Künstliche Intelligenz, Organoide, Tiermodelle – Neue Konzepte in der Biomedizin (DE)

Scientific Director (interim)

Thomas Sommer is interim Scientific Director of the MDC. The cell biologist researches protein quality control and holds a chair at HU Berlin. He is one of the founding coordinators of Berlin Research 50 and is on the board of the DZHK and EU-LIFE. He investigates scientific misconduct and is an expert reviewer for the DFG. He became a member of the EMBO in 2003, won the Science Prize of the German Technion Society in 2012, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Technion in Israel since 2017.

Head of Research Group “Neuromuscular and Cardiovascular Cell Biology”

After studying medicine in Heidelberg and Berlin, Professor Michael Gotthardt did his postoc at UT Southwestern in Dallas, started his independent lab at Washington State University and moved back to the Max Delbrück Center in 2002. He studies titin, the largest protein in the human body, and how it relates to cardiovascular disease. His work extends from basic molecular and cell biology to developing novel therapies. He is the recipient of the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award and an ERC Starting Grant.

Group Leader “Microenvironmental Regulation in Autoimmunity and Cancer”

Dr. Uta Höpken is an immunologist who investigates how lymphoma develops and how it manages to escape the immune system. Another research focus is the development of novel CAR-T cell products for the immunotherapeutic treatment of blood cancer. Currently, Höpken is an elected member of the Steering Committee on Clinical Translational Sciences at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and a scientific adviser in the field of immuno-oncology at the German Cancer Society (DKG).

Head of the Technology Platform Organoids

Dr. Agnieszka Rybak-Wolf heads the MDC’s newly established Organoids Platform. She previously studied the expression and function of regulatory RNAs, such as miRNAs and circular RNAs, during neuronal specification and mammalian brain development. Her current research employs a brain organoid model to study human neurodegenerative diseases, with the goal of elucidating pathogenic mechanisms underlying their development and identifying potential therapeutic targets for disease treatment.