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| No 7/2023 | August/SeptembER Issue |
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Dear Readers,
On September 5, the Max Delbrück Center celebrated the 15th anniversary of its Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (MDC-BIMSB). We would also like to extend our warmest congratulations! The BIH is currently funding three of the four junior research groups at MDC-BIMSB in the focus area “Single Cell Approaches for Personalized Medicine,” a joint undertaking of the BIH, the Max Delbrück Center and Charité aimed at building bridges between basic and clinical research. But there is more to our Privileged Partnership with the Max Delbrück Center than the successful work of these groups, led respectively by Stefanie Großwendt, Simon Haas, Leif Ludwig and Ashley Sanders. The latest research findings of BIH Professor Kathrin de la Rosa as well as the achievements of the jointly run Core Facilities are also a result of the excellent collaboration between the BIH and the Max Delbrück Center. These are among the stories covered in this edition of our newsletter. Enjoy reading!
Your BIH Board of Directors,
Christopher Baum and Michael Frieser
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Bartter syndrome type 3 is the result of several structural variants in the genome. By using long-read sequencing, Dr. Janine Altmüller, head of the BIH Core Unit Genomics and her team from the BIH, the Max Delbrück Center and the University Hospital Cologne mapped out the rare disease in unprecedented detail. They have now reported their findings in the journal Genome Medicine. Read the press releaseRead the publication |
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Conventional vaccines usually contain antigens – components of the respective pathogens – that bind to receptors on the surface of their target cells in order to trigger the disease. Scientists of the BIH around Johanna Quandt Professor Kathrin de la Rosa and the Max Delbrück Center have now discovered that antigen variants with low receptor binding can be advantageous for the development of vaccines. The research team has succeeded in producing a new vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by identifying spike protein mutants that lack binding affinity. The scientists have now published their findings in the European Journal of Immunology. Read the press releaseRead the publication |
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In the fight against many common diseases, there is a huge need for safe and effective drugs. Dr. Maik Pietzner, a group leader in the Computational Medicine Group at the BIH, sees genes as a key to developing new therapies, because most diseases have a genetic background. Using a sophisticated strategy that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze enormous amounts of data, Pietzner wants to track down disease-related genes on a large scale and thus identify targets for the treatment of common but often neglected diseases. The European Research Council (ERC) believes this to be a promising strategy and has awarded Pietzner an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros over five years. Congratulations! Read the press release |
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News From Charité BIH Innovation (CBI)
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Simone Spuler Receives UNIPREURS Award
The UNIPRENEURS Initiative has recognized the entrepreneurial spirit of 20 professors, among them ECRC researcher and member of the BIH Clinician Scientist Board, Professor Simone Spuler, who was previously supported by the SPARK-BIH program of Charité BIH Innovation. As a co-founder of the startup MyoPax, she is pioneering stem cell technology to develop regenerative therapies for previously incurable muscle diseases and has made significant contributions to the translation of innovations into the business sphere. The award ceremony by Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, and Dr Anna Christmann, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Startups of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection took place on September 6, 2023, in Berlin.
Read more (in German only) |
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Surjo Soekadar, Einstein Professor of Clinical Neurotechnology at Charité, receives the ERC consolidator grant with about two million euro in funding to continue developing noninvasive, bidirectional brain-computer interfaces. Previously, he was supported by SPARK-BIH of Charité BIH Innovation and the Cluster of Excellence, NeuroCure, to build the prototype of a novel brain stimulator. Congratulations! Read the press release of Charité |
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News From the BIH QUEST Center
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News From the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA)
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From August 25-27, 2023, the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA) again participated in the Annual GAIN Conference (German Academic International Network), this time in Boston/USA. The annual GAIN conference is aimed at scientists from Germany who are currently conducting research in North America and who wish to return to Germany and therefore want to exchange ideas with representatives from the German scientific community, politics and industry. Dr. Nathalie Huber and Dr. Iwan Meij represented the BIH with a booth at the "Talent Fair", held talks with promising applicants for the BIA funding programs and provided general information about the BIH.
Learn more about the GAIN conference |
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This year's call for applications of the BIH Digital Health Accelerator Program is live. The structured program supports Charité/BIH employees, who develop digital health solutions including medical devices for medical application and the healthcare market, with funding, expert mentoring, co-working space access, etc. Application deadline is November 3, 2023.
Read more about the call |
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