about what sets humans apart from other animals.

The heart can get weak in different ways. One form of the disease, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), continues to be extremely difficult to treat. MDC researchers are involved in a new Collaborative Research Center, where they aim to change this and develop therapeutic approaches.

Titin is the largest protein in the human body which takes on a central role in muscle fibers. A DZHK team now reports in „Science Translational Medicine“ how mutations in the titin gene can cause a disease of the heart muscle, dilated cardiomyopathy.

After providing funding for single-cell analysis of adult hearts, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is now supporting the creation of a cell atlas of children’s hearts. An international team led by Christine Seidman of Harvard University and Norbert Hübner of the MDC is again among the funded networks.

MDC researchers have discovered a previously unknown cause of cardiac hypertrophy. As they report in the journal “Genome Biology”, genetic variation results in heart cell ribosomes not working properly. This disrupts protein production, which in turn causes the heart to grow too large.

An international research team recently created the first atlas of the human heart. Now the scientists want to add a new dimension to the project: diversity. They are being supported by an additional Seed Networks grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.