Circulatory vessels

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has elected Michael Potente of Max Delbrück Center and BIH as a new member. He is joining a community of more than 2,000 leading life scientists in Europe and beyond.

The Max Delbrück Center in Berlin and Heidelberg University will found a new Helmholtz Institute for Translational AngioCardioScience (HI-TAC) in Mannheim and Heidelberg. The Helmholtz Senate voted in favor of the institute, which will integrate vascular biomedicine, systems biology and heart research.

A Berlin-based team led by ECRC researcher Dominik N. Müller is analyzing how inflammation of the intestinal mucosa affects blood vessels. They are still looking for study participants – especially people with inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Michael Potente wants to find out what makes blood vessels grow. For his work on the metabolic regulation of such growth, he has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Judah Folkman Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization.

Hypertension can damage the heart, brain, and blood vessels. The immune system plays an important role in this process, Suphansa Sawamiphak from the Max Delbrück Center reports in Cardiovascular Research. The study, using zebrafish, found that inflammation causes macrophages to damage blood vessels instead of protecting them.

If a secretion in the lungs’ alveoli is not cleared regularly, breathing difficulties can develop. In a study published in Science Immunology, a team led by Alexander Mildner and Achim Leutz has now explained the pivotal role of the transcription factor C/EBPb in this process.

Blood vessels must adapt their growth to the nutrients available in their surroundings so that they can keep organs adequately supplied. A team led by Michael Potente has identified two proteins that are important for this process and published their findings in "Nature Metabolism".

Until now, it was unknown how a new blood vessel obtains the suitable diameter. A team led by MDC researcher Holger Gerhardt has published a paper in the journal "Development" outlining how targeted migration of newly formed cells from the veins toward the arteries is crucial in this process.

Cellular immunotherapies have so far been only partially effective against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A team led by Armin Rehm of the MDC has discovered a possible reason. As they describe in “Cell Reports”, this cancer induces changes in the large blood vessels through which immune cells normally migrate to the lymph nodes.

Cells that line the inner surface of blood vessels form a crucial barrier between blood and the surrounding tissue. Scientists at the Berlin Center for Translational Vascular Biomedicine have now reported in „Nature Cell Biology“ how these endothelial cells maintain their stable resting state.