News

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.

In a new initiative, 23 groups from five Helmholtz Centers are joining forces to address some of the most complex problems in today's immunology in ways that can only be explored in collaboration.

James Poulet's lab listens to the activity of networks of single sensory neurons in the brain and discovered how a single signal from one cell manages to attract attention.

Why does it take so long for new therapies to emerge from basic research? This is a question that researchers at the MDC and beyond encounter frequently. For us it was also the starting point for a film – and food for thought about the value of basic research.

Prof. Thomas J. Jentsch knows: Results from basic research in biology sometimes can quickly become relevant for medicine. He tells us how this happened with one of his subjects of research.

Proteins perform so many vital tasks that without them, our bodies wouldn't function. In producing these molecules cells make a remarkable number of mistakes: about one third of all newly synthesized proteins are defective. A failure to recognize and eliminate them can lead to severe diseases. A team led by Prof. Thomas Sommer at the MDC has now gained new insights into the complex process of protein quality control in the cell.

Proteins perform a wide range of tasks within cells. For everything to run smoothly, the cell must...

How does a cytostatic like cisplatin or carboplatin actually get into the cell? Scientists at the MaxDelbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and the Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin, in cooperation with a Dutch group, have now succeeded in showing that the volume-regulated anion channel VRAC is 50 % responsible for active substance uptake. If one of the VRAC subunits LRRC8A or LRRC8D is down-regulated, cells take up considerably less of the anti-cancer drug. In addition to this finding, programmed cell death or apoptosis is also significantly disturbed when LRRC8A is missing. The researchers have thus identified a potential cause for therapy resistance.