A mystery that has puzzled the scientific community for over 50 years has finally been solved. A team from Helmholtz Munich and Linköping University, Sweden, has discovered that a certain type of chemical reaction can explain why organic matter found…

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the LMU University Hospital Munich introduce DELiVR, offering a new AI-based approach to the complex task of brain cell mapping. The deep learning tool democratizes advanced neuroscience by eliminating the need for…

Scientists have reached a milestone in the research of childhood asthma. For the first time, they have clarified how a certain genetic defect in children initially leads to frequent infections and later to asthma. The study, published in the American…

The rise of RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 highlights the need for new ways to fight them. RNA-targeting tools like CRISPR/Cas13 are powerful but inefficient in the cytoplasm of cells, where many RNA viruses replicate. Scientists from Helmholtz Munich…

Recent research underscores the critical role of adipocytes in storing fat, vital for organismal survival. Dysfunctional adipocytes can lead to metabolic disorders like type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease, highlighting the importance of…

Epigenetic changes play important roles in cancer, metabolic and aging-related diseases, but also during loss of resilience as they cause the genetic material to be incorrectly interpreted in affected cells. A major study by scientists at Helmholtz…

Research targeting the insulin-inhibitory receptor, called inceptor, unveils promising avenues for beta cell protection, offering hope for causal diabetes therapy. A novel study in mice with diet-induced obesity demonstrates that the knock-out of…

The genetic information in our cells harbors secrets about the risks, progression, and complications of many diseases. With hundreds of millions of patients worldwide, identifying and understanding genetic risk for type 2 diabetes is of particular…

Many cancer patients develop severe dermatitis during radiotherapy. Which factors increase the risk of such radiodermatitis has only been partially understood up until now. A pilot study at the University of Augsburg, Helmholtz Munich, and the…

New method makes room for DNA insertions

The Dynamic Journey of DNA Replication Timing and Its Impact on Cellular Plasticity 

The intricate process of duplicating genetic information, referred to as DNA replication, lies at the heart of the transmission of life from one cell to another…

Changes in small blood vessels are a common consequence of diabetes development. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed a method that can be used to measure these microvascular changes in the…

Researchers from Helmholtz Munich and the LMU have discovered that, in the case of brain injuries, specific cells in the brain become active in disease situations, exhibiting properties of neural stem cells. The authors further discovered that a…

To mechanistically understand the root causes of lung disease, and identify drugs that target specific pathways, the scientists around Prof. Herbert Schiller and Dr. Gerald Burgstaller from Helmholtz Munich are collecting deep molecular insights from…

Pediatricians and computer scientists join forces at the Helmholtz Munich Institute for Diabetes Research to identify children with type 1 diabetes before they develop symptoms. With the help of advanced statistics and machine learning, the…

A team of researchers led by Dr. Marcus Conrad from Helmholtz Munich discovered a novel anti-cancer drug, called viFSP1, which sensitizes both murine and human cancer cells to cell death through ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is defined by the…

The increasing amount of patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes benefit greatly from the recently developed GIPR:GLP-1R co-agonists. These novel compounds lead to substantial weight loss, offering a revolutionary approach to patients worldwide.…

ScPoli Enables Multi-Scale Representations of Cells and Samples

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.…

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich have made significant progress in advancing high-resolution optoacoustic imaging for clinical use. Their innovative deep-learning framework, known as DeepMB, holds great promise…

How do our muscles respond at the molecular level to exercise? Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE) have unraveled the cellular basis and signaling pathways responsible for the positive…

A collaborative endeavor between computer scientists and diabetes researchers at Helmholtz Munich has yielded novel insights into the mechanisms underlying type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of the first mouse…

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease leading to an impaired glucose metabolism and requires life-long administration of insulin. While the cause of the autoimmunity reaction is still unclear, viral infections in young children are proposed to be…

Premature infants often struggle with breathing and require ventilatory support and oxygen therapy. Unfortunately, this might lead to lung damage resulting in lifelong consequences and chronic disease. Dr. Anne Hilgendorff’s team from Helmholtz…

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks second in leading causes of cancer-related deaths globally, according to the WHO. For the first time, researchers from Helmholtz Munich and the University of Technology Dresden (TU Dresden) show that artificial…

A team of researchers from Helmholtz Munich in cooperation with scientists at the University Hospital Münster (UKM) has uncovered a new pathway that promotes the growth of aggressive blood cancer, so-called lymphomas. Survival of many lymphomas…

