Living in a gated community – how stem cells preserve their identity
Pluripotent stem cells can give rise to all the different types of specialized cells in the adult organism. Scientists led by Martin Leeb have identified hundreds of genes involved in the exit from naïve pluripotency and show that their activity is largely confined to five key signaling pathways. Their study, published in the EMBO Journal, provides a comprehensive map of the genetic circuits that gate this fundamental cell state transition.
Open Call: Max Perutz PhD Fellowships
The Max Perutz Labs have established a new doctoral fellowship program that will reward the most ambitious and innovative PhD students at the institute. The program is supported by the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna and covers three fully funded positions per year.
Tearing down walls for a new beginning
The Max Perutz Labs are rebuilding key parts of the institute. The opening of the new entrance, reception, and study space for students marks a first milestone of a major project.
Shedding new light on an old problem
The protein kinase Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is at the heart of the cellular response to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Using super-resolution microscopy, the lab of Peter Schlögelhofer has explored the impact of ATM depletion during multiple steps of meiosis in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana at unprecedented resolution. Organisms lacking ATM exhibit a loss of fertility associated with a failure to correctly repair DSBs. The findings, published in The Plant Cell, describe previously unrecognized influences of ATM on the structure of meiotic chromosomes.
“Basic research and teaching should go hand-in-hand”
Joao Matos was born in Portugal, did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Germany), and carried out postdoctoral work in the UK. Later, he joined the ETH (Switzerland) as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was appointed Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Max Perutz Labs / University of Vienna in 2020. We talked to him about how he fell in love with meiosis, why University education should be led by basic research scientists, and how his high school teachers stopped him from becoming a football player.
Strength in numbers: how weak enhancers can be powerful gene regulators
How multiple enhancer elements cooperate to drive expression of their target gene is poorly understood. New research from the lab of Christa Bücker shows how a group of enhancers with weak individual activity can work together to induce robust transcription of a gene. The study is published in Molecular Cell.
Revealing the genetic code of ribosomal RNAs
Despite modern sequencing methods, determining the precise sequence of the genetic code for ribosomal RNA (rRNA) has been technically challenging due to its repetitive nature. The Lab of Peter Schlögelhofer has now, for the first time for any organism, sequenced and assembled large parts of the rDNA-encoding nucleolus organizing region of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In their study, published in Nature Communications, the scientists also identified several tissue-specific rRNA variants, which may have functional roles in specialized ribosomes.
More than just a sun tan: ultraviolet light helps marine animals to tell the time of year
Changes in daylength are a well-established annual timing cue for animal behavior and physiology. An international collaboration of scientists led by Kristin Tessmar-Raible at the Max Perutz Labs now shows that, in addition to daylength, marine bristle worms sense seasonal intensity changes of UVA/deep violet light to adjust the levels of important neurohormones and their behavior. The study is published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
SMICH Doctoral Program receives funding by FWF
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has granted a second four-year funding period for the Doctoral Program “Signaling Mechanisms in Cellular Homeostasis” (SMICH), allocating a total of more than 2 million Euros. The program will recruit students through the Vienna BioCenter PhD selection and will provide structured training and a scientific framework for students interested in cellular homeostasis.
VBC PhD awards for Max Perutz Labs alumni
Borja Mateos (Konrat Lab) and Anete Romanauska (Köhler Lab) are among this year’s exceptional young scientists awarded the Vienna BioCenter PhD award. To this day, 19 Max Perutz Labs students have received the prize for their PhD work. The prize was initiated in 2005 by former Perutz group leader Renée Schroeder and acknowledges the best PhD theses across the four research institutes at the Vienna BioCenter. Among previous awardees are current Perutz group leaders Martin Leeb and Stefan Ameres, and former principal investigator Claudine Kraft.
Exploring the molecular basis of heredity: ERC grant for Joao Matos
Group leader Joao Matos, who was recently recruited to the Perutz, has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. The funding, a total of 2 million over 5 years, will help Joao and his team’s efforts to decipher the molecular controls that ensure a balanced exchange of genetic material during meiosis.
“No service!” How vaccinia virus jams immune signaling
Viruses depend on their hosts to copy themselves and spread. Upon infection, a virus will hijack the host machinery to replicate its genome, manufacture its proteins and assemble new viral particles. The host in defence deploys its own weapons against the virus in an attempt to combat the infection. This host defence depends on an intricate signaling chain that activates the host’s immune system. One tactic employed by viruses to enhance their replication and thwart the immune reaction is to interfere with this signaling mechanism. New research from the lab of Tim Skern and their collaborators from the University of Queensland (Australia) now shows how the vaccinia virus protein A46 disrupts immune signaling by jamming the cellular transmission chain. The paper is now online in the journal “Structure”.
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