News

James L. Kirkland is not working to eliminate aging altogether, but rather seeks to alleviate or end age-related diseases. The director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, will be giving a virtual lecture on September 21 at the MDC.

A serious illness is often the result of a single genetic defect. To help locate this genetic “needle in a haystack” scientists at the Bioinformatics Core Unit of the BIH joined forces with colleagues from Charité and the MDC to develop a freely available software. They are presenting it in the journal “Nucleic Acids Research”.

Hundreds of researchers, clinicians, industry leaders and policy makers from all around Europe are united by a vision of how to revolutionize healthcare. In a perspective in Nature and the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda they now present a roadmap of how to leverage the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies over the next decade, to track, understand and treat human cells throughout an individual’s lifetime.

On September 23 data scientists can find out more about career opportunities in applied data sciences at a virtual career fair. The “Helmholtz Virtual Data Science Career Day“ with several virtual keynotes and over 20 exhibitors is free of charge for participants.

How does cancer develop and how does it progress? Dr. Anton Henssen from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC ) wants to find out more about circular DNA in order to use its cancer cell-specific characteristics for therapy, diagnosis or clinical prognosis. He has now been awarded an ERC Starting Grant.

Two MDC scientists – Kathrin de Rosa and Ilaria Piazza – have earned ERC Starting Grants to fuel their pioneering research. They are seeking answers to questions that may one day change the way we approach vaccines and think about how small molecules influence gene expression and disease.

A new algorithmic approach reveals individual tumors continue to evolve and remodel their genomes, and this occurs across a broad range of tumor types. Identifying changes that benefit tumors and help them metastasize could help with future treatments.

Julia Markowski and Dubravka Vučićević conduct research at the MDC – and are part of the Soapbox Science initiative, which aims to create more visibility for women in science. Here they tell why they decided to participate.

Six animal welfare officers ensure that the MDC observes all the rules when conducting animal experiments for medical research. Nadja Daberkow-Nitsche, head of the MFC animal house and her colleagues also help MDC researchers to submit animal experimentation applications to the relevant authorities.

Immunologist Kathrin de la Rosa investigates how the body’s own B cells protect us from infectious diseases. In the laboratory, she hopes to modify these cells in such a way that they produce powerful antibodies against pathogens which have overwhelmed our immune system until now.