Max Delbrück Center MDC - Max-Delbrück-Centrum für molekulare Medizin in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft

Our Research

Research at the Max Delbrück Center aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of health and disease, and translate those findings into medical practice.

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Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Enabling multi-modal prediction from molecules to cohorts.

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Research Highlights

Our research teams publish around 450 specialist articles every year. Our research highlights can be found here, presented in a comprehensible format.

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Selection of research highlights
induced pluripotent stem cells in a pluripotency test

Research News & Events

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Science

Cutting the environmental impact of research

From reducing freezer usage to plastic waste, Max Delbrück Center labs have been implementing strategies from the LEAF program for sustainable research. As more labs join the program, they are not only contributing to reaching our sustainability goals, they are also improving research quality.
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Maike Sander elected member of EMBO

The European Molecular Biology Organization has elected Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center Maike Sander to its membership. She will join a community of more than 2,100 leading life scientists who guide the organization and help shape the future of life science research.
Scientific image
Science

Two first-place awards in scientific image contest

Helmholtz Imaging once again selected many outstanding scientific images during its annual contest: The Max Delbrück Center came out on top twice in the Best Scientific Image Contest, with Jana Kroll winning the Jury Award and Rafael Deliz Aguirre taking the Public Choice Award.
Herz einer Maus im späten Embryonalstadium
Science

How the early heart develops

The ion channel PIEZO2 doesn’t just convey touch stimuli. It also plays a key role in the development of coronary vessels, a team led by Annette Hammes from the Max Delbrück Center reports in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.” The findings could improve our understanding of congenital heart defects.
Andreas Diefenbach, Britta Siegmund, Nikolaus Rajewsky
Science

ImmunoPreCept: “We want to shake up medicine”

Where does health end and illness begin – and what happens in between? Researchers working in the ImmunoPreCept Excellence Cluster are planning to take a deep look inside our cells and answer this question. In this interview, the coordinators explain what they hope to achieve in the next seven years.
Karen Christman und Jakob von Moltke
Science

Our new Stiftung Charité Visiting Fellows

The Max Delbrück Center welcomes two visiting fellows, both from the U.S., supported by Stiftung Charité: Karen Christman at the Sander Lab and Jakob von Moltke at the Lewin Lab. They will launch new interdisciplinary projects that cover neurobiology, immunology and bioengineering.
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Science

Berlin Summer Meeting: Sequencing Planet Earth

On June 19 and 20, the 2025 Berlin Institute of Systems Biology of the Max Delbrück Center Summer Meeting will explore how analyzing DNA and RNA can conserve biodiversity, ensure food security, and help detect and prevent disease.
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AI helps people and doctors make medical decisions

Online symptom checkers often miss the mark. Can AI do better? Researchers from Altuna Akalin’s team at MDC-BIMSB put large language models to the test – evaluating their ability to guide patients and support doctors. Their study was published in “npj Digital Medicine.”
Netzhautgewebe im Querschnitt
Science

Michael Robson awarded grants to study chromatin

Michael Robson has won two new grants from the DFG and the Human Frontier Science Program totaling over €2 million. He and his lab are now working to decode the mechanics of chromatin, hoping to finally define its physical state and better understand how it governs gene regulation.

All News & Events

Publications

HDAC inhibitors engage MITF and the disease-associated microglia signature to enhance amyloid β uptake

Brain Behav Immun

ACE2/Angiotensin-(1-7)/Mas and the brain

Brain Res

Neuroprotective role of high dose Vitamin D supplementation in multiple sclerosis: Sub-analysis of the EVIDIMS trial

Mult Scler Relat Disord

Advancing research on regulatory autoantibodies targeting GPCRs: insights from the 5th international symposium

Autoimmun Rev

All Publications