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.
ERC Consolidator Grant for Shotaro Otsuka
Perutz group leader Shotaro Otsuka has received one of the most prestigious awards for researchers in Europe - the ERC Consolidator Grant. The total funding of €2 million over 5 years recognizes both Shotaro’s past achievements and future potential. The Otsuka lab is investigating the inter-organelle communication between the endoplasmic reticulum and the nucleus. The project “conNEctoER” aims to understand the structure and function of membrane connections that link the nucleus to the endoplasmic reticulum.
New Max Perutz PhD fellows
The Max Perutz PhD Fellowship honors the most ambitious and innovative PhD projects at the institute. This year’s awardees are Jeanne Fesselet (Kovarik lab) and Manuela Sophie Koller (Campbell lab). Their projects will investigate the role of mRNA decay in promoting plasticity of resident macrophages and the phenotypic effect of aneuploidy in yeast, respectively.
Egon Ogris appointed Professor of Medical Biochemistry
Congratulations to group leader Egon Ogris on being promoted to professor at the Medical University of Vienna.
Vienna BioCenter PhD award for Perutz alumnus Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas, formerly a PhD student in the Buecker lab, is among this year’s exceptional young scientists who have received the Vienna BioCenter PhD award. Henry is the 20th Max Perutz Labs student to receive the prize for their PhD work. In 2005, the prize was introduced 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.
Phosphatase loss spells problems for the prostate
Approximately one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. Prostate cancer is commonly androgen addicted, in which case androgen receptor signal inhibitors (ARSI) can prolong survival. However, the cancer cells eventually develop resistance to ARSIs, resulting in poor clinical outcome. The molecular mechanisms underlying AR-mediated prostate cancer progression remain unclear. In a new study published in Nature Communications, co-corresponding author Egon Ogris and his team, together with collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, show that leucine carboxy methyl transferase 1 (LCMT1) suppresses AR signaling and that its product, methylated protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), is a valuable prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target.
Why TOFU is good for worms
Transposons are DNA sequences that can catalyze their own movement within and between genomes, and are a major source of species diversification. Uncontrolled, however, they are dangerous and can threaten the viability of an organism. In work just published in Nature, Max Perutz Labs group leader Sebastian Falk and his collaborator René Ketting (Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz, Germany) describe the discovery of a new complex that regulates the activity of transposons in the nematode worm, C. elegans. The work exposes a potential molecular link between innate immune responses to invading pathogens and mechanisms that control transposable elements.
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