Diabetes

Researchers led by Maike Sander, Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center, have developed a vascularized organoid model of hormone secreting cells in the pancreas. The advance, published in “Developmental Cell,” promises to improve diabetes research and cell-based therapies.

As Scientific Director of Max Delbrück Center, Maike Sander is driving a bold shift toward interdisciplinary research to address the health challenges of our time. As a diabetes researcher, her next frontier is to use organ-on-a-chip technologies to build more accurate models of the human pancreas.

Ulrika Beitnere joined the Max Delbrück Center as a senior scientist in Maike Sander’s group, re-establishing the lab and uncovering mechanisms in diabetes. Previously, she worked at UC Davis on a rare disorder called Angelman syndrome. Helmholtz Monthly spoke to her for its “1 in 45,000” series.

Using single-cell technologies, Maike Sander and colleagues have observed a shift in the relative abundance of the two subtypes of pancreatic beta cells as type 2 diabetes unfolds. This knowledge could be leveraged to find novel drugs, they report in “Nature Genetics.”

A Berlin-based team led by ECRC researcher Dominik N. Müller is analyzing how inflammation of the intestinal mucosa affects blood vessels. They are still looking for study participants – especially people with inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure and diabetes.

On November 1, 2022, Professor Maike Sander took over as Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center. The diabetes researcher succeeds Professor Thomas Sommer, who had directed the Center on an interim basis since 2019.

The newly appointed scientific director of the Max Delbrück Center is recognized for her pioneering stem cell work in diabetes. Her team studies the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells and aims to generate beta cells from stem cells, paving the way for therapeutic applications.

Jan Philipp Junker creates cell lineage trees. He wants to understand the different paths that lead to a functioning organism. Perhaps one day, this knowledge will also reveal how organs are able to regenerate.

Biologist Holger Gerhardt studies how blood vessels form and grow. He is currently working with clinicians in Berlin to develop new methods for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Enabling new applications, learning from one another, linking research fields, harnessing synergies and cumulative experience in imaging processes for all: this is what the new Helmholtz Imaging Platform, coordinated by the MDC, DKFZ and DESY, promises.