Research Highlights

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.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and Aarhus University have found a mechanism through which the gene variant APOE4, long linked to a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, impairs neuronal function in the aging brain. The research was published in “Nature Metabolism.”

Michael Gotthardt at the Max Delbrück Center and collaborators are developing a drug to treat a common type of heart failure characterized by impaired cardiac filling. In “Cardiovascular Research,” his group and a US team showed the therapy improves cardiac function in a mouse model of the disease.

Researchers led by Michael Kaminski report in “Molecular Therapy” that they have used base editing to repair mutations that cause ADPKD. The approach reduced liver cysts in mice.

Markus Landthaler and colleagues from the University of Cologne have deciphered the rules of a key cellular quality control mechanism in detail, and published their results in “Molecular Cell.”

Altuna Akalin and his team present a tool in “Nature Communications” that applies deep neural networks to evaluate multimodal data to help doctors choose the best treatment for their cancer patients.

The Ohler lab has developed a new method called TESLA-seq to identify regulatory regions in the human genome. The research was published in “Cell Genomics.”

Neuroblastoma, a cancer mainly affecting children, is often difficult to treat. A team led by Jan Dörr and Anton Henssen at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center report in “Cancer Discovery,” a potential reason treatment sometimes fails and a new strategy to combat particularly resistant tumors.

A team led by Simon Haas has developed a technology to decode how immune cells talk to each other – revealing how our bodies respond to infections, how miscommunication can trigger autoimmune diseases, and why some people don’t respond to immunotherapies. The study was published in “Nature Methods.”

Oral immunotherapy helps many children with peanut allergy – but for some, it can also trigger severe allergic reactions. In the journal “Allergy”, a team led by Young-Ae Lee explains what might be behind these differences and how treatment could become more personalized.