News

Latest Updates from the Max Perutz Labs

New Publication

Calibrating the tools of life scientists: Antibodies

Jan 28, 2020

Researchers employ a variety of methods and tools in their day to day work. They rely on that these tools work as they are supposed to. Two new papers from the lab of Egon Ogris now show that several antibodies recognizing the enzyme PP2A, and an antibody widely used in a technique called Myc tagging lack the precision for their intended tasks. Their findings published in “Science Signaling” show that this and other Myc tag antibodies yield inconsistent results depending on the molecular surrounding of the tag, and that antibodies recognizing PP2A often prove to be unsuitable for measuring the activity of this enzyme.

Grant

How to pack your genetic suitcase – WWTF grant on chromosome folding awarded

Dec 20, 2019

Max Perutz Labs group leader Shotaro Otsuka was awarded a “Life Science” grant by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). This project is a collaboration, led by Daniel Gerlich from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), which seeks to unravel the mechanistic basis for how chromatin is condensed into chromosomes during mitosis. The grant is endowed with 700.000 Euros.

New Publication

Moonstruck worms: how lunar cycles affect metabolic decisions

Dec 17, 2019

All organisms need to adjust their energy consumption in response to internal and external signals, thereby allocating energy to growth, reproduction or rest. Florian Raible’s team at the Max Perutz Labs has shed light on how the marine bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii makes key metabolic decisions in response to developmental and environmental cues. Their study is published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)”.

Grant

Austrian Science Fund awards funding for stem cell and RNA research projects

Dec 06, 2019

Max Perutz Labs group leaders Kristin Tessmar-Raible, Florian Raible and Arndt von Haeseler are part of a special research programme (SFB) grant, awarded by the Austrian Science Fund. The research network will work on stem cell modulation in neural development and regeneration. Congratulations also to Javier Martinez who is part of the “RNA-DECO” special research programme. These grants are the second and third SFBs awarded to scientists from the Max Perutz Labs and the Vienna BioCenter this December.

Grant

Understanding how cells target proteins for degradation

Dec 05, 2019

The Austrian Science Fund has awarded a special research programme grant to a team of scientists led by researchers at the Max Perutz Labs in collaboration with scientists from other institutes. The programme is coordinated by group leader Sascha Martens and will mechanistically address the question of how the targeted degradation of proteins contributes to health and disease.

New Publication

Putting a Lid on Multidrug Resistance

Nov 28, 2019

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a fundamentally important medical phenomenon that undermines anticancer and anti-infective therapy of cancer or infectious diseases. Researchers of the Max Perutz Labs, a joint venture by the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna, have delineated the molecular mechanism, whereby the human ABCG2 drug transporter drives MDR. The results suggest new therapeutic strategies to prevent MDR by inhibiting the ABCG2 transporter.

Interview

Seeing is Believing – Understanding inter-organelle communication with cutting edge microscopy

Oct 29, 2019

Shotaro Otsuka did his PhD at Kyoto University in Japan with a major in biophysics. For his postdoctoral research he moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL in Heidelberg. In April 2019 he joined the Max Perutz Labs as a junior group leader.

Fellowships

Four PhD fellowships for Max Perutz Labs students

Oct 21, 2019

PhD students Henry Thomas and Claudia Pachinger have been awarded the uni:docs Fellowships. Congratulations also to Katharina Siess and Michael Feichtinger on their DOC Fellowships. The prestigious early career programmes are awarded by the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, providing funding to highly qualified doctoral candidates. The research projects of the awardees will provide insights into biological processes from embryonic stem cell differentiation to the regulation of signalling enzymes.

Video

Anete Romanauska is Researcher of the Month at the Medical University of Vienna

Oct 01, 2019

The Medical University of Vienna has nominated Anete Romanauska as Researcher of the Month. Born in Latvia, she studied Biology in Riga and later in Vienna. She joined Alwin Köhler’s Lab in 2016 as a PhD student. In her research she is interested in the role of lipid metabolism at the nuclear envelope.

New Publication

It takes two to tango: using the ubiquitin fold to turn on secretion

Sep 26, 2019

Protein Kinase D (PKD) is an enzyme at the heart of many cellular functions. By modifying other proteins, it controls the trafficking of essential cargo in the sorting center of the cell, the Golgi apparatus. During his PhD in Thomas Leonard’s lab, Daniel Elsner has identified a ubiquitin-like domain in PKD that plays a crucial role in its activation. The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, revise our understanding of how the “on-switch” of PKD is wired in the cell.

New Publication

CDK8 & CDK19 – Twin enzymes with non-twin roles in defense against viruses

Sep 05, 2019

The enzyme CDK8 and its paralog CDK19 are essential modules of the Mediator, a large protein complex that coordinates several key steps in transcription. CDK8 and CDK19 are highly similar and were thought to be functionally redundant. The group of Pavel Kovarik now discovered that CDK8/CDK19 are actually mechanistically distinct and activate different sets of genes in the interferon-induced anti-viral response. The results revise our understanding of anti-viral immunity and could help develop novel therapies of immune disorders. The findings are published in Molecular Cell.

Interview

Why are small RNAs so important?

Sep 03, 2019

Sebastian Falk has joined the Max Perutz Labs as group leader in March 2019. He is interested in the mechanisms of gene silencing and the regulation of gene expression by small RNAs. A biochemist and structural biologist by training, he received his PhD from Heidelberg University, where he worked on the targeting of membrane proteins. During his Postdoc at the MPI of Biochemistry in Munich he studied eukaroyotic RNA degradation.