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12 Current news of MPI für Immunbiologie

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Sophisticated mechanism revealed: Cells inherit protection from sunburn

Stress granules protect cells from the effects of UV radiation

22-Mar-2024 - UV radiation in the sunlight causes sunburn and increases the risk of skin cancer by damaging our DNA but also our RNA. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, have now unveiled a cellular shield that protect cells from the harmful effects of ...

cancer cells DNA damage +3
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Start-stop system of hunting immune cells

Immune cells coordinate their swarming behavior to eliminate pathogens effectively together

22-Jun-2021 - Neutrophils belong to the first responders of our immune system. They circulate in our bodies and hunt in infected tissues to ingest, kill, and digest harmful pathogens. To become such effective killers in the very complex situation of an inflamed tissue, they work together as a collective. They ...

bacteria immune cells immune system +1
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Deep-sea anglerfishes have evolved a new type of immune system

The discovery points to possible new ways of improving immune defence in patients who suffer from the consequences of a immune disabilities

03-Aug-2020 - Deep-sea anglerfishes have evolved a curious reproductive strategy. Tiny males attach themselves to gigantic females so tightly that the tissues of the two animals eventually fuse. The male esssentially turns into a sperm-producing parasite. This phenomenon is known as sexual parasitism which ...

immune disorders immune system
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The Battle of Xs

MOF complexes mediate genetic fair play

23-Jun-2014 - Sexually dimorphic animals are often distinguished by unequal number of the X-chromosomes. While males have only one X chromosome, females have two copies, prompting an evolutionary pressure for compensatory mechanisms against this disequilibrium. Some species, such as fruit flies, up-regulate ...

chromosomes
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Making and breaking heterochromatin

Scientists discover 2 further mechanisms necessary for the formation of heterochromatin

28-Sep-2012 - To fit the two-meter long DNA molecule into a cell nucleus that is only a few thousandths of a millimetre in size, long sections of the DNA must be strongly compacted. Epigenetic marks maintain these sections, known as heterochromatin. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and ...

enzymes epigenetics heterochromatin +2
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Dosage compensation in male flies: Balance between sexes

Fruit flies make up for the imbalance in the number of X chromosomes between the sexes at the start of transcription

23-Jul-2012 - The sex of many organisms is determined by the number of X chromosomes. In humans, for example, women have two X chromosomes, whereas men have only one X chromosome, but also have an additional Y chromosome. The same is true of other mammals, and of fruit flies, as well. Why this does not result ...

fruit flies transcription

Regulation of telomerase in stem cells and cancer cells

New insights from stem cell research can be applied to human tumors

29-Jun-2012 - Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have gained important insights for stem cell research which are also applicable to human tumours and could lead to the development of new treatments. As Rolf Kemler's research group discovered, a molecular link ...

cancer stem cells telomeres

Live from the thymus: T-cells on the move

For the first time, scientists follow the development of individual immune cells in a living zebrafish embryo

21-Feb-2012 - T-cells are the immune system’s security force. They seek out pathogens and rogue cells in the body and put them out of action. Their precursors are formed in the bone marrow and migrate from there into the thymus. Here, they mature and differentiate to perform a variety of tasks. Scientists at ...

fluorescent dyes fluorescent proteins

Chromosome centromeres are inherited epigenetically

The histone protein CenH3 is both necessary and sufficient to trigger the formation of centromeres and pass them on from one generation to the next

07-Nov-2011 - Centromeres are specialised regions of the genome, which can be identified under the microscope as the primary constriction in X-shaped chromosomes. The cell skeleton, which distributes the chromosomes to the two daughter cells during cell division, attaches to the centromeres. In most organisms ...

epigenetics gene therapy
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Primitive vertebrates with an adaptive immune system

A key organ found in our adaptive immune system is more common than previously assumed: Max Planck researchers demonstrate the presence of thymus-like structures in the primitive lamprey

04-Feb-2011 - Primitive vertebrates with an adaptive immune system A key organ found in our adaptive immune system are more common than previously assumed: Max Planck researchers have demonstrated the presence of thymus-like structures in the primitive lamprey. The adaptive immune system is one of ...

autoimmune diseases