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Thomas F. Meyer Laboratory

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International Symposium & Alumni Meeting 2025: Microbes and Host Cells – Registration Open

2025, Events

16 May at 08:38

This is the Poster of the Alumni 2025 in Berlin. From 28. to 30. August 2025. Microbes and Host Cells Determinants of Health and Disease

International Symposium & Alumni Meeting 2025: Microbes and Host Cells – Registration Open The TF Meyer Laboratory, in collaboration with its alumni from institutions of the Max Planck Society and Kiel University, is once again organizing an international symposium. This year’s program will spotlight pioneering topics at the intersection of…

Open position – Postdoctoral Fellowship

2022, External

15 Mar 2022

Open position – Postdoctoral Fellowship Topic: Mutational signatures of bacterial infections and the origin of human cancer development Details Download PDF

Cancer: When viruses and bacteria cooperate

2022, External

27 Feb 2022

Cancer: When viruses and bacteria cooperate In collaboration with the Biocenter of the University of Würzburg, we demonstrate how infections with several pathogens simultaneously increase the risk of cervical cancer. Read more:

EMBO | EMBL Symposium – Microbial infections and human cancer

2022, Events

1 Jan 2022

EMBO | EMBL Symposium Microbial infections and human cancer 6-9 April 2022 in the EMBL Advanced Training Centre, Heidelberg Abstract submission: 12 Jan 2022 Registration deadline: 02 Feb 2022 Microbial-host interaction has a profound impact on numerous biological systems, including metabolism, immunology, DNA integrity and nutrition. Pathobionts and pathogenic bacteria…

How does a genotoxin drive cancer-prone mutagenesis?

2021, External

17 Nov 2021

How does a genotoxin drive cancer-prone mutagenesis? Gut colonization by colibactin-producing bacteria is associated with colorectal cancer. Recent work by Prof. Thomas Meyer and others has uncovered its footprint in human cancer genomes. Read more:

Understanding cell organization in the human stomach

2021, External

4 May 2021

Understanding cell organization in the human stomach In collaboration with the Ludwig Cancer Research Center at the University of Oxford, we have investigated how growth factors influence differentiation and patterning in human gastric glands. Read more:

Genotoxic E. coli “caught in the act” of transforming primary colon cells

2021, Publications

12 Feb 2021

New publication in Nature Communications Genotoxic E. coli “caught in the act” of transforming primary colon cells We recently provided definitive evidence for a link between genotoxic bacterial species and subgroup of colorectal cancers by identifying the genetic signature left by colibactin in host cells [click here]. We have gone a…

Insights into the cellular origin of cervical metaplasia and cancer.

2021, Publications

25 Jan 2021

New publication in Nature Cell Biology Insights into the cellular origin of cervical metaplasia and cancer. Epithelial cancers occasionally arise in the transition zones (TZ) between two types of epithelial lineages; these are often preceded by a process called metaplasia, in which the cell types normally present in the tissue…

Bacteria leave signature in colon cancer cells A role of colibactin-producing E. coli in carcinogenesis

2020, Publications

24 Jun 2020

New publication in Nature Medicine Bacteria leave signature in colon cancer cells A role of colibactin-producing E. coli in carcinogenesis Starting from the hypothesis that DNA damage by the colibactin genotoxin in the human genome might not be random, the authors determined the locations of double-strand breaks generated after the…

Robert Koch Gold Medal for MPIIB Director Thomas F. Meyer

2020, External

8 Jun 2020

Robert Koch Gold Medal for MPIIB Director Thomas F. Meyer Thomas F. Meyer receives the Robert Koch Gold Medal, one of the highest awards in the field of infection research. The Robert Koch Foundation announced today that this year’s award will be presented to the Max Planck researcher. Read more:

A pre-cancerous tissue may cope better with persistent bacterial infections

2020, Publications

17 Apr 2020

Thomas F. Meyer wins a 2.5M EUR grant from the European Research Council (ERC) A pre-cancerous tissue may cope better with persistent bacterial infections We were awarded an advanced grant for the project “Metaplasia as an adaptive response to chronic microbial infections” on the role of bacterial infections in the…

Treatments for Coronavirus: re-purposing existing drugs

2020, External

9 Apr 2020

Treatments for Coronavirus: re-purposing existing drugs A cancer drug may inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus Read more:

Using alveolar epithelia as a model for corona infection

2020, External

9 Apr 2020

Using alveolar epithelia as a model for corona infection Berlin researchers are using organ-like cell cultures to investigate compounds to combat the new virus Read more:

Cancer organoids fancy a different milieu to thrive

2020, Publications

19 Feb 2020

New publication in EMBO Journal Cancer organoids fancy a different milieu to thrive In collaboration with scientists from the Charité, we investigated under which conditions human ovarian cancer cells thrive. For that purpose, we compared normal fallopian tube organoids to two models of ovarian cancer organoids: 1) organoids established from…

The impact of bacterial infections on human cancer 26-29 October 2019 in Harnack House, Berlin

2019, Events

26 Oct 2019

EMBO/Leopoldina Workshop The impact of bacterial infections on human cancer 26-29 October 2019 in Harnack House, Berlin The causality between tumour viruses and human cancers is firmly established, due to the presence of transforming viral genes in the resulting cancers. Although there is much evidence that certain bacterial infections, in…

Regenerative potential of the intestine: even fully differentiated cells can become stem cells again

2019, Publications

25 Sep 2019

New publication in Nature Communications Regenerative potential of the intestine: even fully differentiated cells can become stem cells again The intestinal epithelium forms the barrier between the organism and the environment and is thus exposed to a multitude of damaging factors. Severe injury, e.g. through a bacterial infection or toxic…

Stem cells moonlight to protect the stomach from bacterial invaders

2019, Publications

24 Jun 2019

New publication in Nature Cell Biology Stem cells moonlight to protect the stomach from bacterial invaders When bacteria invade gastric glands, the level of Wnt signaling, which drives stem cell turnover, increases. This paper shows that gastric glands contain a second population of stem cells that react to the signal…

ADP-heptose, a novel pathogen-associated molecular pattern identified in Helicobacter pylori

2019, Publications

21 Jun 2019

New paper in FASEB Recently Lennart Pfannkuch from the department of Molecular Biology gave a talk in the „Wissenschaft für alle“ series of the MPIIB about pattern recognition during infections. The paper on this work is now out. It describes a novel pathogen-associated molecule, ADP-heptose, which is recognized by host…

Organoids reveal inflammatory processes in chlamydia infections

2019, Publications

18 Mar 2019

New publication in Nature Communications Organoids reveal inflammatory processes in chlamydia infections The paper describes the first in vitro model of chronic infection, using human primary polarised epithelium in the form of organoids. Organoids infected with Chlamydia trachomatis remained viable for months, enabling the analysis of long-term changes…

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