Scientists from the Vienna BioCenter have pushed SARS-CoV-2 detection to a new level. Their approach is as sensitive and robust, yet cheaper, simpler and faster to implement than conventional tests. 'bead-LAMP' and 'HomeDip-LAMP' could be game-changers for population-wide screening, especially in disadvantaged environments, such as developing countries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Using an unbiased labelling technique, mathematical modelling, and single cell profiling to trace the footsteps of stem cells and their daughters, researchers at the University of Cambridge (UK), DGIST (S.Korea), and IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) have confirmed that two populations of adult stem cells with distinct roles and characteristics reside in the glands of the stomach.
Researchers at IMBA - Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – describe “adaptive radiation” of RNA export proteins. Their findings show how a small RNA pathway utilizes and re-purposes preexisting building blocks in the cell to protect genome integrity.
Changes in blood vessels are the major cause of death and morbidity in diabetes. For the first time, sci-entists managed to grow perfect human blood vessels as organoids in a petri dish. This breakthrough engineering technology dramatically advances research of vascular dysfunction in diseases like diabetes, identifying a key pathway that prevents diabetic vasculopathy, as reported in the current issue of Nature.
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.
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”.
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.
For the first-time, researchers at IMBA- Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – develop organoids, that mimic the onset of brain cancer. This method not only sheds light on the complex biology of human brain tumors but could also pave the way for new medical applications.
Cells acquire distinct fates and functions during development. A study from the IMBA reveals a new mechanism of cell fate specification involving the regulation of cell metabolism.
Scientists from two institutes at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC) have developed a method to identify and characterise microRNAs in individual cells of living animals.
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.
CRISPR-UMI, a novel method developed at IMBA, facilitates extremely robust and sensitive screens by tracking single mutants within a population of cells.
Glycosylation is the most abundant protein modification - over half of the proteins in our cells are ‘decorated’ with glycans. These sugar structures alter protein activities in all organisms – from bacteria to human - influencing fundamental processes, like protein folding and transport, cell migration, cell-cell interactions, and immune responses.
Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) have discovered a means of immunising cells against the biological weapon ricin, as reported in the current issue of Cell Research.
How a protein BAF crosslinks the DNA to allow proper nuclear envelope reformation
Researchers at IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences - unveil novel mechanism for gene expression.
Every day billions of cells die in our body and need to be replaced by newly dividing cells. Cell division is a beautifully orchestrated process that involves multiple critical steps. At the very end, “cellular abscission” splits the membrane and thereby gives birth to two daughter cells. Abscission is executed by a protein machinery named ESCRT-III. ESCRT-III consists of many subunits that form spiral-shaped filaments to constrict the membrane tube connecting the daughter cells until it splits. Insights into the function of ESCRT-III are also interesting for many other biological processes – as this machinery also pinches off viruses from the host cell membrane, and seals holes in cellular and nuclear membranes.
Scientists for the first time combine organoids with bioengineering. Using small microfilaments, they show improved tissue architecture that mimics human brain development more accurately and allows more targeted studies of brain development and its malfunctions, as reported in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology.
Scientists at IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology) describe novel organoid technology combining various brain regions for investigation of epilepsy, and other neurological diseases, as reported in the current issue of Nature Methods.
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.
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.
Using a newly developed method researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) have been able to shed light on the complexity of genome reorganization occurring during the first hours after fertilization in the single-cell mammalian embryo. Their findings have recently been published in the journal Nature. The team of researchers (from three continents) have discovered that the egg and sperm genomes that co-exist in the single-cell embryo or zygote have a unique structure compared to other interphase cells. Understanding this specialized chromatin “ground state” has the potential to provide insights into the yet mysterious process of epigenetic reprogramming to totipotency, the ability to give rise to all cell types.
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.
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.
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.
In the latest edition of the journal “Science”, Jürgen Knoblich, a leading authority on stem cells and deputy director of the IMBA (Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), together with international experts, presents a first ethical guideline for research into human organ models. In the article, he also argues for critical and responsible engagement with the new technology.
Scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria, have discovered how an embryo’s genomic integrity is safeguarded during the first 24 h after fertilization. Insights into this mechanism have implications for improving in vitro fertilization.
Organisms are in a constant battle against viruses, or transposable elements, which invade their genomes. Among their most effective weapons are silencing pathways that use small RNAs to selectively target invading nucleic acids for their destruction. The molecular understanding of these defense systems has revolutionized modern molecular biology, as they are the basis for powerful genome editing and gene silencing methods such as CRISPR/Cas9 or RNA interference. Scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Austria (IMBA) have now unravelled the precise mechanisms by which germline cells produce a class of small RNAs, called piRNAs, that control transposon silencing in animals.
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.
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.
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.
Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) in Vienna have discovered a new way to turn the immune system’s weapons against fungal invaders. This knowledge could lead to the development of new and improved anti-fungal treatments.
Biologists develop a new method for analyzing brain images and demonstrate it with a study on fruit flies.
Researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have identified a protein that disperses chromosomes during cell division, as Nature reports.
An international team led by researchers at the Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore discovered that genetically determined breast cancer can be largely prevented by blocking a bone gene. An already approved drug could be quickly available and would then be the first breast cancer prevention drug.
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.
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.
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.
Cardiovascular diseases are among the most frequent causes of death worldwide. The ability to repair a damaged heart is one of the grand visions of medical science. Cardiac regeneration is possible in fish and in newborn mice. But so far it has not been known whether human hearts can regenerate as well. Scientists at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and the Innsbruck Medical University have described the first complete clinical and functional repair of a human heart following an acute heart attack in an infant. This astonishing discovery nourishes hope that cardiac repair in humans might be possible in the future.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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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