News

Altuna Akalin has been appointed a professorship at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The position will enable closer collaboration with clinicians and faster application of bioinformatics in clinical care.

The European Molecular Biology Organization has elected Holger Gerhardt and Norbert Hübner of the Max Delbrück Center to its membership. They will join a community of more than 2,200 leading life scientists who advise the organization and help shape the future of life science research.

Katja Simon in collaboration with researchers in the United Kingdom have shown in “Aging Cell” that the naturally occurring compound spermidine can help boost vaccine response in older adults by reducing molecular markers of immune system ageing.

Uwe Ohler and Gaetano Gargiulo have been awarded prestigious ERC Advanced Grants. With funding of €2.5 million each, they will spend the next five years investigating how protein synthesis is regulated and identifying vulnerabilities in pediatric brain tumors.

Science journalists are invited to the Max Delbrück Center’s first Bioengineering Symposium on July 6, 2026, where leading researchers will explore how bioengineering is advancing precision medicine.

On June 6, 2026, we opened the doors to our labs for the 26th time to welcome thousands of curious visitors. We answered questions, conducted experiments together, shared laughter, and explained how our work can shape the medicine of tomorrow. A look back in pictures.

Congratulations to Gary Lewin on his election as a new member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina! The prestigious honor recognizes his scientific accomplishments over the span of his career.

Max Delbrück Center researchers have discovered a previously unknown genetic switch that affects RBM20, an important protein in heart cells. The findings, published in “Nature Communications,” suggest a potential new target for treating cardiomyopathies more precisely in the future.

Why does obesity cause heart disease and diabetes in some people, but not in others? And how do the different types of adipose tissue influence cardiovascular disease? These are just a few of the many questions Mascha Koenen will pursue as a Junior Group Leader at HI-TAC in Mannheim.

The true cause of RBM20 cardiomyopathy, a severe inherited form of heart failure, is not the gene defect itself, but an overactive protein, concludes a study led by researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience and published in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.”