Research Highlights

Cardiovascular conditions affect life in the intestines. But the opposite is also true: Bacteria in the gut influence the course of cardiovascular disease. A team led by MDC researcher Sofia Forslund reports in "Nature" on the opportunities and risks this presents as well as the role played by drugs.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was previously considered largely untreatable. An MDC team led by Michael Gotthardt has now succeeded for the first time in improving cardiac function with the help of a synthetic nucleic acid, as the researchers report in the journal "Science Translational Medicine".

In cases of severe COVID-19, the lungs develop unusually pronounced scarring, scientists from Berlin, Aachen and Würzburg report in “Cell”. Macrophages are central to this process. Misguided wound healing responses resulting in scarring may explain why COVID-19 patients remain in respiratory failure for so long.

The genetic material of individual cancer cells within a tumor varies – including in neuroblastoma, a cancer that predominantly occurs in early childhood. What’s more, these genetic differences are constantly evolving, as researchers from Charité and the MDC report in "Nature Communications".

A team led by MDC researcher Ana Pombo has deciphered the 3D structure of the genome in three cell types of the mouse brain. They not only discovered specific folding patterns but also found that very long genes almost completely lose their compact folded structure when most at work, as they report in “Nature”.

New biomarkers could predict which therapy is likely to be most effective in treating the distant metastases of colorectal cancer. Researchers from the MDC and Charité as well as from industry partners have identified the molecular signatures of such metastases using mouse and 3D models, as they now report in the journal “Molecular Cancer”.

Studies at the MDC and the BIH have revealed that the liver, gallbladder and pancreas arise from a common pool of progenitor cells and that the supply of cells from this pool is inexhaustible. These findings may contribute to the development of new regenerative therapies, the researchers write in the journal “Nature”.

The anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a type of leukaemia whose development is significantly influenced by the transcription factor BATF3 and its target genes. An international research team, including scientists from Berlin, has now described a new approach to therapy in "Nature Communications".

A team led by MDC researcher Marina Chekulaeva has figured out why protein production slows down in the nerve cells of people suffering from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. This discovery could lead to a new therapeutic approach, the scientists report in the journal "Nucleic Acids Research".

The severity of COVID-19 is primary result of a dysregulated immune response. A cellular stress response mechanism plays a major role in the derailed immune response: senescence, report Clemens Schmitt and his colleagues in “Nature“. This suggests novel treatment path.