News & Events

Blood vessels must adapt their growth to the nutrients available in their surroundings so that they can keep organs adequately supplied. A team led by Michael Potente has identified two proteins that are important for this process and published their findings in "Nature Metabolism".

Maike Sander has been selected to direct the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). The Supervisory Board appointed the diabetes researcher and professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine as the Scientific Director and Chair of the Board on June 16, 2022.

Pediatric oncologist Anton Henssen and a group of researchers from the US and the UK have won funding for a Cancer Grand Challenge. The international team will receive almost €24 million to research the role that ring-shaped strands of DNA play in the development of cancer, and how to fight them.

The ability to perform complex movements is vital for animals. A team led by MDC researcher Niccolò Zampieri has now described in the journal “Current Biology” how little-studied sensory neurons near the central canal in the spinal cord help regulate such motor functions.

A technique called Deep Visual Proteomics helps shed new light on cancer cell properties, a German-Danish team now reports in “Nature Biotechnology”. Fabian Coscia co-developed the new method and will further refine it at the MDC – with the aim of finding therapies for even resistant tumors.

The contractile and elastic properties of the heart are finely tuned. This is a prerequisite for the cardiac cycle and efficient adaptation. At the MDC, Michael Gotthardt investigates the underlying molecular and biomechanical mechanisms. He is awarded with an ERC Advanced Grant for this work.

Research teams at the MDC and partner institutions used a total of 52,132 animals in studies conducted in 2021 at the MDC’s locations in Berlin-Buch and Mitte. The MDC has now submitted these figures to the regulatory authority, the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LaGeSo).

The mechanics of the heart rely significantly on an RNA-binding protein called RBM20. But how are such RNA-binding proteins regulated? MDC teams led by Matthias Selbach have identified corresponding phosphorylation sites, they report in "Molecular Cell”.