Clarifying a debated issue in clinical practice 

Thousands of patients are injected with contrast media every day, particularly in the fields of radiology and internal medicine. It has long been debated whether, and if so to what extent, there is a…

Alzheimer's, stroke, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases cause severe damage due to neuroinflammation mediated by immune cells. Managing this inflammation poses a significant medical challenge because the brain is protected by the…

Why “Eating Your Greens” Represents a Major Aspect of Lifestyle Driven Obesity Treatment

Researchers developed a new method called wildDISCO that uses standard antibodies to map the entire body of an animal using fluorescent markers. This revolutionary technique provides detailed 3D maps of structures, shedding new light on complex…

A research team at Helmholtz Munich revealed a specific mechanism that is able to promote cell death in cancer cells by pharmacological targeting of a ferroptosis surveillance system. Ferroptosis is a form of regulated oxidative cell death and has…

A team of researchers led by Dr. Marcus Conrad from Helmholtz Munich discovered a novel anti-cancer drug, called icFSP1, which sensitizes cancer cells to ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is characterized by the iron-dependent oxidative destruction of…

Can a human organ be mapped on a single-cell level to learn about the functionality of each individual cell? And can we learn how different these cells are from person to person? Helmholtz Munich researchers and their collaborators have taken up this…

Tirzepatide is a recently approved treatment for type-2 diabetes. Treatment with tirzepatide decreases body weight while improving glucose metabolism in patients with obesity and type-2 diabetes. Although the drug is designed to activate receptors…

CAMPA, a new deep-learning framework, that allows for analysis of subcellular organization in healthy and perturbed cells using high-resolution fluorescence microscopy data has now been introduced in Nature Methods. This tool can facilitate the…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in the chronic autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes was observed in children, also in Germany. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and TU Dresden, in cooperation with the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Bayern (KVB),…

A new study conducted by Helmholtz Munich researchers reveals that ultrafine particles, representing the smallest size fraction of particulate air pollution, might be more dangerous to human health than larger particles. These findings add to the…

Most children displayed SARS-CoV2 immunity. In March 2023, SARS-CoV2 antibodies were present in 94% of the children, including infants.

Genetically encoded nano-barcodes

How do the nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other? What processes take place when T cells render cancer cells harmless? Details of the mechanisms at the cellular level remain hidden from view. Now,…

A specific molecule excreted by methane-oxidizing bacteria could be most suitable for therapy against Wilson’s disease (WD). This is what researchers led by Helmholtz Munich scientist Hans Zischka have found in a new study. In a WD rat model, the…

Interdisciplinary cooperation between LMU and Helmholtz Munich supported by Bavarian Research Foundation

Unlike other forms of blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cannot currently be treated with CAR-T cell immunotherapy. The reason is that…

Sex differences exist in the regulation of energy homeostasis, the organism’s mechanism to keep a stable body weight. Current studies indicate for instance that female mammals, including humans, are better protected against metabolic diseases during…

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections remain a major global health problem – according to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are around 300 million HBV carriers worldwide. Current treatments rarely succeed in curing the infection. At present,…

How can you trace a single diseased cell in an intact brain or a human heart? The search resembles looking for a needle in a haystack. The teams of Ali Ertürk at Helmholtz Munich and LMU Munich and Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute of…

In order to treat patients with diabetes in the best possible way it is necessary to understand the disease mechanism. MODY type 3 (MODY3) is a monogenic hereditary form of diabetes, that is caused by a genetic defect in the HNF1A gene. The result is…

New biological tool for tracking cellular processes

„Everyone’s health is at the mercy of fossil fuels” is the central finding of this year’s Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report. In this report, which was released on October 26^th 2022, experts warn of health consequences of the…

How do single cells communicate in a tissue? How can these interactions be modeled, while retaining information of spatial context? Researchers around Fabian Theis from Helmholtz Munich Computational Health Center and Technical University of Munich…

Study provides novel insights on dynamics of blood sugar levels and autoimmunity in early childhood

When and why does type 1 diabetes manifest in children? For the first time, researchers conducted a long-term study on infants and young children…

Helmholtz Munich researchers identify a novel mechanism to modify glucagon receptor signaling outcomes by altering its intracellular localization

What exactly are the molecular interactions between the virus causing COVID-19 and its human host? How might our genetic differences cause different disease courses? And how do still-emerging virus variants differ in their host-virus interactions? To…

A team of researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and Novo Nordisk have developed a new hormone combination for the future treatment of type 2 diabetes. The scientists have combined the blood sugar-reducing…

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium with participation of Dr. Matthias Heinig, researcher at Helmholtz Munich, reports in Science.

