General News & Press

The genetic information is encoded in very long DNA molecules, which adopt specific three-dimensional organization inside cells to support various functions. Understanding how the three-dimensional organization of DNA relates to the binding of regulatory factors and activities has been challenging, owing to the large size and complexity of genomes. Researchers from Daniel Gerlich’s group at IMBA developed HiCognition, a computational tool that allows biologists to browse complex data through thousands of genomic regions in real time. The findings were published on July 5 in Genome Biology.

The Austrian Science Fund FWF has awarded a prestigious ESPRIT grant to scientists from the Proteomics Tech Hub at the Vienna BioCenter. Julia Bubis and Karl Mechtler will study the single-cell proteomics of human blastoids, early stage embryos.

Cohesin, a ring-shaped protein complex, tethers the two DNA copies contained in each replicated chromosome such that they can be properly moved during cell division. A subset of cohesin complexes, known for its ability to extrude DNA loops, also facilitates the separation of duplicated DNA molecules, a new study by the Gerlich lab at IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences - shows. These findings support the notion that DNA loop extrusion is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism, promoting the segregation of replicated genomes into daughter cells.

We celebrate our 20th year of research at IMBA.

During a region-wide event on April 27, IMBA welcomed a cohort of female secondary school students from Vienna to learn about career paths for professions in the natural sciences.

Karl Mechtler, Head of the Proteomics Tech Hub at IMP, IMBA, and GMI, is the first Austrian scientist to receive the prestigious Juan Pablo Albar Proteome Pioneer Award from the European Proteomics Association.

Muscle degeneration, the most prevalent cause of frailty in hereditary diseases and aging, could be caused by a deficiency in one key enzyme in a lipid biosynthesis pathway. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences characterize how the enzyme PCYT2 affects muscle health in disease and aging in laboratory mouse models. The findings are published on March 20 in Nature Metabolism.

Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences will be awarded the Alfred Hauptmann Prize at the “Epilepsie 2023” meeting in Berlin. Jürgen Knoblich, Nina Corsini and Oliver Eichmüller receive the prize in the category of basic research for their work on Tuberous Sclerosis. The Alfred Hauptmann Prize is awarded by the German and Austrian Societies for Epileptology (DGfE & ÖGfE) and the Swiss League Against Epilepsy. The three organizations recognize the two best scientific publications related to epilepsy, in the categories Basic Research and Clinical Research, published by researchers in the three German-speaking countries.

After fertilization, the genome of the embryo is transcriptionally inactive and maternally deposited RNA and proteins perform cellular functions. During a process called maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) the zygotes’ own transcriptional program is activated and maternal transcripts are cleared. The labs of Stefan Ameres (IMBA, Max Perutz Labs) and Andrea Pauli (IMP) developed a method that provides detailed insights into the organization of gene expression during this first major developmental transition in the life of vertebrates. Their findings are now published in Cell Reports.

Weiss-Kruszka syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by craniofacial anomalies, developmental delay, and autistic features. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles uncovered the molecular mechanism underlying Weiss-Kruszka syndrome: The causative mutation in the gene ZNF462 leads to a failure to safeguard the neural lineage specification during early embryonic development. The study, conducted in disease-modeled murine cells, was published on January 5th in Nature Cell Biology.