What if acute COVID seems gone, but parts of the virus aren’t? Our lab is using advanced imaging to see what conventional methods miss, and turn those discoveries into urgently needed #LongCOVID treatments. 🔬 The evidence 👇🏻

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 6d ago

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein accumulates & persists in the body for years👇🏻. We develop advanced imaging/AI to cure Long COVID & beyond👇🏻. Join us 🤗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out what we have been up to recently, as we are now trying to make a real-world difference in Long COVID and other diseases

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 6d ago

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein accumulates & persists in the body for years👇🏻. We develop advanced imaging/AI to cure Long COVID & beyond👇🏻. Join us 🤗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein accumulates & persists in the body for years👇🏻. We develop advanced imaging/AI to cure Long COVID & beyond👇🏻. Join us 🤗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brain vascular aging isn’t a single path. Our new work shows that the aging brain diverges into two states: 🧠 Hypovascular (expected) 🧠 Hypervascular (surprising), with BBB leakage, inflammation and cognitive decline. Our study👇🏻: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.04.720441v1

Reversible hypervascularization drives cognitive decline and blood-brain barrier damage during aging

Cerebrovascular dysfunction emerges early in neurodegeneration, yet how vascular structure, blood–brain barrier (BBB) failure, and cognition are linked remains undefined. Using VesselPro, a whole-brai...

biorxiv.org

See our science at Deep Piction, how we use it to develop new precision medicine.

Deep Piction@deeppiction.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Where do therapeutics go in the body? SCP-Nano combines whole-body imaging and AI to map nanocarrier biodistribution at single-cell resolution, revealing both intended targets and unexpected off-target destinations. Our recent work at @nature.com Biotechnology: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MouseMapper An imaging-omics workflow of whole-mouse analysis Up to single-cell resolution!👹 vDISCO WildDISCO whole-mouse optical clearing #SpatialProteomics Trigeminal ganglia VR annotation of major organs, peripheral nerve & Mφ @erturklab.bsky.social Nature 2026 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ohhh, wow!

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our recent work in @Nature, MouseMapper uses foundation-model AI, mapping perturbations in mouse body cell-by-cell, revealed unexpected facial nerve damage. Proud to see >75K accesses & >60 news stories in the first week. Paper->> www.nature.com/articles/s41... Next www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our recent work in @Nature, MouseMapper uses foundation-model AI, mapping perturbations in mouse body cell-by-cell, revealed unexpected facial nerve damage. Proud to see >75K accesses & >60 news stories in the first week. Paper->> www.nature.com/articles/s41... Next www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Super happy to see our work published in @nature.com last week 🤩 By combining whole-body tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy and AI, we mapped obesity-associated remodeling across the entire mouse body in 3D at cellular resolution. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @erturklab.bsky.social

Nature research paper: A deep-learning framework reveals whole-body perturbations at cell level go.nature.com/3Pjox61

A deep-learning framework reveals whole-body perturbations at cell level - Nature

An analysis of diet-induced obesity using MouseMapper—a suite of foundation-model-based deep-learning algorithms—identifies structural alterations of the infraorbital branch of the trigeminal ganglia.

go.nature.com

Today in Nature, we report MouseMapper: foundation-model AI to map disease perturbations across the entire mouse body cell-by-cell. In obesity, it revealed body-wide inflammation & unexpected facial nerve damage. www.nature.com/articles/s41... More at: x.com/erturklab/st...

A deep-learning framework reveals whole-body perturbations at cell level @nature.com @erturklab.bsky.social @dorie00.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#M1 Launches First Funding Period & Advances Translation in Munich🚀 Seven projects receive €7.45 million through the M1 – Munich Medicine Alliance. #HelmholtzMunich is involved in four funded projects. 👉 t1p.de/disle @tum.de @lmu.de @boyanbonev.bsky.social @erturklab.bsky.social #MunichMedicine

AI Atlas Reveals Hidden Whole-Body-Damage Caused by Obesity Researchers around Prof. Ali Ertürk, #HelmholtzMunich, developed #MouseMapper – an #AI framework that maps disease-related changes throughout the entire mouse body at cellular resolution. 👉 t1p.de/svfv0 @erturklab.bsky.social

I was not very much involved in this project from our lab, but I can honestly say that I find this story really amazing!

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🧠 Does brain aging always mean vessel loss? We found the opposite in some aged brains: maladaptive hypervascularization, linked to cognitive decline and blood-brain barrier damage. Check it out below! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧠 Does brain aging always mean vessel loss? We found the opposite in some aged brains: maladaptive hypervascularization, linked to cognitive decline and blood-brain barrier damage. Check it out below! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

happy to share our new protocol paper on wildDISCO for whole-body immunolabeling, tissue clearing & 3D imaging of intact mice at cellular resolution using standard IgG antibodies, for mapping of neuronal, vascular, lymphatic and immune systems across the entire body. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

One thing nobody teaches you in academia: 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲. We spend 10+ years learning how to do science, write grants, and present data. But when the job offer finally comes, most people just… accept it. Because we're relieved. Because we think the salary is fixed.

Using vDISCO tissue clearing, and a new ultrabright chemical labeling strategy. This work introduces LINCS for rapid, scalable 3D connectivity mapping from single neurons to whole brains, advances for high-throughput circuit mapping. Great work by Rui Lin lab. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Be my colleague! :)

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Hiring in Munich: Staff Scientist / Postdoc in Tissue Clearing and 3D Image Analysis. We’re looking for someone with strong hands-on expertise in tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy, and quantitative 3D image analysis. Shares and recommendations are very welcome. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Come work with us!

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Hiring in Munich: Staff Scientist / Postdoc in Tissue Clearing and 3D Image Analysis. We’re looking for someone with strong hands-on expertise in tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy, and quantitative 3D image analysis. Shares and recommendations are very welcome. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Job available at the amazing Erturk lab in Munich

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Hiring in Munich: Staff Scientist / Postdoc in Tissue Clearing and 3D Image Analysis. We’re looking for someone with strong hands-on expertise in tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy, and quantitative 3D image analysis. Shares and recommendations are very welcome. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Hiring in Munich: Staff Scientist / Postdoc in Tissue Clearing and 3D Image Analysis. We’re looking for someone with strong hands-on expertise in tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy, and quantitative 3D image analysis. Shares and recommendations are very welcome. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

In this recent Nature Methods Perspective, I outline how tissue clearing, spatial-omics, and AI converge to create deep 3D histology, enabling unbiased, organism-scale biology and next-generation digital pathology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new preprint introduces aDISCO, a DISCO-based clearing approach that makes whole archival FFPE human tissues transparent and antibody-compatible, enabling true 3D light-sheet histology across brain & multiple organs at cellular resolution. Aguzzi & Helmchen teams. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We’re hiring – Computer Science PhD at iBIO (Helmholtz Munich / LMU). Build AI-driven, whole-body multi-omics atlases by combining scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, proteomics & 3D imaging. Looking for strong omics data analysis skills with ML/DL. Apply or share: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

This is going to be fun! I promise!

Ali Maximilian Erturk@erturklab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My team at Deep Piction (Munich) is hiring a Senior Director, Drug Discovery (Long Covid) to build and lead our early discovery engine. If you have 10+ years in early-stage biotech/pharma, let’s talk. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

My team at Deep Piction (Munich) is hiring a Senior Director, Drug Discovery (Long Covid) to build and lead our early discovery engine. If you have 10+ years in early-stage biotech/pharma, let’s talk. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...