A team of researchers located at Helmholtz Munich reports on a novel function of vitamin K, which is generally known for its importance in blood clotting. The researchers discovered that the fully reduced form of vitamin K acts as an antioxidant…

On days with high temperatures, people taking certain medications have an increased risk of heart attack: this was found by a team of researchers led by Alexandra Schneider, PhD, research group leader 'Environmental Risks' at the Helmholtz Munich…

Researchers gain a fundamental insight for epitranscriptomics and immune response. The research group around Vigo Heissmeyer and Taku Ito-Kureha of Helmholtz Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München has revealed the essential function of m6A…

Researchers have succeeded in sequencing and characterizing the entire genome of oat. Compared to other cereals and humans, the oat genome architecture is very complex. Scientists from Helmholtz Munich, Lund University and the ScanOats network…

A clinical study confirms the success of a novel technology developed by Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) for the evaluation of the treatment of psoriasis. With the new method, doctors can look deeper into the skin of…

By the use of fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scientists and physicians from Helmholtz Munich and LMU University Hospital Munich have discovered a reduction in lung volume in fetuses from mothers with an uncomplicated SARS-CoV-2 infection…

Replacing sick or damaged cells with healthy cells: this is a major goal of regenerative medicine. One of the most promising approaches is cellular reprogramming, whereby one cell type in our body converts to another cell type. Research carried out…

It only takes a blood test to detect the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes in children at an early stage and, thus, prevent severe metabolic derailments. Helmholtz Munich offers the world's largest population-based screening for type 1 diabetes in…

Voluntary fasting, for example interval fasting, is beneficial to health for many people, depending on their individual condition. For example, controlled periods of starvation can prevent and improve diseases such as diabetes and obesity.…

Data is not only the answer to numerous questions in the business world; the same applies to biomedical research. In order to develop new therapies or prevention strategies for diseases, scientists need more and better data, faster and faster.…

According to a new study led by Ulrike Protzer, a breakthrough infection after two vaccinations achieves the same protective effect as an additional booster vaccination. According to the study by Helmholtz Munich, LMU and TUM, the decisive factor for…

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been known for some time to play a part in a range of diseases. A current US study has now shown a close link between EBV and multiple sclerosis. Scientists at Helmholtz Munich and DZIF are already working on…

The interplay of genetics and epigenetics is a long-sought riddle in the development of diseases. Researchers from Helmholtz Munich and the Imperial College London discovered novel interactions. Their findings improve our knowledge about…

Vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been made possible by an unprecedented worldwide partnership. However, medications against Covid-19 have yet seen only partial success. With the support of the Bavarian Research Foundation, a Munich research…

Biomedical imaging is the window through which we can look into organisms. It allows us to see cells, their behavior and localization that would otherwise be hidden. Tracking very few cells over time without damaging them is a key challenge in health…

For the first time, scientists based at Helmholtz Munich and the University of Oxford were able to shed light on one of the most critical stages of human embryonic development (gastrulation). The finding, published in the journal Nature, will…

How can we better diagnose blood diseases? A research group led by Helmholtz Munich aims to answer this question with artificial intelligence (AI). Their goal is to facilitate the time-consuming analysis of bone marrow cells under the microscope. The…

Obesity, diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer are frequently linked to an unhealthy diet. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this are not fully understood. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich have gained some new insights that help to…

The 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin is a milestone in diabetes research and insulin continues to be a lifesaver for many people. At the same time, the International Diabetes Federation predicts a rise in the number of diabetes cases to…

Researchers have designed antibodies as novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma. Their study in human cell cultures and in living mice showed the elimination of antigen-positive cells and…

Prolonged exposure to air pollution can be linked to an increased risk of stroke and coronary heart disease, even when levels are below the limits specified by the EU and WHO. This has been shown, among others, by researchers and Helmholtz Zentrum…

Researchers developed a novel artificial intelligence algorithm for clinical applications called “scArches”. It efficiently compares patients’ cells with a reference atlas of cells of healthy individuals. This enables physicians to pinpoint cells in…

