Scientists Unravel Life-saving Effect of Dexamethasone in COVID-19

New approach for targeted drug development

05-Jul-2024 - Dexamethasone is one of the most important drugs in the treatment of severe COVID-19, but patients respond very differently to the therapy. Researchers at the DZNE and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now discovered how the cortisone compound influences the impaired inflammatory response ...

In severe COVID-19 cases, neutrophils work around the clock

Scientists were able to track over time what happens in molecular biology from the onset of infection to organ damage

19-Jun-2024 - The course of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections depends not only on how aggressive the virus is, but also on the immune response of the infected individual. Using single-cell analyses, a group of researchers led by Samantha Praktiknjo of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), Markus ...

Researchers decipher mechanisms of liver regeneration

Study shows that human organs can regenerate even after prolonged diseases and repetitive injury

28-May-2024 - Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and Open Targets together with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK, uncovered mechanisms driving regeneration of the liver during chronic liver disease. This regenerative process ...

How stem cells and immune cells communicate

Lisec Artz Award for Simon Haas: Groundbreaking discovery of an unknown protective mechanism against blood cancer from stem cells

17-Nov-2023 - Blood cancer is often driven by mutations in stem cells, which are key target cells in the search for innovative early-stage therapies. Dr. Simon Haas, head of a lab within the joint research focus of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and the ...

Interpreting Large-Scale Medical Datasets

ScPoli Enables Multi-Scale Representations of Cells and Samples

10-Oct-2023 - The increasing amount of data recorded in medical research can only lead to scientific breakthroughs and essential therapies for patients if interpreted and analyzed correctly. Computer scientists at Helmholtz Munich developed a generative model named scPoli (single-cell population level ...

Studying herpes encephalitis with mini-brains

“This model is now much closer to reality for the herpes virus than what has been used previously”

27-Jun-2023 - The herpes simplex virus-1 can sometimes cause a dangerous brain infection. Combining an anti-inflammatory and an antiviral could help in these cases, report scientists with the Rajewsky and Landthaler labs and the Organoid Platform at the Max Delbrück Center in “Nature Microbiology.” About 3.7 ...

How pathogenic gene variants lead to heart failure

“To our knowledge, this is the first such analysis conducted in cardiac tissue, and we hope this approach can be used to study other types of genetic heart diseases”

09-Aug-2022 - Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports in “Science”. MDC researcher Norbert Hübner is one of the senior authors. The molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead to heart failure in ...

Strong antiviral immunity in the upper airways protects children from severe COVID-19

19-Aug-2021 - Children can also be infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, but have a substantially lower risk for developing severe COVID-19 disease compared to adults. A team of scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of ...

COVID-19: Release of immature blood cells from bone marrow as a signature of severe disease

Research team has identified cell types in the blood that indicate severe disease progression in COVID-19

30-Nov-2020 - In severe cases of COVID-19 disease, not only classic immune cells play a role. In particular, the release of immature precursor cells from the bone marrow into the blood indicates a particularly severe course of the disease and could contribute to complications. This has been shown by an ...

The dangerous dual role of the immune system in COVID-19

Immune cells occasionally overshoot the mark and, due to their excessive reaction, sometimes cause greater damage than the virus itself

29-Jun-2020 - Infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 follows a highly variable course: some of those infected do not even notice it, while others become so seriously ill that their lives are placed at risk. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin ...