News

Since August, Lilly Spalt has been heading Occupational Health Management at the Max Delbrück Center. Her goal is to create a supportive and healthy work environment for all staff. This year, her focus is on mental health – a wide range of measures are planned.

On February 18, the new Helmholtz President Martin Keller met with the Max Delbrück Center staff Berlin-Buch and exchanged ideas. He is currently visiting all 18 Helmholtz Centers to gain first-hand insight into the wide range of research conducted across the association.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center have uncovered how a bacterial metabolite produced in the gut regulates heart function through specific brain cells. The findings, published in “Circulation Research,” reveal a new gut-brain-heart axis and point to potential therapies for hypertension and heart failure.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center show that two closely related enzymes, MNK1 and MNK2, act on the brain to regulate different behaviors. Their findings, published in “Molecular Psychiatry,” could help guide development of more precise therapies for neurological disorders.

MRI scans often struggle to capture clear images of deep or delicate tissues. Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center now report in “Advanced Materials” a new lightweight antenna that boosts image quality and may shorten scan times ¬– without changing existing MRI machines.

Helmholtz-funded projects highlight a new focus at the Max Delbrück Center on biomedical engineering. By combining biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and engineering, basic research can be more quickly translated into therapies.

ScienceCLASH, a podcast developed at the Gläsernes Labor, has won the MINT-EC School Award, which is sponsored by the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation and comes with 7,000 euros in funding. A second season is already in the works – and researchers at the Max Delbrück Center are invited to participate.

This year, the Pre-GoBio program is supporting two planned spin-offs. Paul Schöpe aims to bring a drug targeting colorectal cancer metastases to market. And Ines Lahmann will further develop NMJCare, a model that can be used to test therapies for neuromuscular diseases.

Mina Gouti has been awarded a professorship at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The appointment will strengthen her pioneering organoid research at the Max Delbrück Center and deepen collaboration with clinicians to advance personalized medicine.

Leif Si-Hun Ludwig has been awarded a prestigious Heisenberg professorship in stem cell dynamics and mitochondrial genomics by the the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, a position funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).