• Welcome to the GMI

    JOIN US — We are constantly looking for people with big ideas, who would enjoy and augment the intellectual freedom we provide. If this appeals to you, get in touch — contact any group leader.

    Open Positions
  • Welcome to the GMI

    JOIN US — We are constantly looking for people with big ideas, who would enjoy and augment the intellectual freedom we provide. If this appeals to you, get in touch — contact any group leader.

    Open Positions
  • Welcome to the GMI

    JOIN US — We are constantly looking for people with big ideas, who would enjoy and augment the intellectual freedom we provide. If this appeals to you, get in touch — contact any group leader.

    Open Positions

JOIN US — We are constantly looking for people with big ideas, who would enjoy and augment the intellectual freedom we provide. If this appeals to you, get in touch — contact any group leader.

Open Positions

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.

Microscopy image of an Arabidopsis flower bud. In green, stem cell nuclei. In magenta, a cytoplasmic marker for the epidermal layer. ©Bradamante/Mittelsten Scheid/GMI

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.

Latest Research

Unprecedented protein quantification in single cells using advanced proteomics

Scientists at the Proteomics Tech Hub of IMBA, the IMP and the GMI at the Vienna BioCenter recently developed a new single-cell proteomics workflow that enables an unprecedented level of protein quantification at the single-cell level.

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Autophagy Unveiled: The Dagdas Group is shining a light on cellular recycling

Autophagy keeps cells clean from harmful components. The group of Yasin Dagdas at the GMI studies how selective autophagy detects and removes damaged or unwanted cellular structures. In 2024, the Dagdas group published four preprints describing essential features of selective autophagy.

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Natural tolerance to weed killer uncovered in little-studied plant group

Herbicide resistance poses a challenge to producing enough food for a growing population. Sam Caygill and colleagues at the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences discovered how a large group of plants, the bryophytes, are naturally tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate –…

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Unbiased look at plants uncovers how surprisingly transcription is regulated in plants

In multicellular organisms, transcriptional regulation allows for specialization, such that cells carrying the same genetic code can carry out different functions and roles. In plants, a new unbiased screen allowed researchers in the group of Magnus Nordborg at the Gregor Mendel Institute of…

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FURTHER NEWS

Julia Kober and Eva Kroetenheerd receive “Out of the Box Award”

At this year’s Vienna BioCenter PhD Symposium, recent PhD graduates and current PhD students of the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program were honored for their exceptional doctoral theses. Julia Kober, PhD student in the group of Silvia Ramundo at the Gregor Mendel Institute, received the “Out of the Box…

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FWF Grant for Frédéric Berger

Frédéric Berger, Senior group leader at the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI), has been awarded a standalone grant by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for his project “New mechanisms for targeting epigenetic silencing”.

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GMI celebrates Lange Nacht der Forschung

During the evening, over 170,000 people visited research institutions all over Austria to learn more about science.

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In memoriam: Hans Tuppy (1924 - 2024)

Hans Tuppy, biochemist, science politician, and one of the founding fathers of the Vienna BioCenter, passed away months before his 100th birthday.

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Getting to know Yan Ma, new Group Leader at the GMI

“The GMI is one of the best plant research institutes in Europe.” “As a Group Leader, I want to support the people in my group and make sure that they enjoy and have fun doing science”.

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EVENTS

Jan
20
12:30

Monday Seminar (Internal)

Speaker: VICIC Ziga (Jachowicz), GRÜNEWALD Jakob (Obenauf), MANOLOVA Toni (Falk)
Type: Monday Seminar
Location: IMP Lecture Hall
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Jan
23
11:00

Therapeutic manipulations of phosphatases and kinases controlling protein quality control systems for neurodegenerative diseases: From the bench, to the clinic and back.

