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Working in Berlin-Mitte and New York – Lena Nitsch conducts research at both the MDC-BIMSB and New York University. For “We at the MDC”, the doctoral student discusses how it is to work in two labs, her experiences in the United States, and what she has learned through the “MDC-NYU PhD Exchange Program”.

Whether aggressive cancer cells can spread unchecked depends, to no small degree, on their cellular neighborhood. Fabian Coscia wants to analyze exactly what happens at the proteome level during this interaction. He has now been selected for a €1 million-plus grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to pursue this research.

Internationally renowned for pioneering achievements and geared to inter-institutional cooperation: 22 research groups at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology in the Max Delbrück Center (MDC-BIMSB) explore how genes regulate life. It is now celebrating its 15th birthday.

Data science has long been part of our research – including artificial intelligence. However, AI has also permeated the daily lives of many people. At "Insights," we were curious: What books would ChatGPT & Co. recommend for laypeople interested in molecular medicine? The result: three bestsellers.

Science has something exploratory about it, says Norbert Hübner. You never know exactly where you are heading. Despite this, cartographic works are the focus of his interest: the researcher creates atlases of the human heart. And amongst other things, he uses them to understand heart conditions better.

With a grant of 600,000 euros, the Einstein Foundation Berlin is funding the preliminary module for an Einstein Center for Early Disease Interception. Ten Berlin institutions – including the Max Delbrück Center – are looking to develop, integrate and apply the technologies needed for precision medicine more quickly.

Multiple sclerosis progresses very differently and is therefore difficult to treat. Under the leadership of Charité, researchers at the ECRC and elsewhere are working on an online platform that predicts the course of the disease. The EU's Innovative Health Initiative is financing the project with 9,9 million euros.

Neuroblastoma is the third most common malignancy in children. 16 labs at the Max Delbrück Center and other Berlin-based researchers will investigate how they originate and grow in a new Collaborative Research Centre. The project, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has been granted approximately €13.5 million.

It takes great patience and perseverance to turn research findings into new technologies or therapies. The Helmholtz Initiative and Networking Fund gives financial support to “pathfinder projects” that are particularly promising. Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center have now won grants for three projects.

The pianist SooJin Anjou and the scientist Nikolaus Rajewsky are both experts in their respective fields. Together, they have created the event series “Spark”: a concert and meet-up for creative people, an exploration to learn from both sides. On March 13th, the series continued at MDC-BIMSB.