“The idea is to connect people” - Manuela Baccarini elected Vice-Rector
Congratulations to Max Perutz Labs faculty member Manuela Baccarini, who has been elected new Vice-Rector for Research and International Affairs of the University of Vienna. She will be part of the rectorate team led by rector Sebastian Schütze that will start its tenure in October 2022.
Exhibition about Max Perutz draws over 5.000 visitors
Although he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research on hemoglobin, Max Perutz is hardly known to a broader public in Austria. The exhibition and science outreach project “Breathing at High Altitude” was created to teach the public about the life and science of this extraordinary researcher. During its first public showing at the University of Vienna the exhibition was visited by more than 5.000 people over the course of four weeks.
“Cherish the beginning”
Stephanie Ellis studied in Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of British Columbia after which she did post-doctoral work with Elaine Fuchs at Rockefeller University. In early 2022 she started her research group at the Max Perutz Labs as an Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna. Her lab will study mechanisms of cell competition and tissue fitness in development and disease. In our interview she talks about the medical potential of her research, how her love for telling stories drove her to a career in science and what advice she would give her younger self.
Climate@MaxPerutzLabs initiative wins Austrian Sustainability Award 2022
The Climate@MaxPerutzLabs initiative has received the Sustainability Award 2022 by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. The award recognizes innovative and sustainable projects at Austrian Universities and Higher Education institutions.
ÖAW DOC Fellowships awarded to Max Perutz Labs students
Congratulations to Valentina Budroni, Toni Manolova, Alexander Stockinger, and Alexander Tsarev who have been awarded DOC Fellowships by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). The DOC program offers funding for highly qualified doctoral candidates in all areas of research. The fellowships will support projects on antiviral immunity, transposon silencing, the regenerative abilities of bristle worms, and RNA metabolism.
Putting a finger on meiosis
The proper processing of DNA lesions is critical to faithful chromosome segregation and genome integrity. As part of a larger complex of proteins, Topoisomerase 3 (TOP3) can decatenate joint DNA structures and reverse invading DNA strands during recombination in meiosis and mitosis. Besides a catalytic domain, TOP3 contains C-terminal zinc finger domains (ZnF) whose functions remain poorly understood. The lab of Verena Jantsch has now demonstrated that the deletion of this domain elicits a delay in the processing of recombination intermediates, which contrasts the penetrant embryonic death seen in the gene disruption allele. The study is published in Nucleic Acids Research.
Rendezvous at night – how moonlight fine-tunes animal reproduction
Animals possess circadian clocks, or 24 h oscillators, to regulate daily behavior. These typically take their cues from the periodic change of sunlight and darkness. However, many animals are also exposed to moonlight, which re-occurs with ~25h periodicity. The labs of Florian Raible at the Max Perutz Labs, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, and Kristin Tessmar-Raible (Max Perutz Labs, Alfred Wegener Institute, University of Oldenburg) have now discovered that moonlight adjusts the daily clock of marine bristle worms, which helps them to fine-tune their reproductive cycle to certain hours during the night. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides an explanation for the phenomenon that daily clocks from flies to humans can exhibit plastic run-times.
Exhibition Opening
“Breathing at High Altitude” – an exhibition about the life and science of Max Perutz has opened its doors in the arcaded courtyard in the main building of the University of Vienna. The project was initiated by the Max Perutz Labs with the goal of sparking curiosity among the broader public about this pioneer of molecular biology. “Breathing at High Altitude” illustrates Max Perutz’ fascinating life, celebrates his love for mountains, and visualizes “breathing” in a unique way.
Alwin Köhler elected corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Congratulations to Alwin Köhler, who has become a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).
Kristina Djinović-Carugo leaves the Perutz to become Head of EMBL Grenoble
Congratulations to Kristina Djinović-Carugo, who has been appointed as the head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Grenoble as of July 2022.
MSCA Postdoc Fellowship for Elias Adriaenssens
Congratulations to Elias Adriaenssens, who has been awarded a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship. A biochemist by training, Elias will work in the lab of Sascha Martens to reconstitute mitophagy in vitro, with the aim of better understanding its involvement in Parkinson’s disease.
New lessons from an old master
3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) is an essential protein kinase that regulates signaling pathways involved in growth, survival, and proliferation. Often dubbed a ‘master kinase’, it controls the activity of up to 23 other downstream kinases. However, whether its own activity is regulated is controversial. The lab of Thomas Leonard has now elucidated the mechanism of activation of PDK1. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, show that signaling lipids relieve autoinhibition of PDK1, which permits its dimerization and activation on the membrane.
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