Research Highlights

MDC researchers have developed a new approach to CAR T-cell therapy. The team has shown in Nature Communications that the procedure is very effective, especially when it comes to fighting follicular lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common type of blood cancer in adults.

Colon cancer stem cells have one weak spot: the enzyme Mll1. An MDC team led by Walter Birchmeier has now shown in Nature Communications that blocking this protein prevents the development of new tumors in the body.

A muscle fiber consists of just one cell, but many nuclei. A team at the MDC led by Professor Carmen Birchmeier has now shown just how varied these nuclei are. The study, which has been published in Nature Communications, can help us better understand muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

We have known about a skin touch sensor for more than 160 years. MDC scientists now publish in Nature Neuroscience some of the first proof of its involvement in detecting tiny vibrations that help us to distinguish between a rough or a smooth surface.

The process of cells multiplying is one of the most well-understood processes in life. When MDC biologists joined forces with a physicist and mathematician, they gained new and unexpected insights about the cell cycle, now published in “Molecular Systems Biology”.

A team led by Oliver Daumke at the MDC has determined the three-dimensional structure of the NatC acetyltransferase in an article published in Nature Communications. This enzyme modifies cell proteins to enable them to perform their functions correctly. In cancer cells, however, NatC is often overactive.

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.