Researchers found new genetic risk factors for osteoarthritis and identified novel drug targets. Their finding is a milestone towards the development of the first ever curative treatment for osteoarthritis. The study involved an international…

T cells play a decisive role in fighting the coronavirus and preventing infected individuals from becoming seriously ill. They identify and fight the virus directly within the infected cells. A team of researchers working in Munich have produced a…

For safety reasons, the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) in Germany recommends that anyone under the age of 60 who initially received a vaccine from AstraZeneca should be given an mRNA vaccine at their second appointment. Up until now, there…

A newly engineered organoid on chip platform mimics robustly key features of human pancreas development. This is a stepping stone towards reliable diagnostic solutions for early-stage pancreatic cancer. The study was carried out by an…

Cellular competition is a crucial quality control process that ensures that the development of an organism relies on healthy cells. Researchers revealed the secrets underlying cell competition and what features can pre-determine whether a cell will…

Researchers revealed how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can develop into a life-threatening complication. Their discovery will accelerate the search for therapeutic solutions. The study was led by Helmholtz Zentrum München in collaboration with…

Scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München revise the current textbook knowledge about gastrulation, the formation of the basic body plan during embryonic development. Their study in mice has implications for cell replacement strategies and cancer…

An international study led by Helmholtz Zentrum München has revealed the structure of a membrane-remodeling protein that builds and maintains photosynthetic membranes. These fundamental insights lay the groundwork for bioengineering efforts to…

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in demonstrating the role of hypothalamic astrocytes in obesity-related hypertension. In addition, they showed that the hormone leptin is involved in the increase of blood vessels in the hypothalamus of…

Our proteome is much bigger than our genome because one gene produces several variants of proteins called protein isoforms, whose disbalance is implicated in many diseases. A new bioengineered reporter system developed at Helmholtz Zentrum München…

Researchers have been able to prove for the first time that activation of distinct human endogenous retroviruses, which are part of our genome, impair brain development dramatically. This finding could help to advance research into therapies for…

A small molecule has entered a novel clinical trial for cancer immunotherapy. The molecule inhibits an enzyme called MALT1 that plays a critical role in suppressing immune reactions against tumor cells. Preclinical studies showed that blocking MALT1…

A new algorithm can predict which genes cause cancer, even if their DNA sequence is not changed. A team of researchers combined a wide variety of data, analyzed it with “Artificial Intelligence” and identified numerous cancer genes. This opens up new…

A study by Helmholtz Zentrum München concludes that during the second Corona wave, three to four times more children in Bavaria, Germany were infected with the Corona virus than reported via PCR tests. In addition, the researchers found that about…

A new study uncovers which cell types can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 due to their viral entry factors. The study also suggests that increased gene expression of these viral entry factors in some individuals partially explains the differences of…

Type 1 diabetes is the most common metabolic disease in children and adolescents worldwide. It can be particularly dangerous as often there is no diagnosis until severe and sometimes life-threatening symptoms have already developed. The new ‘SINT1A‘…

The GIP receptor in the central nervous system plays a crucial role in the regulation of body weight and food intake. This is shown by a recent study by Helmholtz Zentrum München, ETH Zurich and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). The…

Researchers have discovered a novel and druggable insulin inhibitory receptor, named inceptor. The latest study from Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Technical University of Munich and the German Center for Diabetes Research is a significant milestone…

The gut plays a central role in the regulation of the body’s metabolism and its dysfunction is associated with a variety of diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, colitis and colorectal cancer that affect millions of people worldwide. Targeting…

Not all prediabetes is the same: In people in the preliminary stages of type 2 diabetes, there are six clearly distinguishable subtypes, which differ in the development of the disease, diabetes risk, and the development of secondary diseases. The…

In a landmark discovery for global wheat production, Helmholtz Zentrum München together with an international research team has sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world, enabling scientists and…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München together with scientists across Europe developed a novel animal-free method to predict the toxic effect of nanoparticles to the human lung. The method aims to enable the safety-by-design development of safer…

The replacement of lost neurons is a holy grail for neuroscience. A new promising approach is the conversion of glial cells into new neurons. Improving the efficiency of this conversion or reprogramming after brain injury is an important step towards…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München together with LMU University Eye Hospital Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) created a novel deep learning method that makes automated screenings for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy…

