News in 2020
Dezember 2020
- Dancing spaghetti on the brain
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In December 2020, biophysicist Melissa Birol joined the MDC as a new junior group leader to investigate the behavior and function of disordered proteins in brain cells.
- New textbook for computational genomics
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A new textbook “Computational Genomics with R” written by MDC/BIMSB's Altuna Akalin will be published this month. The book aims to assist to a wide range of readers, providing both an introduction to genomics and step-by-step instructions to help biologists analyze their own datasets.
- Tissue regeneration at the single-cell level
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The 13th Berlin Summer Meeting “Rising from the Ashes – Regeneration at the Single Cell Level” will take place as a Christmas Special on Dec. 10-11, 2020. The free, virtual conference will feature talks about regeneration research in animals and organoids.
November 2020
- Crossing frontiers
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Dr. Jakob Metzger is a physicist who has found his scientific home in developmental biology. From November, he heads the Quantitative Stem Cell Biology Lab at the MDC, pursuing an interdisciplinary approach.
- A tricky kidney puzzle
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By analyzing the gene expression of single cells, algorithms are able to not only reconstruct their original location in the tissue, but also to determine details about their function. Teams led by Kai Schmidt-Ott and Nikolaus Rajewsky have published their findings in JASN, using the kidney as an example.
- Artificial intelligence for the medicine of tomorrow
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On November 7, 2020, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and the Tagesspiegel are hosting the fifth edition of the Future Medicine Science Match. This year’s focus is “Artificial Intelligence in Translational Medicine.” MDC researcher Roland Schwarz is chair of the session on AI in basic research.
- Exploring liquid droplets that enhance gene expression
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The Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) will host an international, virtual workshop about condensates and phase transitions on Nov. 27, 2020.
October 2020
- MDC research funded by NIH award
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A large grant under the NIH’s 4D Nucleome Program supports BIMSB/MDC scientist Ana Pombo’s work as a member of a multi-team consortium led by UC San Diego in the U.S. The team will investigate how DNA organizes inside cell nuclei and functions in space and time.
- Moles: Intersexual and genetically doped
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Female moles not only have ovarian, but also testicular tissue that produces male sex hormones – which lets them diverge from the categorization into two sexes. A team led by Berlin researchers Stefan Mundlos and Darío Lupiáñez describes in Science which genetic modifications contribute to this singular development.
September 2020
- Organoids, open science and reality TV from the lab – the MDC at the Berlin Science Week
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When virologists become reality TV stars, biologists dream of life without illness, researchers debate organoids vs. animal testing with the general public, and biomedical scientists discuss the possibilities of AI, it can only be Berlin Science Week.
- National Center for Tumor Diseases in Berlin
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Berlin will become one of four new National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) locations in addition to Heidelberg and Dresden.
- Invitation: Breaking Boundaries – Virchow 2.0
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Berlin has a long tradition as a medical metropolis and also the potential to become an international hub for the life sciences, comparable to Boston. On September 28, researchers from both cities will discuss this issue with the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller
- Towards a cell-based interceptive medicine in Europe
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The LifeTime initiative has published a perspective in Nature and the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda, presenting a roadmap of how to leverage the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies over the next decade.
August 2020
- Cancer’s ongoing evolution
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A new algorithmic approach - developed by a team of researchers led by the BIMSB/MDC (Roland Schwarz lab), The Francis Crick Institute and the University College London - reveals individual tumors continue to evolve and remodel their genomes, and this occurs across a broad range of tumor types. Identifying changes that benefit tumors and help them metastasize could help with future treatments. Results are published in Nature.
- Organoids and sequencing team up for ALS research
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DC researchers Mina Gouti and Nikolaus Rajewsky received a $150,000 pilot project grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Neurodegeneration Challenge Network to investigate a defining feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- COVID-19: Immune system derails
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A severe course of COVID-19 does not solely result in a strong immune reaction – rather, the immune response is caught in a continuous loop of activation and inhibition. This is reported in Cell by experts of the nationwide deCOI research network, including members of BIMSB's Landthaler lab.
- Kerstin Radomski visits the MDC/BIMSB
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Kerstin Radomski, a Bundestag member for the CDU and an expert on budgetary issues, visited the MDC/BIMSB in early August. She wanted to learn about research into diseases such as cardiovascular disorders, cancer and Covid-19, as well as about the opportunities that data science offers and the clinical application of scientific discoveries.
July 2020
- Janggu makes deep learning a breeze
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The group of Altuna Akalin has developed a new tool that makes it easier to maximize the power of deep learning for studying genomics. They describe the new approach, Janggu, in the journal Nature Communications
- New group leader bridges math and biology
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Dr. Laleh Haghverdi joins the BIMSB/MDC on July 1st to lead a new group: Computational Methodologies and Omic Analytics. She brings her expertise in finding mathematical approaches to improve single-cell, multi-omics data integration and analysis.
