News

In order for the human immune system to effectively fight off pathogens, B cells need to smash up and reassemble their own DNA. Michela Di Virgilio searches for factors controlling this important process, which also have crucial implications for our predisposition to cancer.

By analyzing the gene expression of single cells, algorithms are able to not only reconstruct their original location in the tissue, but also to determine details about their function. Teams led by Kai Schmidt-Ott and Nikolaus Rajewsky have published their findings in JASN, using the kidney as an example.

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.

Researchers from three continents have produced a first extensive draft of a cell atlas of the human heart to understand how this vital organ functions and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease. As the team reports in Nature, it reveals a huge cellular and molecular diversity.

Christian Luft, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, visited the MDC and the ECRC together with other ministry officials in early March. During his visit, he learned about research in single-cell biology and vascular medicine, as well as about interdisciplinary collaboration with clinicians.

More than 250 students and 15 "Jugend forscht" award winners from all over Germany met at the Digital Forum from MINT-EC and MDC in February. They attended lectures and workshops on digital developments and methods and conducted experiments in the lab.

Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, kills off billions of cells in the human body every day, but without it life would not be possible. A team of researchers led by Professor Klaus Rajewsky, an immunologist at the MDC, has now published a study in the journal Genes & Development that sheds new light on cellular survival strategies.

An important protein that helps our bodies fight infection has long been thought to work by protecting broken DNA ends. Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) have found that’s not true. The protein is critical, but in another way yet to be discovered.

In late May, some 350 scientists met at the MDC for the 10th Brain Tumor Meeting. The president of this conference series, Professor Helmut Kettenmann, recounts the event’s highlights and explains why brain tumor research needs to differentiate between men and women.

Neurophysiologist Gary Lewin researches the fundamentals of pain perception at the Max Delbrück Center, where he has made inspiring discoveries – not only with naked mole rats. Lewin’s research results could lead to new pain-relieving medications for humans.