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common and deadliest diseases worldwide. Until today, COPD is not curable. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now succeeded in…

Asthma impacts millions of children already at a young age. Children growing up on a farm have a lower risk of developing asthma than children not living on a farm. The mechanisms behind this protective farm effect on childhood asthma are largely…

A new study lead by Helmholtz Zentrum München indicates a six-fold higher SARS-CoV-2 exposure rate among children in Bavaria, Germany, than reported cases. This highlights the value of population-based antibody screenings for pandemic monitoring. The…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München identified specific fat molecules which affect metabolism during cachexia, a cancer-related energy-wasting syndrome characterized by progressive decrease in muscle and fat tissue mass. These fat molecules may…

Researchers from Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), jointly developed new imaging tools to allow non-invasive imaging of distinct structures, like blood vessels, in multicolor and in real-time. The new…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the world’s smallest ultrasound detector. It is based on miniaturized photonic circuits on top of a silicon chip. With a size 100 times smaller than…

The brain plays a major role in controlling our blood glucose levels. In type 2 diabetics this glucose metabolism brain control is often dysfunctional. Genetic components for this phenomenon have so far remained elusive. A group of scientists at…

The study of cellular dynamics is crucial to understand how cells develop and how diseases progress. Scientist at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technical University of Munich (TUM) created “scVelo” – a machine learning method and open source software…

Every scar tells a story. Sometimes it can be dramatic, dealing with complicated injuries, surgeries and chronic diseases. Dr. Yuval Rinkevich would rather like to tell stories of regeneration, the healing of wounds on skin or organs without much…

German researchers decoded the European maize genome. In comparison to North American maize lines, they discovered variations that underlie phenotypic differences and may also contribute to the heterosis effect. A better understanding of the effect…

Totipotency is set to become a key tool for research and future medical applications. Finding efficient ways to generate totipotent-like cells is therefore crucial. In a new study, a group of researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München found that…

Cell reprogramming provides an outstanding opportunity for the artificial generation of stem cells for regenerative medicine approaches in the clinic. As current cell reprogramming methods are low in efficiency, researchers around the globe aim to…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) mapped the signaling network in plants and discovered novel insights about how plants process information about their environment. This gives new potential to strategies…

Large-scale antibody testing against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 could help to obtain reliable data on infection rates. Screening children for early stages of type 1 diabetes in Bavaria, "Fr1da-plus" will now integrate SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing…

It is not only people with allergies, but also a subgroup of people without one that suffer in spring and have nasal problems from contact with pollen. A new study shows that biomarkers in the nose can predict the severity of the symptoms that will…

The loss of insulin-secreting beta cells by autoimmune destruction leads to type 1 diabetes. Clinical islet cell transplantation has the potential to cure diabetes, but donor pancreases are rare. In a new study, a group of researchers developed an…

Starting in April a large-scale sample analysis called KoCo19 ("Prospective COVID-19 Cohort Munich") will be carried out to investigate the spread of the corona pandemic and the effectiveness of countermeasures in the Munich area. The study will be…

Diseases of the brain are often associated with typical vascular changes. Now, scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München, LMU University Hospital Munich and the Technical University of Munich have come up with a technique for visualising the structures…

Gut bacteria are central to human health. They are a key player in contributing to immune regulation, pathogen protection, food and drug metabolism, and vitamin synthesis. Another supporting actor in the gut, however, are bacteriophages or short…

The loss of the identity of insulin-secreting beta cells in the islet of Langerhans, a process also called beta cell dedifferentiation, has been proposed to be a main reason for the development of diabetes. If and how dedifferentiated beta cells can…

For the first time, researchers managed to make intact human organs transparent. Using microscopic imaging they could revealed underlying complex structures of the see-through organs at the cellular level. Resulting organ maps can serve as templates…

In mammalian adult brains, neural stem cells are only present in few specific parts, so called niches. Only these niches are capable of generating new neurons. For the first time, researchers defined the proteome of these niches, the entire set of…

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have developed a novel therapeutic approach to cure chronic hepatitis B. The scientists found that the large amount of…

Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common hereditary muscular disease among children, leaving them wheelchair-bound before the age of twelve and reducing life expectancy. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Technical University…

In order not to affect air quality by ground-level ozone formation, certain tree species emitting large quantities of isoprene should not be planted in large numbers in urban and suburban areas. Genetic suppression of isoprene emissions can help to…