Single-cell analysis

A team headed by Michael Sigal’s lab has revealed how Helicobacter pylori reprograms the stomach lining at the cellular level, allowing cancer to develop. The findings, published “Nature Communications,” pave the way toward prevention.

An international team has created a detailed molecular map of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, one of the most common forms of heart disease. Their findings, published in “Science Translational Medicine,” identify biological pathways that could pave the way for more precise treatments.

Nikolaus Rajewsky and his team have built a search engine that can scan data from millions of single cells from thousands of experiments worldwide in seconds. The tool, described in “Nature,” makes it possible to answer previously impossible questions about RNA biology.

A combination of three drugs appears to more effectively treat people with cystic fibrosis than therapy with only two, concludes a study by Max Delbrück Center researchers published in “Cell Systems.” The study analyzed changes in the proteomes of blood and sputum samples from people with the disease.

Different types of bone marrow stem cells give rise to blood and immune cells. A team led by Simon Haas now reports in “Nature Cell Biology” how that diversity develops. The findings could help improve stem cell therapies, including treatments for blood cancers.

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.

At the Einstein Center for Early Disease Interception, researchers from twelve Berlin institutions will be pooling their expertise to explore new approaches to prevention, long before symptoms appear, and bring them quickly into practice. The center opens today with a ceremony.

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.