Discovery Science

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.

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.

Jana Kroll, Christian Rosenmund and their teams have captured the fleeting moment a nerve cell releases its neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. The work was published in “Nature Communications.”

U.K.-based Wellcome has awarded over €2 million to an international research effort to uncover how malaria can injure developing babies. Emanuel Wyler at the Max Delbrück Center will play a key role in studying the molecular interaction between the parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the placenta.

Markus Mittnenzweig of the Max Delbrück Center has been awarded a €1.5 million grant from the European Research Council. He and his team will build dynamic 3D models of how neighboring cells and gene activity guide early-stage embryonic zebrafish cells to become specialized tissues.