Technology Platforms

The international BioRescue consortium in Berlin has announced that for the first time a rhino has successfully become pregnant following embryo transfer. This paves the way for using of the same method of reproductive medicine to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

The details of many immune defense mechanisms are still unknown, but a new study sheds light on one such mechanism. Writing in “The EMBO Journal”, researchers led by Oliver Daumke and Misha Kudryashev of the Max Delbrück Center describe exactly how GBP1 proteins render bacteria harmless by encapsulating them.

Swapping just a single amino acid can play a decisive role in transforming healthy B cells into cancer cells. An international team led by ECRC researcher Stephan Mathas describes in “Nature Communications” how a point mutation in the transcription factor IRF4 profoundly alters gene regulation.

Cryo-electron microscopy allows structural biologists to look at the most minute building blocks of life. We celebrated the opening of the joint Core Facility and the corresponding research building of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center with a symposium.

Dr. Isolde Dietrich was instrumental in developing cryo-electron microscopy. But who was she? One thing is certain: physics was her passion. And she wanted to make it easier for younger female colleagues to enter science. The Max Delbrück Center is now dedicating a research building in her name.

Bartter syndrome type 3 is the result of several structural variants in the genome. By using long-read sequencing, Janine Altmüller and her team from the Max Delbrück Center, the BIH and University Hospital Cologne mapped out the rare disease in unprecedented detail. They have now reported their findings in “Genome Medicine.”

Cancer cells are capable of escaping chemotherapy and radiotherapy by activating a signaling pathway that prevents them from dying. Researchers led by Claus Scheidereit at the Max Delbrück Center have now described in Cell Chemical Biology two new compounds that block this escape route.

The mucus in the airways is not as sticky, inflammation in the lungs significantly reduced: the positive effects of triple combination therapy in patients with cystic fibrosis are supported by researchers from Charité and the Max Delbrück Center in the “European Respiratory Journal”.

EASI-Genomics, an EU-funded project designed to facilitate researchers’ access to cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies, is nearing completion after four years. Janine Altmüller, head of the Genomics Platform, takes stock of what has been accomplished.

Innovative biomedical research requires cutting-edge technologies, good ideas and a wealth of expertise. To ensure that technology platforms and research teams at the MDC make optimal use of investments and new equipment, Jutta Steinkötter initiated 13 “tandems” in late 2022 and awarded them a total of €300,000.