The Paradox of Thrombosis

18-Apr-2023 - Bears in hibernation and also paraplegic people spend months or even years lying almost motionless. In healthy people, however, bedriddenness is always accompanied by the risk of thrombosis. A paradox, but nevertheless an everyday occurrence. This contradiction has now been investigated by an ...

Hammock for brain organoids

Novel microelectrode array system enables long-term cultivation and electrophysiological analyses

14-Apr-2023 - Brain organoids are self-organizing tissue cultures grown from patient cell-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. They form tissue structures that resemble the brain in vivo in many ways. This makes brain organoids interesting for studying both normal brain development and for the development ...

Dieting: brain amplifies signal of hunger synapses

Possible target for drugs to combat the yo-yo effect

28-Mar-2023 - Many people who have dieted are familiar with the yo-yo effect: after the diet, the kilos are quickly put back on. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and Harvard Medical School have now shown in mice that communication in the brain changes during a diet: The nerve ...

Eye color genes are critical for retinal health

Effect of kynurenine pathway on retinal health deciphered

27-Mar-2023 - Metabolic pathways consist of a series of biochemical reactions in cells that convert a starting component into other products. There is growing evidence that metabolic pathways coupled with external stress factors influence the health of cells and tissues. Many human diseases, including retinal ...

Beethoven’s genome: New study reveals hereditary diseases and a family mystery

Scientists have sequenced the composer’s genome using five genetically matching hair locks

24-Mar-2023 - The study shows Beethoven was predisposed to liver disease, and infected with Hepatitis B, which – combined with his alcohol consumption – may have contributed to his death. Furthermore, DNA from modern relatives points to an extramarital ‘event’ in Beethoven’s paternal line. Johannes Krause, ...

Sweets change our brain

Why we can't keep our hands off chocolate bars and co.

24-Mar-2023 - Chocolate bars, crisps and fries - why can't we just ignore them in the supermarket? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, in collaboration with Yale University, have now shown that foods with a high fat and sugar content change our brain: If we regularly eat ...

225 million euros for start-ups of the Max Planck Society

2022 brought record investment sums for research-based start-ups managed by Max Planck Innovation

21-Mar-2023 - A successful business year for Max Planck Innovation includes increasing investment sums for the start-ups managed. Especially life sciences start-ups with a high degree of maturity provided a record sum of 225 million euros. Companies in the Max Planck Innovation investment portfolio raised over ...

A further advance in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy

Fast even at the nanometer level

14-Mar-2023 - Scientists led by Nobel Laureate Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg have developed a super-resolution microscope with a spatio-temporal precision of one nanometer per millisecond. An improved version of their recently introduced MINFLUX super-resolution ...

Study opens up new possibilities to improve health in old age

Insulin influences life expectancy: Sex-specific differences in response to reduced insulin activity

28-Feb-2023 - Insulin is not only a regulator of blood sugar, but also has an influence on life expectancy. If the insulin signalling pathway is inhibited, animals live longer. But which tissue is crucial for this? And do males and females react in the same way? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for ...

Creating 3D objects with sound

Scientists introduce a new technology to assemble matter in 3D using sound waves for 3D printing

14-Feb-2023 - Scientists from the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials at Heidelberg University have created a new technology to assemble matter in 3D. Their concept uses multiple ...