EMBO

Mixing and mingling on Hydra: For the anniversary of the Lewin Lab, leading somatic sensation experts, colleagues and students of Gary Lewin all came to a Greek island. In this interview, he talks with his former mentee Stefan Lechner about the symposium, dazzling personalities and what makes a good PI.

The 40-year-old scientist from the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology at the MDC has been selected as one of 26 researchers for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. Starting in January 2022, Lupiáñez and his team will receive both financial and practical support for a period of four years.

It’s a small switch with a big impact: the operon has the ability to turn genes on and off. Cell and developmental biologist Michael Levine will talk about the crucial role it plays in mutation occurrence and thus in evolution during his keynote lecture at our EMBO workshop running from September 13 to 17.

Unlike most mammals or other rodents, the common spiny mouse has a menstrual cycle. Dr Christian Feregrino from the MDC is investigating how this trait has emerged. The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is funding his work with a fellowship worth €140,000.

The European Research Council (ERC) awarded Dr. Mina Gouti a €2.8 million Consolidator Grant to further develop miniature neuromuscular organoids for studying neuromuscular development and diseases. It was the second honor in as many weeks; she was also named an EMBO Young Investigator for her work.

Researchers from three continents have produced a first extensive draft of a cell atlas of the human heart to understand how this vital organ functions and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease. As the team reports in Nature, it reveals a huge cellular and molecular diversity.

Dr. Rafael Dominguez Acemel explores the question of what factors determine sex during the embryonic development of animals. The MDC researcher has now been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

With the appointment of BIH Professor Michael Potente, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) are strengthening their joint focus area “Translational Vascular Biomedicine.” Potente, a trained cardiologist, is particularly interested in the innermost cell layer that lines our blood vessels, the endothelium. Integrative Vascular Biology

Some 27 young researchers have been selected for the prestigious EMBO Young Investigators Programme. Among this year’s awardees is Philipp Junker, a systems biologist at the MDC’s Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology.

What can we learn from prairie voles, Burmese pythons, shortfin mollies, and naked mole rats? Researchers from across the world are studying unusual laboratory animals with astonishing traits in their quest to answer important questions in the fields of biomedicine and neuroscience.