Discovery Science

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships are intended to support careers, foster research excellence, and provide international and interdisciplinary advanced training through cross-border mobility. Sara De Vincentiis in the Gouti lab is among this year’s winners.

From bioprinted tissues to programmable immune cells, leading experts gathered at the Max Delbrück Center’s Bioengineering Symposium on July 6, 2026, to explore how biology, engineering, and artificial intelligence are converging to shape the next generation of medical innovations.

Researchers in the lab of James Poulet have uncovered how the nervous system senses cool and warm temperatures. The findings, published in “Neuron” challenge a long-standing view of temperature sensing and could guide future research into pain and sensory disorders.

Researchers in the Mina Gouti lab show in “Advanced Science” that electrical pulse stimulation helps human neuromuscular organoids mature. This non-invasive approach may make it possible to use organoid models to study adult-onset diseases and to gain a better understanding of how tissues mature.

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.

An international consortium, which includes the Hübner and Ohler Labs, has reported in “Nature,” discovering more than 1,700 proteins that may be relevant in human diseases. Mostly very small, they were found in the “dark proteome,” a catalogue of gene products from overlooked sections of DNA.

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.

Checkpoint inhibitors help fight cancer but increase the risk of heart disease. An interdisciplinary team, including researchers from the Max Delbrück Center, is investigating how the therapy can be made safer. The Hector Foundation is supporting the project with €1.3 million.

Helmholtz-funded projects highlight a new focus at the Max Delbrück Center on biomedical engineering. By combining biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and engineering, basic research can be more quickly translated into therapies.