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One of the most promising new approaches in the fight against cancer is the attempt to train a...

It is blood pressure that drives the opening of small capillaries during angiogenesis. A team of researchers led by Prof. Holger Gerhardt of the MDC observed the process for the first time and published their findings in Nature Cell Biology. The scientists showed how the pressure exerted by the blood causes the membrane of endothelial cells to cave in and grow into the cell’s body, until a continuous vessel forms. The cell itself directs the process with the help of the actomyosin filaments of its cytoskeleton. When the function of these fibers is disrupted, the process gets out of control. Scientists have not had such a detailed view of how blood capillaries form until now.

Throughout their lives, proteins have a plethora of different tasks and finally are being disposed...

Gene mapping technique promises to unlock the power of proximity to find genes implicated in diseases

All of the cells in a tumor are the offspring of a single, aberrant cell, but they are not all alike. Only a few retain the capacity of the original cell to create an entire tumor. Such cancer stem cells can migrate to other tissues and become fatal metastases. To fully cure a patient’s cancer, it is crucial to find and eliminate all of these cells because any that escape can regenerate the tumor and trigger its spread through the body.

When a person is suffering from cancer, conventional treatments like radio- and chemotherapy or surgical interventions are often not sufficient as cures or a means of improving the prognosis. However, in recent years researchers have been placing high hopes on a new form of treatment to fight cancer: immunotherapy. This approach is revolutionary because it does not attack tumors directly but supports the patient’s own defenses in fighting the disease. Researchers led by principal investigator Thomas Blankenstein at the MDC and the Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Campus Berlin-Buch, now have succeeded in modifying cells of our immune system, enabling them to specifically track down and destroy cancer cells. They have recently published their findings in Nature Biotechnology online. Now first clinical studies are planned.

Cells compete to lead the tip of growing blood vessels, a team of European and American scientists has discovered. Their study, published recently in Nature Communications, also revealed how the leading cell is chosen.