Kidneys

Enno Klußmann of the Max Delbrück Center aims to help reducing the harmful consequences of high blood pressure by imitating a rare mutation. His plan to activate a specific enzyme called PDE3A to protect the heart and kidneys is now being funded with €400,000 by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation.

In mid-September, researchers from all over the world gathered in Berlin to explore the current and future possibilities of magnetic resonance imaging. The annual symposium was hosted by the team of physicist Professor Thoralf Niendorf from the Max Delbrück Center.

Dr. Melissa Little, a world leader in stem cell research, successfully developed the first kidney organoid. In advance of her lecture at the Max Delbrück Center, she shares insights about the road to that eureka moment, the journey since and the state of stem cell and organoid research today.

A team led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, German Rheumatology Research Center and the Max Delbrück Center have defined key cells behind severe kidney damage in lupus. The research, published in “Nature,” can inform future antibody therapies.

Bartter syndrome type 3 is the result of several structural variants in the genome. By using long-read sequencing, Janine Altmüller and her team from the Max Delbrück Center, the BIH and University Hospital Cologne mapped out the rare disease in unprecedented detail. They have now reported their findings in “Genome Medicine.”

Michael Bader’s lab and six other European research groups are working to develop new methods to diagnose and monitor the progression of two kidney diseases. Both disorders are caused by an overactive unit of the body’s immune system. The researchers will receive €1.9 million for the project.

When water intake is low, humans and other higher organisms produce very small quantities of urine....

On Oct. 11-13 this year the MDC is collaborating with the Charité and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in hosting the Second International Symposium on Functional Renal Imaging. Thoralf Niendorf, head of the Experimental Ultrahigh Field MR group at the MDC, explains what is attracting a highly interdisciplinary community to the kidney and to the MDC campus.