The Power to Tell Your Story

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The central question of developmental biology is how a single fertilized egg can divide repeatedly to produce multiple different cell types. An article in this week's issue of the journal Cell from Jürgen Knoblich's group at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) in Vienna sheds fresh light on this key issue "“ and is likely to be highly relevant to the development of cancer in humans.

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Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna (Austria) have identified a key regulator of white versus brown adipose cell fate. The findings are reported in the January 7 issue of the journal Cell.

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The human body operates by a precisely regulated interplay of different cell types such as blood, nerve and muscle cells. Scientists in Vienna, Austria, and in Martinsried, Germany, have succeeded in identifying all genes of the fruit fly Drosophila that play a role in the development and function of muscles. The work has now been published in Nature.

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The EU-funded project MitoCheck, which started in 2004, has now been successfully rounded off. Eleven European research teams and companies, coordinated by the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, studied the genetic basis of cell division. The findings are published today in the scientific journals Science and Nature.

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Bacteria like salmonellae infect their host cells by needle-shaped extensions. A group of Viennese scientists employed recently developed methods of cryo-electron microscopy and have been able to clarify the structure of this infection apparatus on the near-atomic scale. The exact knowledge of the needles’ building plan may help to develop medication to prevent infection.

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Neurobiologists at Vienna’s Research Institute of Molecular Pathology use the mating ritual of the fruit fly to study how the nervous system initiates, controls and utilizes behavior. Using newly developed thermogenetic methods, the researchers are able to initiate the courtship song of the male fly by “remote control”, and study the involved neural networks.

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A study by researchers in Austria and the US finds evidence that the different cell types that make up organs have arisen only once during the course of evolution. The programs to develop these cells have been passed on ever since. The study which is published online by Nature Genetics has been supported by the GEN-AU Programme of the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research.

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Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna discover and elucidate the function of conserved cell division proteins in yeast.

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The Integrating EU-project “MitoSys” is a major, multi-national research effort that aims to deepen our understanding of how cells divide. To make this project more accessible to the public, the scientists will be joined by artists of various disciplines who complement the research process.

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Neurobiologist Wulf Haubensak, Group Leader at the IMP in Vienna, has been awarded one of the prestigious Starting Grants by the European Research Council ERC. The grant is worth 1.5 Million Euros and will support an ambitious project to explore the neural basis of emotions.

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Neurobiologists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna investigated how the brain is able to group external stimuli into stable categories. They found the answer in the discrete dynamics of neuronal circuits. The journal Neuron publishes the results in its current issue.

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Neurobiologists at the Research institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna have discovered one of the key genes required to make a brain. Mutations in this gene, called TUBB5, cause neurodevelopmental disease in children.

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In each cell, thousands of regulatory regions control which genes are active at any time. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna developed a method that reliably detects these regions and measures their activity. The new technology is published online by Science this week.

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Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria and at the University of Cologne, Germany have discovered the molecular basis underlying the patterned folding and assembly of muscle proteins. They describe the strikingly new mechanism in the current issue of Cell.

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Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna have discovered iron balls in sensory neurons of birds' ears. These cells might be associated with the magnetic sense of birds.

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Jan-Michael Peters and his team at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) found that the structure of Chromosomes is supported by a kind of molecular skeleton, made of cohesin. Their discovery is published in the current online-issue of the journal NATURE.

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Scientists in Vienna (Austria) have found a way to overcome some of the limitations of light microscopy. Applying the new technique, they can record the activity of a worm’s brain with high temporal and spatial resolution.

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A team of neurobiologists led by Simon Rumpel at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna succeeded in tracking single neurons in the brain of mice over extended periods of time. Advanced imaging techniques allowed them to establish the processes during memory formation and recall. The results of their observations are published this week in PNAS Early Edition.

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Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) present a novel approach for precise biological imaging with applications for sensitive and dynamic samples.

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The team of Johannes Zuber at the IMP in Vienna, Austria, managed to overcome remaining key limitations of RNA interference (RNAi) - a unique method to specifically shut off genes. By using an optimized design, the scientists were able to inhibit genes with greatly enhanced efficiency and accuracy. The new method facilitates the search for drug targets. The IMP will make this „RNAi toolkit“ available to researchers.

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Meinrad Busslinger and colleagues from the IMP in Vienna find dramatic effects of a mutation in the Ikaros gene during early development of immune cells.

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The team of Barry Dickson, former scientific director of the IMP, managed to isolate “moonwalker flies” in a high-throughput screen. Screening a large collection of fruit flies, the scientists found specimens that seemed locked in reverse gear. Dickson and his co-workers were able to trace these changes in walking direction back to the activity of specific neurons in the brain. The results of the study will be published in the current issue of Science.

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The cohesin molecule ensures the proper distribution of DNA during cell division. Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna can now prove the concept of its carabiner-like function by visualizing for the first time the open form of the complex. The journal SCIENCE publishes the new findings in its current issue.

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BRD4 inhibitors are among the most promising new agents in cancer therapy that are currently evaluated in clinical trials. In a study published in NATURE, a team of researchers at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna reveals how leukemia cells can evade the deadly effects of BRD4 inhibition. Understanding this adaptation process could aid the development of sequential therapies to outsmart

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Manuel Zimmer and team present new findings on the brain activity of the roundworm C. elegans. They show that neurons, organized in a brain-wide network, collaborate in a collective manner. The activities in the worm’s brain can be linked to processes that generate behavior.