Speaker: Anne Bertolotti
Type: VBC Regular Seminar
Location: IMBA/GMI Lecture Hall
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Jan
23
11:00

Title to be announced

Speaker: Anais Cario
Type: DOME Lecture Series
Location: UBB - Lecture Hall 2 & Zoom
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Jan
23
14:00

Deriving a genetic regulatory network from an optimization principle

Speaker: Gasper Tkacik
Type: Seminar Series on Modern Conce
Location: Lecture Hall B, VBC5 & Zoom
Read more

PUBLICATIONS

Bezvoda R, Landeo-Ríos YM, Kubátová Z, et al. (2025) A genome-wide association screen for genes affecting leaf trichome development and epidermal metal accumulation in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell Environ [epub] preprint bioRxiv:2024.09.10.612273.

Solé-Gil A, Sakai Y, Catarino B, et al. (2024) Divergent evolution of a thermospermine-dependent regulatory pathway in land plants. Dev Cell [epub].

González-Fuente M, Schulz N, Abdrakhmanov A, et al. (2025) Effector-triggered processing body formation attenuates host translation via ER stress responses and autophagy upon bacterial infection. bioRxiv:2025.01.09.632196.

Zou Y, Ohlsson JA, Holla S, et al. (2025)  ATG8 delipidation is not universally critical for autophagy in plants. Nat Commun 16(1):403.

Tsukahara S, Bousios A, Perez-Roman E, et al. (2024) Centrophilic retrotransposon integration via CENH3 chromatin in Arabidopsis. Nature 637(8046):744-8.

Saado I, Brabham HJ, Bennett JW, et al. (2024) Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance. bioRxiv:2024.12.24.630226.

Birklbauer MJ, Müller F, Geetha SS, et al. (2024) Proteome-wide non-cleavable crosslink identification with MS Annika 3.0 reveals the structure of the C. elegans Box C/D complex. Commun Chem 7(1):300 preprint bioRxiv:2024.09.03.610962.

Del Chiaro A, Grujic N, ..., Dagdas Y (2024) Nonuple atg8 mutant provides genetic evidence for functional specialization of ATG8 isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana. bioRxiv:2024.12.10.627464.

Husremovic T, Siess KM, Antonioli S, et al. (2024) PHLPP2 is a pseudophosphatase that lost activity in the metazoan ancestor. bioRxiv:2024.12.03.625870.

Stephens TG, Van Etten J, McDermott T, et al. (2024) Temporal dynamics in a red alga dominated geothermal feature in Yellowstone National Park. ISME Commun 4(1):ycae151.

Lopez-Valdivia I, Vallebueno-Estrada M, Rangarajan H, et al. (2024) In silico analysis of the evolution of root phenotypes during maize domestication in Neolithic soils of Tehuacan. bioRxiv:2024.11.18.623787.

Spencer V, Wallner ES, Jandrasits K, et al. (2024) Three-dimensional anatomy and dorsoventral asymmetry of the mature Marchantia polymorpha meristem develops from a symmetrical gemma meristem. Development 151(23):dev.204349 preprint bioRxiv:2024.08.23.609409.

Lee DH, Lee HS, Choi MS, et al. (2024) Reprogramming of flagellin receptor responses with surrogate ligands. Nat Commun 15(1):)811.

Caygill S, Köcher T, Dolan L (2024) MurA-catalyzed synthesis of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate confers glyphosate tolerance in bryophytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 121(47):e2412997121.

Mueller F, Brutiu BR, Saridakis I, et al. (2024) A journey towards developing a new cleavable crosslinker reagent for in-cell crosslinking. bioRxiv:2024.11.05.621843.

Trasser M, Bohl-Villafond G, ..., Marí-Ordóñez A (2024) PTGS is dispensable for the initiation of epigenetic silencing of an active transposon in Arabidopsis. EMBO Rep 25(12):5780-9 preprint bioRxiv:2024.05.27.596030.

Extavour C, Dolan L, Sears KE (2024) Promoting developmental diversity in a changing world. Development 151(20):dev.204442.

Larran AS, Ge J, Martín G, et al. (2024) Nucleo-cytoplasmic distribution of SAP18 reveals its dual function in splicing regulation and heat stress response in Arabidopsis. Plant Commun 6(1):101180.

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