News

Cancer cells are quick-change artists. A team led by Gaetano Gargiulo and Michela Serresi of the MDC has investigated in depth the molecular mechanisms that drive this constant metamorphosis. The researchers are now publishing their findings in the journal "Science Advances".

Anton Henssen of the ECRC has been awarded the Kind Philipp Award for Pediatric Oncology Research for his study of ring-shaped DNA and its significance in the development of childhood neuroblastoma. A publication in the scientific journal Nature Genetics was decisive for this award.

Its official description, a “specialized science library serving the staff of the MDC,” sounds as dry as a dusty bookshelf. What else does the MDC library have to offer? We answer that question in an interview with Wolf Schröder-Barkausen, in another installment of our series “We at the MDC.”

Bone regeneration, dynamic hydrogels and the novel coronavirus – these three topics are currently being researched by MDC scientists in two new Collaborative Research Centres and as part of the COVID-19 Focus Funding initiative of the German Research Foundation (DFG ).

Until recently, it was unclear how and why cancer cells adapt to their environment. A team led by Dr. Gaetano Gargiulo at MDC has now developed a technology that can be used to observe the molecular processes in living cells. The researchers present their results in the journal Cancer Discovery.

A new textbook “Computational Genomics with R” written by MDC’s Altuna Akalin will be published this month. The book aims to assist to a wide range of readers, providing both an introduction to genomics and step-by-step instructions to help biologists analyze their own datasets.

Earning your doctorate deserves a celebration. At MDC, this takes place every year in the form of a graduation ceremony. But this year, given the unprecedented situation, doctorands were awarded their diplomas in an online event.

A mutation in the CLCN6 gene changes an important chlorid transporter and causes a particularly severe neurodegenerative disorder. These results by scientists from FMP and MDC, together with an international team of researchers, have just been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

An international research team recently created the first atlas of the human heart. Now the scientists want to add a new dimension to the project: diversity. They are being supported by an additional Seed Networks grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

To advance molecular evolutionary analyses and genomics in clinical settings a team of scientists from the Leibniz IZW, the Australian Museum and MDC have developed a method for identifying any genome sequence located next to a known sequence. The results are reported in “Methods in Ecology and Evolution”.