News & Events

The transport of ions such as sodium, potassium and chloride in human cells is essential for survival. Professor Thomas Jentsch has been researching the various transport pathways for decades. Now he has discovered another disease gene that he and his team describe in the “American Journal of Human Genetics".

T-knife, a spin-off from the MDC and Charité, has raised 110 million U.S. dollars from international investors. The Berlin-based biotech company is developing novel immunotherapies against cancer that focus on teaching a patient’s T cells to recognize and fight solid tumors.

Dr. Ilaria Piazza has received one of the 2021 EMBL Alumni Awards for her groundbreaking work on protein-metabolite interactions. She now heads the MDC’s Allosteric Proteomics Lab – but she says if she hadn’t done her PhD work at EMBL Heidelberg, she would not have chosen science as a career.

Proteins are unrivalled in their diversity and complexity, says Erich Wanker, and the slightest of changes can disrupt entire networks of relationships. He wants to understand why, in brain disorders like Huntington’s disease, such disruptions cause the death of neurons – and how this process can be stopped.

Dr. Janine Altmüller’s goal is to raise the profile of genomics research in Berlin. Since July 1 she has headed the BIH and MDC’s joint Genomics Platform, providing support to Berlin researchers and honing new methods and technologies.

Hermann von Helmholtz is considered one of the most influential natural scientists of his time. To mark the Potsdam-born physicist’s 200th birthday on August 31, a joint exhibition has been organized by the proWissen Potsdam association, the University of Potsdam, and the Helmholtz Association in honor of the “Genius from the Havel.” The MDC is participating with an exhibition panel.

Dr. Anton Henssen, a scientist and physician at the ECRC, has received the Young Investigator Award of the 2020 Berliner Wissenschaftspreis for his cutting-edge research into childhood cancers. The award was presented by the Governing Mayor of Berlin at a ceremony on July 22 in front of the Rotes Rathaus.

Until recently, there were few options for predicting the course of myocarditis in children. Now a team of scientists in Berlin, led by Sabine Klaassen at the ECRC, have discovered genetic defects associated with the severity of the disease, as they report in "Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine".

Unlike most mammals or other rodents, the common spiny mouse has a menstrual cycle. Dr Christian Feregrino from the MDC is investigating how this trait has emerged. The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is funding his work with a fellowship worth €140,000.