Animal Research

The true cause of RBM20 cardiomyopathy, a severe inherited form of heart failure, is not the gene defect itself, but an overactive protein, concludes a study led by researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience and published in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.”

Different types of bone marrow stem cells give rise to blood and immune cells. A team led by Simon Haas now reports in “Nature Cell Biology” how that diversity develops. The findings could help improve stem cell therapies, including treatments for blood cancers.

In “Nature Communications,” Max Delbrück Center researchers show how immune cells initiate zebrafish heart regeneration, highlighting the possibility that precisely timed inflammatory signaling of specific immune cells — rather than broad suppression — could inform new approaches to cardiac repair.

In 2025, researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and its partner institutions used almost one-third fewer research animals than in the previous year – a total of 23,878. The center has submitted the figures to the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs.

Helmholtz researchers have created the first detailed protein map of specific sensory neurons that trigger pain. Their study, published in “Nature Communications,” will help researchers better understand the molecular mechanisms of chronic inflammatory pain and identify new drug targets.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin show that adipose tissue amplifies gut inflammation in Crohn’s disease. The study, published in the “Journal of Clinical Investigation,” also reveals how genetic changes in immune cells may contribute to the disease.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center have uncovered how a bacterial metabolite produced in the gut regulates heart function through specific brain cells. The findings, published in “Circulation Research,” reveal a new gut-brain-heart axis and point to potential therapies for hypertension and heart failure.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center show that two closely related enzymes, MNK1 and MNK2, act on the brain to regulate different behaviors. Their findings, published in “Molecular Psychiatry,” could help guide development of more precise therapies for neurological disorders.

This year, the Pre-GoBio program is supporting two planned spin-offs. Paul Schöpe aims to bring a drug targeting colorectal cancer metastases to market. And Ines Lahmann will further develop NMJCare, a model that can be used to test therapies for neuromuscular diseases.

During Berlin Science Week, more than 200 researchers, animal welfare officers and managers, journalists, communicators and experts on openness on animal research met at the first-ever EARA conference at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin-Buch.