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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Further information
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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

MRT
Science

Lifestyle linked to body fat composition

Using data from the German NAKO health study, an international team led by Tobias Pischon has found that a healthy lifestyle – regular exercise, a balanced diet, alcohol in moderation and not smoking – is linked to the accumulation of less visceral body fat. The results are reported in “Obesity.”
Jiyan Xu
Institute & Campus

What are you reading, Ms. Xu?

Jiyan Xu is a doctoral student in Sofia Forslund's lab. She is investigating how diet, allergies, and potentially harmful microbes interact and shape the human gut microbiome. Jiyan Xu recommends a deeply thought-provoking, philosophical book for us. It is a classic of Japanese literature.
Klaas Ypermann & Gary Lewin
Science

From bench to business

What does it take to turn Max Delbrück Center research into a startup? Meet Klaas Yperman, our very first Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Yperman has won a Helmholtz Enterprise grant to develop a roadmap for turning compounds discovered in the Lewin lab into a drug to treat neuropathic pain.
Holding hands
Institute & Campus

Valuing and supporting our employees

The Max Delbrück Center has once again been awarded the “audit berufundfamilie” certification – an acknowledgment of our commitment to supporting employees through all stages of their lives, whether caring for children or aging parents.
People on stage
Science

Berlin Science Week 2025 in pictures

About one thousand science enthusiasts took part in Max Delbrück Center events during Berlin Science Week 2025. Visitors learned that sharks do indeed feel pain, experienced single-cell research first hand, enjoyed a concert and exhibitions. Scroll through our photo gallery below for a few highlights.
Large group photo of attendees
Science

Being transparent about animal research

During Berlin Science Week, more than 200 researchers, animal welfare officers and managers, journalists, communicators and experts on openness on animal research met at the first-ever EARA conference at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin-Buch.
Friedemann Paul und Nikolaus Rajewsky
Science

Influential in their fields

According to a ranking by Clarivate, Friedemann Paul and Nikolaus Rajewsky are among the most Highly Cited Researchers in the world. Both made the list repeatedly. Germany ranks fourth of countries and regions, behind the U.S., mainland China and the U.K.
Menschen im Labor
Science

Gläsernes Labor: Peering at proteins

During project week “Expedition Proteins” at the Gläsernes Labor, students immerse themselves in protein research – isolating samples, loading gels and visiting a real structural biology lab. The week-long workshop gives them a hands-on glimpse into how scientists explore life’s molecular machinery.

All News & Events

Publications

Thrombospondin-1 (THBS1) is dysregulated in preeclampsia

Placenta

Multiscale simulation and parallel space-time adaptivity of calcium sparks in cardiac myocytes

Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine

Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibition limits multiple sclerosis disease-driving inflammation while promoting regulatory B cells

Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation

Immunomodulatory activity of isolated phenanthrene and dihydrophenanthrene derivatives (coelotrinins A-L) from Coelogyne trinervis

Phytochemistry

All Publications