June 2020
- Jan Philipp Junker receives Helmholtz AI grant
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DC researcher Jan Philipp Junker and his collaborator Maria Colomé-Tatché at Helmholtz Center Munich have received a €200,000 grant to improve big data processing to better understand how gene networks are wired together during development and disease.
- The modeler of life
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Dr. Jana Wolf heads the Mathematical Modeling of Cellular Processes Lab at the MDC. On June 15 she will begin a professorship at FU Berlin. She looks forward to exchanging expertise and ideas with her new colleagues – and to leveraging this knowledge to develop new medical models.
May 2020
- Joint press release by the members of the German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI)
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Genome researchers have come together to launch the German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI). DeCOI combines the expertise of more than 22 institutions from across Germany to make a scientific contribution to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic
- MDC scientists answer COVID-19 questions
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The coronavirus challenges people around the world every day. Here at the MDC, we are giving our best to help fight the pandemic. Some of our scientists took the time to think about a few of the questions surrounding SARS-CoV-2.
- Project brings voluntary help into the lab
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LabHive is one of 1,500 projects born out of the federal government’s #WirVsVirus hackathon. Team leader Dr. Tobias Opialla of the BIMSB/MDC presents the new online platform, which is intended to bundle laboratory capacity and enable more SARS-CoV-2 tests.
April 2020
- Support for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics
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The LabHive digital platform aims to provide necessary resources to diagnostic centres to enable more tests for SARS-CoV-2. Tobias Opialla from the Kempa lab is one of 15 volunteers who has been involved in the project since the #WirvsVirus Hackathon organized by the German government.
- Diagnostics, meet CRISPR
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A new diagnostic test to quickly and easily monitor kidney transplant patients for infection and rejection relies on a simple urine sample and a powerful partner: the gene-editing technology CRISPR. Michael Kaminski, who developed it, leads a new Emmy Noether Group at the BIMSB/MDC & Charité.
March 2020
- Coronavirus research at the MDC
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In light of the pandemic, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) is pooling together its resources for projects that advance the understanding of SARS-CoV-2, while scaling down its regular research operations to a minimum.
- State-by-state breakdown of COVID-19
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The group of Matthias Selbach has developed a new online tool that displays the development of the COVID-19 epidemic in Germany clearly and by individual state as well as worldwide.
February 2020
- On the trail of cancer stem cells
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What goes on inside and between individual cells during the very earliest stages of tumor development? Single cell sequencing technologies and a mouse model have enabled researchers in the labs of Nikolaus Rajewsky and Walter Birchmeier to comprehensively map the cellular diversity of whole salivary gland tumors and trace the path of cancer stem cells.
- Mass spectrometry for precision medicine
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Research groups from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) are joining forces with other Berlin-based partners. Pooling their experience and outstanding expertise in the field of mass spectrometry, they will form a new ‘Forschungskern’ or ‘research core’.
- A close-up look at mutated DNA in cancer cells
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PCAWG, the largest cancer research consortium in the world, has set itself the task of improving our understanding of genetic mutations in tumors. A new study by the international research group, to which the group of Roland Schwarz substantially contributed, is now being published in the journal Nature.
- BIH, MDC und Charité launch a new research focus
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Single cell technologies for Personalized Medicine – The Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin are launching a joint research initiative.
- BIMSB group leader recruitments continue
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On February 24th, 13 competitively selected candidates are presenting their work and their vision for the prospective research groups on ‘Advanced Imaging Applications for Systems Biology’ and ‘Computational or Theoretical Approaches for Deciphering Human Disease Data’.
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- Recruitment Symposium “Single Cell goes Clinical”
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Scientific Kick-off of the New Clinical Focus Area "Single Cell Technologies for Personalized Medicine”
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Feb 6, 2020, 9 am – 6:40 pm in the large BIMSB conference room
The new focus area "Single Cell Technologies for Personalized Medicine", jointly established by BIH, MDC/BIMSB and Charité, aims at building bridges between basic and clinical research to take single cell technologies into the clinic. For this purpose, we are recruiting three junior group leaders striving to bring single cell expertise into clinical application.
The future research groups will be located on the top floor of the BIMSB building, and will investigate human diseases at the single cell level in order to develop new methods for improved prevention, diagnosis and therapy. Each group will closely collaborate with a clinical department at the Charité, developing single cell approaches that address specific medical needs and establishing technologies for clinical use.
The recruitment symposium also constitutes the scientific kick-off of the new clinical focus area. Researchers, clinicians and interested parties from BIH, MDC/BIMSB, Charité and elsewhere are warmly invited to come together to exchange information, network and plan joint projects.
