Our Mission

The GMI is a research institute devoted to plant biology. Plants created our atmosphere and sustain life on earth. Our goal is to make fundamental discoveries that help us understand how plants function — discoveries that may be essential to address global challenges like climate change. Our research ranges from molecules to ecosystems, involving a wide variety of plants — all depending on the question. We believe in enabling researchers at all levels to pursue big questions in an intellectually stimulating, diverse, and collaborative environment. Key to our success are minimal hierarchy and bureaucracy, outstanding facilities, and core funding.

 

About us

The GMI is part of the Vienna BioCenter, a leading life science cluster comprising several research institutes, universities, and start-up companies and located close to the center of Vienna. The institute is owned and funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Research topics include basic mechanisms of epigenetics, cell biology, plant-pathogen interactions, developmental biology, and population genetics. The GMI provides a lively, international working environment with around 130 people, embedded in a campus with over 1700 people from more than 70 countries. The working language is English. We strive for a friendly, inclusive environment, and provide an on-campus child care center.

Epigenetics: How plants keep genes silent
Plant Power: Electrical Forces Bring Ancient Plant Proteins Back to Life
Key regulator of plant branching architecture identified
Duckweed differentially marks old and new transposons
Boosting Protein Research with New Mass Spectrometry Technology
Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández Receives the Vienna BioCenter PhD Award 2025
Jumping Genes: Magnus Nordborg Receives ERC Synergy Grant for Genome Research
Information on data leak for former staff members

Bourguet P, Lorkovic ZJ, Kripkiy Casado K, et al. (2025) Major alleles of CDCA7α shape CG-methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nat Plants [epub] preprint bioRxiv:2025.09.03.673934.

Giannini C, Loefke C, Brunoud G, et al. (2025) Nuclear auxin signalling induces autophagy for developmental reprogramming. bioRxiv:2025.11.04.686542.

De la Concepcion JC, Duverge H, ... Dagdas Y (2025) Electrostatic changes enabled the diversification of an exocyst subunit via protein complex escape. Nat Plants [epub] preprint bioRxiv:2024.08.26.609756.

Wyman J, Bateman RM, Dolan L, et al. (2025) Comparative rhizotaxy of fossil and living isoetalean rhizomorphs reveals development through rootlet intercalation within a triangular lattice. Ann Bot [epub].

Struck TJ, Vaughn AH, Daigle A, et al. (2025) GHIST 2024: The 1st Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament. Mol Biol Evol 42(11):msaf257 preprint bioRxiv:2025.08.05.668560.

Oda S, Tominaga S, Takeuchi S, et al. (2025) Antagonistic histone H2A variants and autonomous heterochromatin formation shape epigenomic patterns in Arabidopsis. bioRxiv:2025.10.19.683276.
 

Liu HJ, Fu J, Xu S, et al. (2025) Potential synthetic associations created by epistasis. Genome Biol 26(1):336.

Baduel P, De Oliveira L, Caillieux E, et al. (2025) Transposable elements are vectors of recurrent transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Science [epub].

The GMI is part of the Vienna BioCenter, one of the leading international life science research centers worldwide that has established itself as the premier location for life sciences in Central Europe.

viennabiocenter.org