News

It’s been a bit of a mystery: is a particular family of proteins responsible for cell survival or cell death in the intestinal lining? A new mouse model developed at the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) provides clear evidence and a potential treatment target for inflammatory bowel disease.

Anton Henssen works as a paediatrician and researches rare tumours at the Max Delbrück Center. Incidentally, he’s also a conceptual artist with way more to his paintings than meets the eye.

Three minutes – that’s all the time FameLab contestants have to present their research in a dynamic and engaging way. On May 14, 2020, Ian Stewart, a scientist in James Poulet’s lab at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), will be taking part in the competition’s national final.

LabHive is one of 1,500 projects born out of the federal government’s #WirVsVirus hackathon. Team leader Dr. Tobias Opialla of the MDC presents the new online platform, which is intended to bundle laboratory capacity and enable more SARS-CoV-2 tests.

Genome researchers have come together to launch the German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI). DeCOI combines the expertise of more than 22 institutions from across Germany to make a scientific contribution to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jan Philipp Junker creates cell lineage trees. He wants to understand the different paths that lead to a functioning organism. Perhaps one day, this knowledge will also reveal how organs are able to regenerate.

The LabHive digital platform aims to provide necessary resources to diagnostic centres to enable more tests for SARS-CoV-2. Tobias Opialla from the MDC is one of 15 volunteers who has been involved in the project since the #WirvsVirus Hackathon organized by the German government.

Two specific cell types in the nose have been identified as likely initial infection points for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Using data from the Human Cell Atlas, scientists discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of the entry proteins that SARS-CoV-2 uses to get into our cells.

Staying in the background and not calling attention to themselves – that has long been part of everyday life for technical assistants at the MDC. In April 2019 they formed a group to represent their interests. In an interview for the “We at the MDC” series, three of the TA Representatives discuss their achievements so far and what they plan to do next.

Strategies for treating multiple sclerosis have so far focused primarily on T and B cells. A group of MDC researchers has now unveiled a new approach in Nature Immunology – one that seeks to increase treatment effectiveness by selectively targeting another type of immune cell called monocytes.