As of April 2025, biochemist Georg Winter will take over the life science directorship of AITHYRA. The international award-winning scientist and ERC prize-winner has emerged as the best applicant in a highly competitive recruiting process. The international hiring committee was chaired by Maria Leptin.
13.03.2025
Georg Winter, AITHYRA Life Science Director (c) Natascha Unkart
Georg Winter will become the Scientific Director Life Sciences of AITHYRA. His work in targeted protein degradation is not only advancing fundamental research but also paving the way for practical applications.
Georg Winter is a Principal Investigator at CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School in the USA. Tailor-made small molecules that bind to cancer-causing proteins and thus render tumor cells harmless - this is Georg Winter's area of expertise, in which he is one of the world's leading experts. His studies in top journals such as Science or Nature have advanced the most promising strategies for the development of new cancer drugs. Winter is the founder of several companies; his research at CeMM has resulted in Proxygen, one of the most successful start-up companies in Vienna, and former employees and students now hold high-level positions in international research institutions and/or companies. Georg Winter was the only scientist conducting research in Austria to win the Cancer Grand Challenge as part of a consortium in spring 2024.
ÖAW President Heinz Faßmann is pleased about Winter's appointment: “AITHYRA is already developing into a magnet for excellent researchers. Georg Winter was able to assert himself as the best candidate against highly qualified applicants. I would like to congratulate him on this. With him as an excellent biochemist and Michael Bronstein as an outstanding AI expert, and Anita Ender being an experienced manager, we have now found the perfect team to lead AITHYRA. Now we can start setting up the research groups and the scientific work.”
Georg Winter: “I am very much looking forward to my new role and working with Michael Bronstein. Our common goal is to accelerate scientific knowledge and answer fundamental questions in the life sciences by integrating biomedical research and AI. In this way, we want to develop completely new treatment methods for cancer and other life-threatening diseases.”
Computer scientist and Oxford DeepMind Professor Michael Bronstein has been leading AI research at AITHYRA since the institute was founded in September 2024. Michael Bronstein: “AITHYRA was founded to bring together the best of the academic, corporate and start-up worlds. I can't think of a better partner to develop AITHYRA's research direction and drive bold ideas forward. The scientific, economic and societal benefits of an AI-driven bioscience institute can be groundbreaking. Georg Winter, Anita Ender, our Managing Director, and I will make AITHYRA the place where magic happens.”
Stephan Formella, Scientific Director of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation, says: “After Anita Ender and Michael Bronstein, Georg Winter now completes the management trio of AITHYRA. The ambition, speed and focus on the highest quality in all matters, which was inherent in the AITHYRA project from the very beginning, is now continuing with the start of the operational realization of the institute. This is a major milestone and at the same time necessary to fill the high expectations of the institute's stakeholders: To effectively bring forward the symbiosis of artificial intelligence and biomedical basis in Europe.”
AITHYRA is the first institute of its kind in Austria. It will achieve revolutionary advances in biomedicine through the development of AI-supported research approaches. As a specialist in chemical biology, Winter is working on methods to change the function of proteins using chemical agents. With the founding of AITHYRA last September, the Austrian Academy of Sciences further expanded its life science focus. The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation is funding the institute with 150 million euros, the largest private research grant ever received in Austria. In February 2025, AITHYRA moved into its first laboratory and office space in the Marxbox at the Vienna BioCenter. In cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency, a new, jointly developed research building will be built by 2029.
Anita Ender, Managing Director, Michael Bronstein, Scientific Director AI, and Georg Winter, Scientific Director Life Sciences AITHYRA (c) Natascha Unkart
Anita Ender, AITHYRA Managing Director and Georg Winter, AITHYRA Scientific Director Life Sciences (c) Natascha Unkart
Georg Winter, AITHYRA Scientific Director Life Sciences and Michael Bronstein, AITHYRA Scientific Director AI (c) Natascha Unkart
Georg Winter, AITHYRA Life Science Director (c) Natascha Unkart
Anita Ender, Managing Director, Michael Bronstein, Scientific Director AI, and Georg Winter, Scientific Director Life Sciences AITHYRA (c) Natascha Unkart
Anita Ender, AITHYRA Managing Director and Georg Winter, AITHYRA Scientific Director Life Sciences (c) Natascha Unkart
Georg Winter, AITHYRA Scientific Director Life Sciences and Michael Bronstein, AITHYRA Scientific Director AI (c) Natascha Unkart
Georg Winter, AITHYRA Life Science Director (c) Natascha Unkart
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