Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Associated partners of the DZIF are researchers based at German universities and research institutions that are not among the DZIF’s member institutions. Partners at Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine are (as of March 31, 2026):
Markus Landthaler and Emanuel Wyler.
The Berlin Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in the Helmholtz Association is part of a project in the DZIF research area Infections of the Immunocompromised Host, which studies the BK virus. This virus can cause serious complications in immunocompromised individuals. In collaboration with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, so-called kidney organoids—miniaturized models of human kidneys grown in the laboratory—are infected with the virus and then examined at the MDC using advanced single-cell and spatial cell analysis techniques. The goal of the project is to better understand the effects of potential drugs and thus develop new therapeutic approaches against the virus.