BIH, MDC und Charité launch a new research focus
In 2018, the journal Science named new technologies that can be used to analyze individual body cells its “Breakthrough of the Year.” For the first time it was possible to break down entire organs, tumors, even entire insect larvae into individual cells, measure their gene activity, and – with the help of high-performance computers and artificial intelligence – reassemble these individual cell analyses to form the entire organ or organism. This breakthrough was made possible in part by research conducted at BIMSB. “It was as if we had invented a super microscope with which we could suddenly look inside every cell in a tissue, all the cells at once, and see what was going on at the molecular level inside the cell – for example, when and why it gets sick,” explains Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky, Scientific Director of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), and spokesperson for the BIH’s new focus area “Single Cell Technologies for Personalized Medicine.”
State-of-the-art technologies for clinical use
At the core of the new focus area are three new, internationally appointed junior research groups. They will study various diseases at the level of individual cells in order to systematically characterize them at the molecular level and to develop new methods to better diagnose and treat these diseases. The junior research groups will be located at BIMSB, and thus in close proximity to Charité’s Berlin-Mitte campus. At BIMSB, they will have access to the latest single cell methods and systems biology expertise. Each junior research group will also work closely with a clinician at Charité, helping to develop single cell technologies for specific medical issues and clinical application. “I therefore consider this initiative to be the beginning of a ‘Cell Hospital,’ in which the basic research of the MDC/BIMSB, the clinical research of Charité, and the translational research of the BIH are brought together,” explains Rajewsky. “The idea is not only to understand the mechanisms that cause cells to become diseased, but also to discover these cells early enough to restore them to health before a disease takes such a hold that it can only be treated with great difficulty – or invasively and expensively.”
Following a highly competitive recruitment process, twelve applicants for the junior group leader positions have been invited to a public symposium held in Berlin on February 6, 2020, to present their previous scientific work in the field of single cell biology and their ideas for its clinical application. These scientists come from some of the world’s leading institutions in the United States, Israel, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany. The selection committee includes BIMSB research group leaders and hospital directors from Charité who have expressed interest in the new focus area. Among them are representatives from oncology, neurology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases and rare diseases. Professor Axel R. Pries, Dean of Charité - Universitätsmedizin and interim Chairman of the BIH Executive Board, explains: “The selection criteria include scientific excellence, the ability to fit into a clinical setting, and the potential to transfer research results into clinical application.”
Significant progress expected
The recruitment symposium marks the scientific kick-off for the work of the BIH and MDC’s new focus area “Single Cell Technologies for Personalized Medicine.” Nikolaus Rajewsky is confident about the future: “I am sure that we will make significant progress – not for all, of course, but for some diseases. This new focus area allows a bridge to be built, and thus translation to be achieved, between basic research and the clinic. The immediate proximity of BIMSB/MDC, Charité and BIH will enable a great deal of innovation and long-term progress for patients.”
Further informationen
Tracking down development cell by cell is "Breakthrough of the year"
Über das Symposium "Single Cell goes Clinical"
Contacts
Dr. Stefanie Seltmann
Head of Communications and Marketing
+49 (0) 30 450 543019
s.seltmann@bihealth.de
Christina Anders
Editor, Communications Department
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)
+49 (0) 30 940 62118
christina.anders@mdc-berlin.de oder presse@mdc-berlin.de
Manuela Zingl
Head of Corporate Communications and Corporate Spokesperson
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
+49 30 450 570 400
presse@charite.de
