News & Events

Klaus Rajewsky has received two awards recognizing his lifetime achievement in science. Both came in October: The German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology awarded him honorary membership at a ceremony in Vienna, while Masaryk University awarded him the Mendel Medal in Brno, Czech Republic.

Walter Birchmeier has spent many decades researching how cells organize themselves in tissues and how these processes go awry in cancer. Now 80, and just as he is approaching the end of his third decade at the Max Delbrück Center, Birchmeier is retiring.

An overactive enzyme that causes an inherited form of high blood pressure also appears to protect against hypertension-induced cardiac damage. A team of researchers from the Max Delbrück Center, ECRC, and DZHK led by Enno Klußmann explains in the journal Circulation how this could fundamentally change the way hearts can be protected from damage.

At the end of September, a group of female medical scientists who have fled Ukraine paid a visit to the Max Delbrück Center. Their purpose was to find out more about the institute's work and explore professional career opportunities.

Algorithms developed at the Max Delbrück Center are able to quickly detect new SARS-CoV-2 variants in wastewater. But that’s not all: the tool, which Altuna Akalin and his colleagues have now presented in “Science of the Total Environment”, can also find other pathogens.

The non-university research institutions in Berlin will work even more closely together in the future. Their network Berlin Research 50 (BR50), founded in 2020, has merged to form a registered non-profit association. Both directors of the Max Delbrück Center sit on the board.

Peering into single cells reveals new insights into acute kidney injury. Reporting in “Genome Medicine” and “Kidney International”, research teams at BIMSB, Charité and MHH describe novel gene expression patterns that may lead to new therapeutic approaches and strategies for biomarker discovery.

And a celebration it was: After two years of virtual graduation ceremonies due to Covid-19, doctoral students at the Max Delbrück Center were once again able to receive their graduation certificates live on stage.

The Max Delbrück Center is a partner of the doctoral network GetRadi, which was started in September. Young scientists who want to learn how to develop gene therapies for rare diseases can apply to be a part of the EU-funded project until October 20.