Press Releases

While CAR-T cells have proven successful in treating certain types of leukemia and lymphoma, these immunotherapies can become even more effective. A clinical trial run by Charité and the Max Delbrück Center has been awarded a grant of several million euros to test a new approach.

Sensory cells in the vagus nerve can detect and locate food in the esophagus. Their signals help transport the food onward to the stomach. Signal failure leads to swallowing disorders, say a team led by Carmen Birchmeier at the Max Delbrück Center. They have published their findings in “Neuron.”

Sometimes a tumor suddenly starts growing rapidly or becomes resistant to cancerdrugs. This can be caused by a cancer gene “striking out on its own” in ring shapes. ECRC-scientist Anton Henssen described how these DNA rings arise and continue to develop in the journal “Nature Genetics”.

Studies conducted by research teams at the Max Delbrück Center and its partner institutions used a total of 54,402 animals in 2022. The Center has now submitted these figures to the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LaGeSo).

Genes are not the only drivers of evolution. The iconic fins of skates are caused by changes in the non-coding parts of the genome and its three-dimensional structure, a research team including Darío Lupiáñez at the Max Delbrück Center reports in “Nature”.

Critically ill COVID-19 patients often have antibodies in their blood that bind to the body’s own structures. But these autoantibodies frequently bind to multiple targets, Kathrin de la Rosa’s team reports in “European Journal of Immunology.” This calls into question their role in disease progression.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been working on mucosal vaccines that can be administered through the nose. Now, scientists in Berlin have developed a live attenuated vaccine for the nose. In “Nature Microbiology”, they describe the special immune protection it induces.

A team of scientists led by Martin Janz and Klaus Rajewsky at the Max Delbrück Center has successfully generated genetically defined mouse models for two subtypes of multiple myeloma. These models will contribute to a better understanding of how the disease develops in humans. The team has now published their findings in the journal PNAS.

Hypertension can damage the heart, brain, and blood vessels. The immune system plays an important role in this process, Suphansa Sawamiphak from the Max Delbrück Center reports in Cardiovascular Research. The study, using zebrafish, found that inflammation causes macrophages to damage blood vessels instead of protecting them.

Evolutionarily young miniproteins are unique in humans, and researchers have recently discovered thousands of them. Writing in Molecular Cell, Norbert Hübner and colleagues from the BIH and other institutions describe the origins of these tiny proteins and explain that they probably influence important cellular processes.