📢 New preprint alert! How do proteins enter mitochondria? We uncovered a surprising mechanism at the mitochondrial entry gate—using #NMR, in vivo single-particle tracking, yeast experiments, and MD simulations to crack the code. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #StructuralBiology #Mitochondria 🧵 1/8

New publication by ISTA scientists @aliciakmichael.bsky.social, @paloha.bsky.social, and collaborators made it to @cp-molcell.bsky.social's cover. The study demonstrates the potential of modern cryo-ET techniques and open data sharing to empower visual proteomics. More: bit.ly/49wzHdr

Inspiration often arrives when we least expect it. For ISTA scientist @reenak.bsky.social​, it sparked while she and her colleagues captured actin filaments under the microscope. The result is not only a beautiful art piece but also a glimpse into the cellular architecture that shapes life.

How does a uniform zygote reliably break symmetry? How do initially identical cells diverge in cell-cycle timing and transcriptional state? In our new paper in Nature Physics, we show that embryo geometry itself is sufficient to pattern early development. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A recent article in Current Biology by ISTA Prof @amdouglass.bsky.social​ and @hagank.bsky.social​ comments on the findings of a new study about psilocybin. It reports about a mechanism by which this drug causes the acute release of stress hormones. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.056ß

Check out this recent preprint from the Shigemoto group! "Asymmetrical modulation of fear expression via GABAB receptors in the mouse medial habenula" 👉 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691389v1

Check out this recent preprint from the Saric group! "Design and self-assembly of cytomotive filaments" 👉 https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.07.698144

Life is the ultimate nanotechnologist. Physicists at ISTA and @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social have uncovered a hidden geometric rule behind how molecules self-assemble — and built a tool to tell which structures can actually be designed. Big implications for nanotech. Now in @natphys.nature.com

🔬 New paper in Developmental Biology 🐟 Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below. 📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.

Recent #paper by ISTA professor Mario de Bono and colleagues published in @natcomms.nature.com​. 🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66409-0

Discovery is often hidden in plain sight. Sometimes, a deeper look reveals the next hint. Look at the first comment. 😉 #ISTAresearch #SeasonsGreetings #HappyHolidays

Having you @giorgiag-sciwriter.bsky.social with us as one of our Journalists in Residence was definitely among the highlights of 2025 for us.

Rewatch the ÖAW-ISTA Lecture with Lisa Kaltenegger from @cornelluniversity.bsky.social​ on exoplanets and our quest for life beyond Earth. Watch here: https://ista.ac.at/en/news/oaw-ista-lecture-with-lisa-kaltenegger/ @oeaw.bsky.social​ #lecture #exoplanets

Is privacy in the digital age possible? Cynthia Dwork from Harvard University​ addressed this topic at the ISTA Lecture earlier this week. Her talk on #DifferentialPrivacy demonstrated how it safeguards personal data in industry and government. Thanks to everyone who attended this event.

Congratulations to @ehannezo.bsky.social​ and Maksym Serbyn! Both win an @erc.europa.eu​ Consolidator Grant of € 2 Mio. With it, they develop new theories – in biophysics to understand embryonic development and in quantum physics to advance quantum simulators. 👉 https://bit.ly/4rICmco #ERCCoG

New publication by @frimllab.bsky.social and colleagues! Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Der #FWF fördert 3 neue #Spezialforschungsbereiche für mehr Grundlagenwissen in der Medizin, Quantenforschung und Kosmologie. Die neuen Netzwerke werden von Forscher:innen der @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social, der @unisalzburg.bsky.social und der @tuwien.at koordiniert. 📚 www.fwf.ac.at/aktuelles/de...

In many social animals, group members try to hide their sickness to prevent social exclusion. Ants flip that script. Adult ants, approaching death, for example, leave the nest, opting for a solo exit to keep their colony safe.

ISTA Assistant Professor Lora Sweeney becomes an @embo.org​ Young Investigator! Using Xenopus frog as a model organism, her research focuses on molecular, cellular, and neural circuit components that cause differences in motor behavior. Congratulations, Lora!👏

Who hasn't dreamed of overcoming gravity and getting objects to hover above ground? Physicists from the groups of Scott Waitukaitis and Carl Goodrich have developed a method to acoustically levitate objects while keeping them physically separated using charge. Read more: ista.ac.at/en/news/scie...

What a view to end a week of research at ISTA. 🌅 #ISTAresearch #VanillaSky #Sky #Sunset

New #preprint from the Loose group! 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tropical cyclones can unleash extensive devastation, as recent storms that swept over Jamaica and the Philippines made unmistakably clear.

Just one day left until our Virtual Student Open Day! Register now to learn more about our fully-funded research opportunities. 👉 pretix.eu/ista-events/...

