Revving up the engine: Immunity on standby
When pathogens invade the body, the immune system must react immediately to prevent or contain an infection. But how do our defense cells stay ready when no attacker is in sight? A team of research groups in Vienna, the lab of Perutz group leader Thomas Decker and scientists from the Research Center of Molecular Medicine (CeMM), the Medical University of Vienna, and the Veterinary Medical University of Vienna, have found a surprising explanation: immune cells are constantly stimulated by healthy tissue, which primes them to mount a rapid response in the event of infection. The work implies that maintaining a basal level of vigilance is crucial to an effective immune response. Medications that selectively enhance our immune system’s vigilance could therefore be valuable in the future. The study has been published in the journal Nature Immunology.
HFSP grant for consortium led by Kristin Tessmar-Raible
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) has awarded Perutz group leader Kristin Tessmar-Raible, together with researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California, and the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, a research grant of €1.35 million over the next three years. Within the collaborative project, Kristin will lead a team aiming to unravel the influence of temporally ordered biological processes on the adaptability and survival of organisms near the chemical and physical limits of life.
Perutz group leaders receive individual funding from FWF
Perutz group leaders Christa Bücker and Sascha Martens received new funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for their Principal Investigator Projects (formerly known as Stand-Alone Projects). The Buecker lab will take a novel, systematic approach to investigate transcriptional enhancers, while the Martens lab will study the interplay of cargo receptors in aggrephagy, a process in which protein aggregates are selectively degraded in cells. The two projects are funded with €690,000 and €630,000, respectively.
Don't judge a book by its cover
Just like animals and humans, worms exhibit individual – but reproducible – behaviors, ranging from inactive to explorative tendencies. Interestingly, individuals of the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii exhibit behavioral arrhythmicity despite showing robust daily rhythms in gene expression. In their new study recently published in PLOS Biology, Perutz PI Kristin Tessmar-Raible together with first author Sören Häfker and their collaborators contend that rhythmic worms can be distinguished from their arrhythmic siblings by the types of cycling transcripts. The work implies that rhythmic behavior is not necessarily the product of circadian clock gene oscillations, as has widely been assumed.
Seeing the unseeable
Born in Germany, Jonas Ries studied physics in Bremen and Konstanz. Soon afterwards, he merged physics with biology, obtaining his PhD in biophysics in Dresden. After his post-doctoral tenure at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, he accepted the role of a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. In 2023, Jonas was appointed Professor of Advanced Microscopy and Cellular Dynamics at the University of Vienna and started his group at the Perutz in January 2024. In our interview, Jonas talked about his passion for super-resolution microscopy and his goal to accelerate research by turning smart ideas into technologies.
Mass Spec-tacular: Proteomics at the Perutz
The Perutz hosts a range of scientific facilities to support research groups in-house, on the Vienna BioCenter Campus, and beyond with cutting-edge equipment and expertise. Among these, the Mass Spectrometry (MS) facility offers a wide range of intact mass and proteomics services. In the first part of our ‘Scientific Facilities - Behind the Scenes’ series, we introduce the MS facility team and their expert services, from client consultation to sample preparations.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship for postdoc Rupert Faraway
The EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions will support Rupert Faraway, joint postdoc with Perutz group leader Stefan Ameres and Clemens Plaschka (IMP), to study the mechanism that allows the singling out of mature messenger RNA in a cell’s nucleus. The prestigious individual fellowship will fund research that will add to the strong RNA community at the Vienna BioCenter.
Funding for two interdisciplinary projects to 'understand biology with AI'
In their recent call ‘Understanding biology with Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning’ the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) approved two interdisciplinary projects with participation from Max Perutz Labs scientists. Perutz group leader Jonas Ries coordinates the project ‘DynRec’ with Jakob Macke from the University of Tübingen to investigate endocytosis. In the project ‘RiboAI’, coordinated by Ivo Hofacker from the University of Vienna, Perutz group leader Stefan Ameres studies mRNA features impacting translation and stability. Each grant is endowed with more than €799,000 for three and four years, respectively.
What does cooking have to do with science?
Pim Huis in ‘t Veld was born in the Netherlands and studied Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Nijmegen. He then obtained a PhD in Jan-Michael Peters Lab at the Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. After a post-doctoral stay in the lab of Andrea Musacchio at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, he returned to Vienna in 2023 to start his own group at the Perutz. His research focus lies in the fidelity of genome propagation during cell division. In our interview, we discussed the connection between science and cooking and explored what Pim would do as plan B.
Successful prolongation of three Special Research Programs
The Special Research Program (SFB) in ‘Targeted Protein Degradation’, led by Perutz group leader Sascha Martens, was extended by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for the next 4 years. SFBs in ‘Stem Cell Modulation in Neural Development and Regeneration’ and ‘RNA-DECO’, with participation of Perutz group leaders, were also successfully extended. The total of €18 million for the second funding period ensures the continuation of three important collaborative research platforms in Europe.
Decoding genome instability: New doc.funds initiative at the Perutz
Funding of €2 million from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has been allocated to a collaborative doc.funds initiative coordinated by Perutz group leader Christopher Campbell. The consortium of nine groups - including seven Perutz research groups - aims to enhance the education and support excellent research of doctoral students in the field of genome instability.
The stage is yours, DIDO!
Paralogous proteins have evolved from gene or whole genome duplications and may provide an insurance policy for deleterious mutations. Why some paralogous proteins exist, however, remains somewhat enigmatic, as they consume substantial cellular energy resources despite often having homologous functions. In a new study published in Nature Communications, corresponding author Dea Slade, together with first author Johannes Benedum and their team, investigated the paralogous proteins PHD finger protein 3 (PHF3) and Death-inducer obliterator (DIDO). They found that the proteins collaboratively regulate gene expression and that, intriguingly, transcriptional upregulation of DIDO3 can compensate for the loss of PHF3. Collaborators are the Zagrovic lab and the Akalin lab at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology.
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