Long Night of the Sciences 2024: MDC-BIMSB, Berlin-Mitte

Highlights

 Accompanying cells on their developmental journey

During embryonic development, a fertilized egg develops into a complete organism with many specialized cell types and tissues within a few weeks. But how do our cells know whether they should become a heart, nerve or liver cell? And how do cells communicate with each other to form complex tissues and organs? We will show you how we find out, using complex computer models based on single-cell sequencing data and organoids. Join us on this special journey!

Registration required: central info point on the ground floor

How can you fit Berlin’s TV tower inside a Kinder Surprise?

If you stretch the DNA molecule from a single human cell all the way out, it would be about two meters long. However, the nucleus of a human cell, which contains the DNA, is only about six μm in diameter – this is as small as a Kinder Surprise in comparison to Berlin’s TV tower! How does DNA fit inside such a small space and how does DNA folding affect gene activity and the biology of our cells? We at the Pombo lab use state-of-the-art techniques to study the role of chromatin origami in health and disease. 

Registration required: central info point on the ground floor

Single-cell approaches for personalized medicine

A tour and robot demo of the Single-cell Focus Area labs: Our body is made up of trillions of cells and every day they work together to perform the functions of life. However, when these cells go rogue, disease can strike! To better understand these cells, we can now look at them one by one, using modern single-cell technologies! Join us to learn how we look at each cell to understand the genetic and molecular changes that keep us healthy, or not. 

Registration: central info point at the ground floor

You can find the complete program for the Long Night of the Sciences 2024 on our website.

Organizers