Research Highlights

Female moles not only have ovarian, but also testicular tissue that produces male sex hormones – which lets them diverge from the categorization into two sexes. A team led by Berlin researchers Stefan Mundlos and Darío Lupiáñez describes in Science which genetic modifications contribute to this singular development.

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.

A new algorithmic approach reveals individual tumors continue to evolve and remodel their genomes, and this occurs across a broad range of tumor types. Identifying changes that benefit tumors and help them metastasize could help with future treatments. Results are published in Nature.

A team at the MDC has answered a question that has puzzled scientists for some 40 years. In the journal Cell, the group explains how cells are able to switch on completely different signaling pathways using only one signaling molecule: the nucleotide cAMP. To achieve this, the molecule is virtually imprisoned in nanometer-sized spaces.

Opioids are both a curse and a blessing. They can relieve people of pain, but they often come with severe side effects – including dependency. Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center have now investigated the signaling pathways that produce both the desired effects and undesired side effects in the brain.

Researchers from the MDC have developed a new tool that makes it easier to maximize the power of deep learning for studying genomics. They describe the new approach, Janggu, in the journal Nature Communications.

A research group at the MDC has discovered a protein that protects mature B lymphocytes from stress-induced cell death. It also helps immune cells produce effective antibodies, which can stop the pathogen at different points in the infection.

Apolipoprotein E4 is considered the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. A group of researchers, led by MDC scientist Thomas Willnow, has now discovered how ApoE4 can damage the brain.

Setting out to identify all proteins that make up the sarcomere, the basic contractile unit of muscle cells, resulted in an unexpected revelation, providing experimental evidence that helps explain a fundamental mystery about how muscles work. The research was published in Nature Communications.

After more than 40 years, several teams at the MDC and ECRC have now made a breakthrough discovery with the help of two animal models: they have proven that an altered gene encoding the enzyme PDE3A causes an inherited form of high blood pressure. This could lead to new concepts for the treatment of hypertension.