News

Researchers in the lab of Michael Sigal at the Max Delbrück Center and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have elucidated the role of the p53 gene in ulcerative colitis. The study, published in “Science Advances,” suggests a potential new drug target to stop disease progression to cancer.

A team in the Hübner and Diecke Labs at the Max Delbrück Center have shown how human and non-human primate hearts differ genetically. The study, published in “Nature Cardiovascular Research,” reveals evolutionary adaptations in human hearts and provides new insights into cardiac disease.

Researchers at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center of Max Delbrück Center and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have found that microbial communities in the mouse GI tract are unevenly distributed, which influences immune cell populations. The work was published in “Gut Microbes.”

Simon Haas receives a Proof-of-Concept Grant from the European Research Council in the amount of €150,000. Immunotherapies use the immune system to fight against cancer. Haas' team from the joint single-cell focus of Max Delbrück Center, BIH, and Charité is developing methods to predict the efficacy of immunotherapies.

Neuroscientists Gary Lewin and James Poulet at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine have won highly coveted and competitive ERC Advanced Grants to study pain and the neural mechanisms that underlie temperature perception.

The international BioRescue consortium in Berlin has announced that for the first time a rhino has successfully become pregnant following embryo transfer. This paves the way for using of the same method of reproductive medicine to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

Cell-based immunotherapies, particularly lab-produced immune cells known as CAR T cells, show promise in treating various cancers. But how do we produce effective ones? Gaetano Gargiulo from the Max Delbrück Center will develop a novel screening tool, supported by an ERC Proof of Concept Grant.

In neuromuscular diseases, neurons and muscle cells stop communicating properly. Researchers led by Mina Gouti can now model this in 2D in a culture dish. Writing about their findings in “Nature Communications”, they say the new model promises to revolutionize high-throughput drug screening studies.

Many researchers in the Berlin-Brandenburg region are studying the microbiome, the community of microorganisms that reside on and in our bodies. Sofia Forslund from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center now hopes to improve networking among them by establishing a virtual microbiome institute.

A data gap that threatens timely diagnosis and treatment for half the population, the visibility of female researchers in Wikipedia, and myriads of microbes in and on our bodies – the Max Delbrück Center's program for the Berlin Science Week 2023 is focused on dimensions of diversity.