News

The cellular biologist Thomas Sommer, who is the interim Scientific Director of the MDC, is celebrating his 60th birthday on May 23. We congratulate him on this milestone.

A heart seems to be pure physics: valves open and close, blood flows, electrical impulses control the heartbeat. A German-British research team is now looking at it in a different way. It will break down the heart into its smallest components - the cells - and unlock their secrets. The project is now being funded with 2.5 million euros for three years.

The fatty acid propionate helps defend against the effects of high blood pressure, including atherosclerosis and heart tissue remodeling, a study on mice has found. Gut bacteria produce the substance – which calms the immune cells that drive up blood pressure – from natural dietary fiber.

Heart muscle cells fuse together during cardiac development and repair processes.

Common salt reduces the number of certain lactic acid bacteria in the gut of mice and humans according to a study published in Nature by Berlin’s Max Delbrück Center and Charité. This has an impact on immune cells which are partly responsible for autoimmune diseases and hypertension. Probiotics ameliorate the symptoms of disease in mice.

In the largest transcriptome study to date, an international research team analysed the RNA of transplanted hearts and discovered a number of new risk factors for dilated cardiomyopathy and other heart conditions which could thus be recognised more easily in future.

A new study in the journal Nature reveals that a small signaling molecule has the ability to cut off the blood supply to tumors. This allows the immune system’s T-cells to indirectly fight cancer.

The naked mole-rat, a rodent native to Africa, can survive with little or no oxygen far longer than...

The immune system is the body’s most powerful weapon against diseases. So what if it were possible...