Next step in light microscopy image improvement

New deep learning architecture enables higher efficiency compared to widely used methods

21-Nov-2024 - It is the computational processing of images that reveals the finest details of a sample placed under all kinds of different light microscopes. Even though this processing has come a long way, there is still room for increasing for example image contrast and resolution. Based on a unique deep ...

A new drug target for psychiatric disorders

11-Sep-2024 - Misha Kudryashev’s lab at the Max Delbrück Center has identified a molecular intermediate of a serotonin receptor that is involved in diseases such as depression and schizophrenia. The study points to a potentially new target for therapeutics. A new study published in “The EMBO Journal” points ...

Zebrafish “avatars” to help tailor glioblastoma therapies

Scientists have created a new zebrafish xenograft platform to screen for novel treatments for an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma

09-Oct-2023 - Glioblastoma is an aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain tumor in adults. On average, patients survive for only 1.5 years. The standard of care treatment for this disease, which includes surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy, has not changed in 18 years. That’s partly because the ...

New technology to study virus infections

"It may be possible to rapidly address emerging pandemics in the future by tailoring our tool to recognize novel viral strains"

26-Jun-2023 - A new tool can identify cells that are actively responding to a SARS-CoV-2 infection. As reported in "Science Advances" by the Gargiulo lab, it can be used to screen for effective COVID-19 therapies and can be tailored to study other viruses as well. When we breathe, the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters ...

Pop-up factories beneath the cell membrane

Scientists have long regarded the cytosol liquid inside a cell as a large “swimming pool” in which everything floats around freely: But it seems that previously unknown structures

17-Mar-2022 - In a study published in Cell, MDC researchers show how a cell is able to process hundreds of signals simultaneously. Andreas Bock and his colleagues believe their findings will open up a whole new field of research in cell biology. A living cell is exposed to a variety of stimuli. Countless ...

What blocks bird flu in human cells?

12-Dec-2019 - Normally, bird flu viruses do not spread easily from person to person. But if this does happen, it could trigger a pandemic. Researchers from the MDC and RKI have now explained in the journal Nature Communications what makes the leap from animals to humans less likely. Whenever people suddenly ...

Google Maps for tissues

08-Aug-2019 - Modern light microscopic techniques provide extremely detailed insights into organs, but the terabytes of data they produce are usually nearly impossible to process. New software, developed by a team led by MDC scientist Dr. Stephan Preibisch and now presented in Nature Methods, is helping ...

Keeping a cell’s powerhouse in shape

12-Jul-2019 - A German-Swiss team around Professor Oliver Daumke from the MDC has investigated how a protein of the dynamin family deforms the inner mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, generating energy in the form of chemical compounds such as ATP. To do this job ...

Immune Cells Also Attack Neurons Directly

New Findings on Multiple Sclerosis

24-Sep-2010 - Researchers in Germany have gained new insight into how the immune system causes damage associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable neuroinflammatory disorder. Using imaging tools which enable investigation of processes in living organisms, they were able to show a direct interaction ...