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Our cells’ membranes have many functions. They not only provide mechanical protection, but also...

A seven protein “signature” in blood can indicate successful treatment for vasculitis. The Mertins, Forslund and Kettritz labs report in “Nature Communications” how they used proteomics and AI to identify biomarkers, which could enable more personalized treatment with fewer side effects.

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.

Sebastian Diecke has won 200,000 euro grant to sequence the genome of the Bavarian pine vole, a mammal endemic to Germany that was once thought to be extinct. His lab will also explore stem cell approaches to support future captive breeding efforts.

How do the ApoE4 gene variant and the herpes simplex virus work together to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? Agnieszka Rybak-Wolf has been awarded a grant from Alzheimer Forschung Initiative to study the molecular interaction between the two risk factors.

Jana Kroll, Christian Rosenmund and their teams have captured the fleeting moment a nerve cell releases its neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. The work was published in “Nature Communications.”

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.”

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.

Thoralf Niendorf at the Max Delbrück Center has won a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council to study the use of heat generated during MRI scans to selectively destroy brain tumors. The method could pose significantly fewer risks than laser ablation or surgery.