Data science

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.

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports in “Science”. MDC researcher Norbert Hübner is one of the senior authors.

Single-cell analyses provide a wealth of molecular and genetic information. A team led by MDC researcher Uwe Ohler is using machine learning to combine these data and produce meaningful profiles of the cells. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is now funding the project.

Jana Wolf draws on experimental data and the growing knowledge of cellular mechanisms to translate disease processes into mathematical models. Her models aim to represent the complexity of life as realistically as possible and to help develop therapies that are precisely tailored to the patient.

The PROSPER research project is bringing together researchers at four different sites in Germany to study whether a specific nutritional supplement can protect premature babies from blood poisoning. The BMBF is supporting the project, in which a group from the ECRC is involved, to the tune of €1.9 million.

This spring, the MDC, BIH and Charité hosted the first e:Med Summer School on single-cell- based systems medicine, with the goal of ensuring that basic findings in the field are translated into clinical practice. The event welcomed 20 young biomedical researchers, data scientists and clinicians from around the world.

How do cancer cells differ from healthy cells? A new machine learning algorithm called “ikarus” knows the answer, reports a team led by MDC bioinformatician Altuna Akalin in the journal "Genome Biology". The AI program has found a gene signature characteristic of tumors.

Digitalization is having a rapid impact in the field of medicine, with data sciences and AI offering ever-increasing benefits for the development of new vaccines and drugs. Pfizer manager Peter Albiez discusses how graduate schools like HEIBRiDS are helping meet the enormous demand for specialists in the data sciences.

Biomedicine today is awash with images and the tide is rising. Dagmar Kainmüller is teaching computers to see so that they can help with analyzing the image data. In the process, artificial intelligence is throwing up some unexpected questions that are opening up new lines of research in molecular biology.

On Girls' Day, researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) shared their thoughts on bioinformatics and let the students work with data sets and programs themselves. The bottom line: research is fun – even though or even because the tasks are complex.