Fellowships

For Ukrainian graduate students, it can be a struggle to balance their careers and their worries about the war and their loved ones. A profile of two Ukrainian friends who work at the Max Delbrück Center now – one year after they had to flee from Kyiv.

Biotechnologist Claudia Crocini is starting a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the MDC in January 2022. Her research examines how the biomechanical properties of tissue ensure a healthy heartbeat. This might open up a new avenue for treating heart disease.

New chances to attract sought-after research talents to Berlin will soon be available to the MDC. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has recruited Nikolaus Rajewsky for the Henriette Herz Scouting Program.

Cancer immunologist Lydia Dyck has started her Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the MDC. Her goal is to find new ways for the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells, as tumors often evade the body’s defense mechanisms.

Immunologist Kathrin de la Rosa investigates how the body’s own B cells protect us from infectious diseases. In the laboratory, she hopes to modify these cells in such a way that they produce powerful antibodies against pathogens which have overwhelmed our immune system until now.

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).

Alice Rossi and Sampurna Chakrabarti have both received a Humboldt Research Fellowship. The scientists are investigating the molecular processes that occur during basic physiological functions, such as the perception of touch – or as part of the unique survival strategies of naked mole-rats.

Excellent new people at the Max Delbrück Center: The Charité Foundation and the Einstein Foundation of Berlin are supporting three professors who will come to Berlin to collaborate with MDC groups under the framework of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). The support is part of the BIH strategy to bring findings from basic research more quickly into clinical practice.