News

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.

When an American physician from the field of patient-directed translational research and a German basic researcher meet, that encounter can take them in many possible directions. In the case of Professor David Gutmann and Professor Helmut Kettenmann, it led to a merging of their respective research teams.

An international team of clinicians, geneticists and molecular biologists joined forces to hunt down the genetic source of leaky kidneys, a symptom of kidney damage and disease. This gene could be investigated further as a potential treatment target, according to a study recently published in “eLife”.

Professor John Ioannidis from Stanford University comes to Berlin as an Einstein BIH Visiting Fellow. Professor Martin Lohse, Scientific Director of the MDC, says he is looking forward to the discussions and exchanges with Ioannidis.

Breaks in our DNA are usually undesirable – unless the immune system is at work. A new study conducted by Michela Di Virgilio’s research group and published in „Molecular Cell“ shows how creatively and yet precisely cells can break up their genetic material and piece it back together.