International cooperation

The Helmholtz Foundation Model Initiative (HFMI), launched two years ago, supports AI projects focused on processing enormous amounts of data. In this interview, AI expert Dagmar Kainmueller offers an interim assessment—including her own HFMI project, AqQua.

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.

Researchers have uncovered the molecular details of how ancient viral DNA controls a gene linked to preeclampsia. The study, published in “Genome Biology,” builds on previous research and may lead to a diagnostic test to identify preeclampsia risk much earlier.

A collaboration led by Max Delbrück Center and University of Bath has uncovered how ancient viral DNA controls a gene linked to placenta development and pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy disorder. The research, published in “Genome Biology,” could help identify pre-eclampsia risk much earlier.

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.

Yun-Hsuan Huang spent two intense weeks at the University of Edinburgh as part of the Max Delbrück Center’s PhD exchange program in Medical Systems Biology. She returned with new skills, scientific insights – and a broader outlook on research and collaboration.

The ion channel PIEZO2 doesn’t just convey touch stimuli. It also plays a key role in the development of coronary vessels, a team led by Annette Hammes from the Max Delbrück Center reports in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.” The findings could improve our understanding of congenital heart defects.

European research organizations, led by Coimbra Group, EU-LIFE and YERUN, have issued a joint statement calling on the European Commission and Member States to preserve the bottom-up structure of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

Michael Robson has won two new grants from the DFG and the Human Frontier Science Program totaling over €2 million. He and his lab are now working to decode the mechanics of chromatin, hoping to finally define its physical state and better understand how it governs gene regulation.

The EU-LIFE Core Facilities Working Group published a paper on the management of technology platforms in “EMBO reports.” It provides useful insights into the lifecycle of these essential facilities, from creation to closing, and examples of challenges faced by research institutes of the EU-LIFE alliance.