Cardiovascular Research

The Max Delbrück Center welcomes four new guest groups: The labs of the junior scientists are part of the Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience, which is focusing on how the vascular system contributes to the development of diseases that affect multiple organ systems.

The Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC) invites attendees to its first Symposium on April 28 and 29, 2025. Researchers from around the world will meet at Heidelberg University to discuss how the heart and blood vessels communicate with the rest of the body to shape health.

Dr. Gabriele G. Schiattarella has been awarded a W2 Professorship for Cardiometabolic Diseases at the Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité. He will continue to study one of the biggest challenges in cardiology: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

A group of Berlin researchers in collaboration with international scientists have found differences in heart inflammation caused by COVID-19, anti-COVID-19 vaccination, and non-COVID-19 myocarditis. The find paves the way for more personalized therapies, they report in “Nature Cardiovascular Research.”

Enno Klußmann of the Max Delbrück Center aims to help reducing the harmful consequences of high blood pressure by imitating a rare mutation. His plan to activate a specific enzyme called PDE3A to protect the heart and kidneys is now being funded with €400,000 by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation.

A team in the labs of Holger Gerhardt and Norbert Hübner at the Max Delbrück Center has elucidated how new arteries form, potentially helping to improve therapies aimed at regenerating heart muscle after a heart attack or stroke. The research was published in “Circulation Research.”

Gabriele Schiattarella researches the mechanisms of heart muscle weakness at the Max Delbrück Center and Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC). Now the International Society for Heart Research, a highly respected professional society, has named him an "Outstanding Investigator."

At the first Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC) conference, researchers from the Max Delbrück Center and Heidelberg University discussed bridging the gap between vascular and cardiac research, and translating research findings to clinical practice.

Preeclampsia is one of the most common pregnancy-related complications. Florian Herse of the Max Delbrück Center and Martin Gauster of the Medical University of Graz are studying the role that Hofbauer cells play in the disorder. They have been awarded a D-A-CH grant totaling €700,000 for their research.

Diseases can emerge when the body’s production of serotonin is out of whack. Researchers led by Michael Bader from the Max Delbrück Center have discovered a therapeutic agent that brings down high levels of this hormone. Their start-up, Trypto Therapeutics, aims to develop the drug for the market.