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Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) show for the first time a direct link between neural activity across an animal‘s entire brain and behavior.

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In a study published in this week’s edition of NATURE, scientists from the Research Institutes of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and from the Harvard Medical School in Boston have identified a long-sought “roadblock factor” in stem cell engineering that prevents the conversion of adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. By suppressing this factor, the team discovered a way to

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Plasma cells play a key role in our immune system. Now scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria, and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia, succeeded in characterizing a central regulator of plasma cell function. The results of both teams are published in two back-to-back papers in “Nature Immunology” today.

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Johannes Zuber, group leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, received the German Cancer Prize 2016 in the category of experimental cancer research.

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Jan-Michael Peters and Tim Clausen of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and Jürgen Knoblich of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) each receive an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council ERC. That means a success rate of 100 percent for the two institutes. Researchers at the Vienna Biocenter have received a total of 36 ERC-Grants so far.

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Biologists develop a new method for analyzing brain images and demonstrate it with a study on fruit flies.

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An international team of scientists from Austria, Germany and the US has combined newly developed techniques in electron microscopy and protein assembly to elucidate how cells regulate one of the most important steps in cell division. The latest paper in a series of four is now published online in Molecular Cell.

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Scientists discovered a new way in which microRNAs can determine the fate of cells in the course of their development. This could be a key to understanding how complex organisms are built, say researchers from the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna.

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Cells never forget to take out the trash. It has long been known that cells tag proteins for degradation by labelling them with ubiquitin, a signal described as “the molecular kiss of death”. Tim Clausen’s group at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna identified an analogous system in gram-positive bacteria, where the role of a degradation tag is fulfilled by a little known post-translational modification: arginine phosphorylation. The discovery, which is published online by the journal Nature, opens new avenues for designing antibacterial therapies.

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Scientists find striking similarities in function, structure and even epigenetic features.

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No single neuron produces a thought or a behavior; anything the brain accomplishes is a vast collaborative effort between cells. When at work, neurons talk rapidly to one another, forming networks as they communicate. Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and the Rockefeller University in New York are developing technology that would make it possible to record brain activity as it plays out across these networks.

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The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) opens its new building: IMP sponsor Boehringer Ingelheim has constructed a new flagship for the Vienna Biocenter, the Life Science cluster in Vienna, with an investment of 52 million euros. Representatives from politics, industry and science celebrated the opening.

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Applications by the IMP, the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, were 100% successful in the latest call of the European Research Council ERC. Over the coming five years, projects by Senior Scientists Meinrad Busslinger and Elly Tanaka will be funded with 4.8 million euros.

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DNA molecules in the cells‘ nuclei are neatly folded into loops. This serves to wrap them up tightly, but also to bring distant gene regulatory sequences into close contact. In a paper published this week by NATURE, scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna describe how cohesin might do the trick.

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Neuroscientist Manuel Zimmer, a group leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, has been selected as HHMI-Wellcome International Research Scholar. His work on C. elegans worms aims to uncover how the brain processes information to generate behaviour.

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Kim Nasmyth, emeritus director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, receives one of five 2018 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences for his work on chromosome segregation, largely performed at the IMP. The award that comes with three million US dollars is the most highly endowed science prize worldwide. The awardees were announced at a glamorous ceremony in Palo Alto on 3 December.

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Scientists in Vienna, Dresden and Heidelberg have decoded the entire genetic information of the Mexican salamander axolotl, the largest genome ever to be sequenced. This will be a powerful tool to study the molecular basis of regeneration. The journal NATURE publishes the news today.

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Scientists from two institutes at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC) have developed a method to identify and characterise microRNAs in individual cells of living animals.

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Fertilisation is a pivotal process underlying all sexual reproduction, yet its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna have now identified a protein they called “Bouncer” as a crucial factor for sperm entry into the egg. Remarkably, this protein is sufficient to allow fertilization between different species. The study is published in the current issue of the journal Science.

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Scientists have long argued over which cells enable salamanders to grow back lost limbs. By tracking lineages and characterising individual cells, researchers could now show that connective tissue cells develop stem-cell-like properties and underlie the regeneration of legs. The findings were published in the journal “Science”.

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Scientists at IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences - together with the Boston Children's Hospital at Harvard, demonstrate a completely new way of combating autoimmune diseases and cancer.

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Emily Bayer of Columbia University, Mohamed El-Brolosy of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and Justin Silpe of Princeton University: three exceptional young scientists were chosen to be the first laureates of the new International Birnstiel Award for Doctoral Studies in the Molecular Life Sciences.

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The immune system relies on B cells and their ability to make antibodies against an extremely broad range of pathogens. This broad responsiveness bears some risk, as B cells can also turn against healthy tissue - a phenomenon called autoimmunity. Scientists from the lab of Meinrad Busslinger now reported in the journal "Nature Immunology" how the protein lkaros orchestrates the fine balance between B cell silencing and activation - and thereby controls autoimmunity.

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New insights into the process of DNA-looping change our view of how the genome is organised within cells. The discoveries by IMP-researchers elucidate a fundamental mechanism of life and settle a decade long scientific dispute.

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Neurobiologists solve long-standing question over how brains orchestrate complex behaviours. The scientists from the lab of Manuel Zimmer showed that such behaviours are controlled by hierarchical neural activity, as they now reported in the journal Neuron.