Research Highlights

Reporting in “Nature,” a team led by Gary Lewin at the Max Delbrück Center has found that naked mole-rat queens produce an odorous chemical that ensures that only they can reproduce. The queen odor also prevents rivalry within colonies — even when the queen is not physically present.

Oxalic acid might do more than just contribute to the formation of kidney stones — it may also be an underappreciated driver of inflammation and heart damage in people with impaired kidney function. Researchers from Berlin and Würzburg report their findings in “Cardiovascular Research.”

Max Delbrück Center researchers have discovered a previously unknown genetic switch that affects RBM20, an important protein in heart cells. The findings, published in “Nature Communications,” suggest a potential new target for treating cardiomyopathies more precisely in the future.

The true cause of RBM20 cardiomyopathy, a severe inherited form of heart failure, is not the gene defect itself, but an overactive protein, concludes a study led by researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience and published in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.”

In “Nature Communications,” Max Delbrück Center researchers show how immune cells initiate zebrafish heart regeneration, highlighting the possibility that precisely timed inflammatory signaling of specific immune cells — rather than broad suppression — could inform new approaches to cardiac repair.

Helmholtz researchers have created the first detailed protein map of specific sensory neurons that trigger pain. Their study, published in “Nature Communications,” will help researchers better understand the molecular mechanisms of chronic inflammatory pain and identify new drug targets.

In aggressive lymphomas, inflammatory messengers reprogram the “conductors” of the immune system, causing lymph node structure to collapse. A team led by Simon Haas describes in “Nature Cancer” this process for the first time using single-cell and spatial analyses.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin show that adipose tissue amplifies gut inflammation in Crohn’s disease. The study, published in the “Journal of Clinical Investigation,” also reveals how genetic changes in immune cells may contribute to the disease.

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.

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center have uncovered how a bacterial metabolite produced in the gut regulates heart function through specific brain cells. The findings, published in “Circulation Research,” reveal a new gut-brain-heart axis and point to potential therapies for hypertension and heart failure.