‘Jumping genes’, or transposable elements, are DNA sequences that move around the genome, but were thought to stay confined to the cell they occupy. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences…

Ask anyone to picture a chromosome, and they will likely picture an X. That iconic shape appears only briefly, just before a cell divides: two identical molecules, called chromatids, held together, perfectly mirroring each other. Scientists in the…

An international team of scientists including the lab of Julius Brennecke at IMBA have discovered a fundamental mechanism that helps cells decide which RNA molecules are kept and used—and which are destroyed. Published in the journal Nature, the…

An international research team led by the IMBA lab of Josef Penninger has uncovered a mechanism that allows breast tumors to escape immune attack, helping to explain resistance to immunotherapy in breast cancer. The study was now published in the…

With its fascinating ability to regrow entire limbs and internal organs, the Mexican axolotl is the ideal model for studying regeneration. Scientists from the lab of Elly Tanaka at IMBA now found a factor that tells cells which part of the arm to…

Molecular motors package and rearrange the DNA so that the long and tangled strands are safely divided into the daughter cells. A new study describes the rulebook that defines how molecular motors work together. The study, carried out by Anton…

For the first time, scientists have visualized a retrotransposon, a “jumping gene” , inside the cell of a complex organism. Advanced cryo-Electron Tomography allowed this feat at sub-nanometer resolution. The study, published in Cell today, reveals…