Berlin Science Week 2025 in pictures
Sampurna Chakrabarti from the lab of Gary Lewin, Victoria Stiglbauer, Luka Marie Weber and Athanasios Balomenos (also from the Lewin Lab) dispelled the lore that sharks do not feel pain by presenting evidence to the contrary.
Environmental journalist and hobby diver Luka Marie Weber has photographed great white sharks with broken jaws and clipped fins. The frequency of injured sharks has gone up alarmingly over the years.
To mark its tenth anniversary, the European Animal Research Association (EARA) hosted its first conference, “Shaping the Future of Animal Research Communication,” at the Max Delbrück Center as part of Berlin Science Week.
Transparency and dialogue are not add-ons – they are part of good scientific practice, researchers agreed during the panel discussion “A Turning Point in Health Research: Responsibility and Communication in the Use of Animals in Research,” organized by Tierversuche Verstehen, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and the Max Delbrück Center as part of Berlin Science Week. Julia Koch, DER SPIEGEL, reflected on the responsibility of science journalists not to oversell news from labs – but to state that alternative methods still have limitations and that studies in mice don’t translate 1.1 to humans. Pictured (from left to right): Julia Koch, DER SPIEGEL; Adrian Grasse, Member of the Bundestag (MdB); Roman Stilling, Tierversuche Verstehen; Klaus Kronewitz, patient representative, NCT Berlin; Dr. Anna Löwa, Charité; Stefan Treue, German Primate Center (DPZ).
Lab tour with Soniya Shende (left) and Benedict Monteiro (right) in the lab of Ashley Sanders demonstrating how Max Delbrück Center researchers use single-cell technologies to study how organs and tissues form, how we stay healthy and what triggers disease. Visitors also learned how machine learning and data science help scientists make sense of millions of measurements
Scientists at our MDC-BIMSB labs invited visitors to imagine a future beyond now – where understanding single cells opens new possibilities for predicting, preventing, and treating disease. In an introductory presentation, Viktoria Flore from the lab of Simon Haas explained the components of blood and how each plays a vital role in health and disease. White cells in blood, for example, are responsible for wound healing and fighting foreign invaders – they can also be harnessed to fight cancer.
SPARK – creative processes in the arts and sciences: SooJin Anjou and Cicely Parnas presented a world premiere: Wolfgang Köhler’s Jazz Sonata for cello and piano (2022).
In the MDC-BIMSB lobby, Max Delbrück Center scientists were once again featured in our “Discoverers” exhibition. Visitors enjoyed intimate portraits taken by photographer Pablo Castagnola. They also had the opportunity to read profiles about our researchers and their work
In part two of SPARK, scientists and artists wondered whether "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"? “I constantly ask myself: why do I find something beautiful? It’s a process and very much in the eye of the beholder – but also influenced by society,” said cellist Cicely Parnas. For the scientists, moments of beauty and truth are often found when there is an insight, when they find a pattern and everything looks beautifully in place. Left to right: SooJin Anjou, Georg Braune, Cicely Parnas, Stefanie Grosswendt, Wolfgang Köhler and Nikolaus Rajewsky.
Campus Exhibition at the Natural History Museum: At our Biopolis station, visitors were introduced to the podcast “Biopolis.” Hosted by Theda Bartolomaeus and producer Michiel van Poelgeest, Biopolis combines captivating storytelling with reporting on research from the Max Delbrück Center and beyond, exploring the fascinating world of microbe science.
