News

Dr Sebastian Diecke, who leads the stem cells technology platform at the MDC and BIH, doesn't just do science – he also combines it with art. A project by two Australian artists in which he was involved won an Award of Excellence at this year's Japan Media Arts Festival.

How can we use the knowledge gained so far to better overcome the COVID-19 crisis and prevent future pandemics? Two MDC labs are taking part in a collaborative Helmholtz project that aims to answer this question from an immunological, virological and economic perspective.

A new gene-editing technique can be used to correct mutations in muscle stem cells, paving the way for the first potential cell therapy for genetic muscle disorders. The ECRC team led by Professor Simone Spuler have published their findings in the journal "JCI Insight".

Small changes of sodium in the blood reduce the amount of energy produced in the mitochondria – the power plants of our cells. This has consequences for immune cells. An international research team has discovered the mechanism behind this phenomenon and published their findings in the journal "Circulation".

Jan Philipp Junker studies how organs develop and how they regenerate after injury. To understand how this happens, he is investigating which genes in individual cells of an organ are active at any one time. Together with a fellow researcher in Dresden, he has been awarded a generous DFG Sequencing Grant for his research.

Daniela Panáková is studying a signaling pathway that is of critical importance for the heart muscle and congenital heart defects. The German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) has now awarded her a grant of €80,000 to support this research.

MDC researchers used significantly fewer laboratory animals during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 than in previous years. The MDC has now been awarded the “Exemplary Communications of Animal Research” seal for its transparency on the issue of animal experiments.

When the cells’ power plants don’t function properly, life expectancy is low. Otherwise, little is known about Leigh syndrome. Using organoids, researchers in Düsseldorf and Berlin have now created the first human model for studying this rare disease. They are presenting their work in “Nature Communications”.

Cells that line the inner surface of blood vessels form a crucial barrier between blood and the surrounding tissue. Scientists at the Berlin Center of Translational Vascular Biomedicine have now reported in „Nature Cell Biology“ how these endothelial cells maintain their stable resting state.

There is strong demand for laboratories, and biotech entrepreneurs need space in state-of-the-art research facilities. Now, in the presence of Berlin’s Governing Mayor, the cornerstone for the new BerlinBioCube incubator has been laid on Campus Berlin-Buch.