Aerosols are liquid or solid particles that float in the air. Some are large and visible, such as pollen in spring, while others, such as viruses that spread during flu season, cannot be detected by the naked eye.

Honored to have hosted EU Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva @ec.europa.eu​​ on campus today. The visit was a great opportunity to showcase how ISTA's blend of curiosity-driven frontier research, science outreach, and turning breakthroughs into start-ups contributes to #Europe’s innovation goals.

Are we at all prepared for future climate disasters? “The Chilean megadrought was never forecast in any climate model. The existing models even showed absurd likelihoods for such an extreme event. And yet, it has happened and is still ongoing,” says ISTA professor Francesca Pellicciotti.

So excited to announce the first 🧲 Next Austrian NMR Meeting 🧲, happening @ ISTA, Feb 26–27, 2026! Plus a satellite workshop, 💊 “ #NMR in #DrugDiscovery” 🧭 on Feb 25! 📅 Registration: Dec 1, 2025 🌐 Program, venue: austrian-nmr-meeting.pages.ist.ac.at #NMRchat #Austria 1/4

Check out this recent preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Have you registered for our Virtual Student Open Day yet? Don't miss this opportunity to explore our #PhD program, #internship opportunities, and campus virtually! 🔗 https://phd.ista.ac.at/student-open-day/

Quantum theory remains a complex field of study, and it is quite distinct from classical physics. These two areas of research do not speak the same language. But could classical physics hold the key to cut through the complexity of some puzzling quantum systems? More: ista.ac.at/en/news/reac...

Safeguarding privacy is crucial. Differential privacy offers a mathematically rigorous approach to preserving privacy in the analysis of data. How does it work? What makes it important? Learn more at the ISTA Lecture with Cynthia Dwork from @harvard.edu​. Register now: https://bit.ly/4qC9fH8

Check out this recent preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

“In-person meetings have a quality that online conferences simply cannot provide,” says ISTA professor @paulschanda.bsky.social. But can we make conference travel more sustainable? Read more: ista.ac.at/en/news/carb...

100 Jahre #Quanten 💫 Im Wiener Rathaus feierten gestern Vertreter:innen aus der Welt der Quanten bei einer Veranstaltung von Quantum Science Austria. Mit dabei waren @univie.ac.at @tuwien.at @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social @jku.at @istaresearch.bsky.social. Mehr dazu ⤵️ www.oeaw.ac.at/news/800-gae...

Scott Waitukaitis wins the #APS Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. This honor highlights his work with soft electrified materials, solving the mystery of contact electrification, and bringing clarity to complex soft matter challenges through innovative experiments. Congratulations, Scott!

Meet Monika Henzinger, Prof at @istaresearch.bsky.social 🇦🇹, ELLIS Fellow in the ELLIS Unit Vienna. Her research covers: differential privacy, especially in continual setting. Her advice for young scientists? Write high-quality publications: quality is more important than quantity. #WomenInELLIS

After discovering this in one of our labs, we simply had to Post-it. 😜 #ISTAresearch #art #postit #postitnotes #stickynotes #postitart

Thinking of an internship or a PhD at ISTA? Join us for our Virtual Student Open Day to find out what it's like to conduct research at ISTA, and get all your questions answered directly by our students and faculty. Register now to secure your spot! 👉 https://phd.ista.ac.at/student-open-day/

Who is that playing trick-or-treat? That cheeky monster flashing its spook-tacular grin is actually a visual trick. Captured here are mouse brain cells using expansion microscopy. This approach has various applications, incl. tracing neurons for connectomics studies & also scaring the onlookers. 👻

When autumn colors unfold like this in front of your eyes, you feel like you are living in a magic aquarelle. In reality, it's all the beauty of our campus in the fall. 🍁 #autumvibes#autum#autum

Our fully-funded PhD program is open for applications! Join us to conduct cutting-edge research at top facilities with guidance from world-class faculty. Through our interdisciplinary training, you can tailor your PhD experience to match your interests and curiosity. Apply now: phd.ista.ac.at

Explore. Connect. Shape Your Career. Join us at the first Vienna Postdoc Career Day! Meet inspiring role models, gain insights from industry experts, and network with fellow #postdocs from various institutions. Check out the program and register here: https://cc.lbg.ac.at/careerday/

Are we alone in the cosmos, or not? This question took center stage at yesterday’s ÖAW-ISTA Lecture with Austrian astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger from @cornelluniversity.bsky.social. @oeaw.bsky.social

Kiss, Shrink, Run ⛹🏻‍♀️ New Perspective in @science.org about one of my favourite topics: how synapses and their tiny vesicles communicate in the brain. Chang-Lu Tao and colleagues reveal a previously unknown pathway for vesicle release. Read more here: doi.org/10.1126/scie... @istaresearch.bsky.social

📢 New preprint: Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves accurate protein ensembles. doi.org/10.1101/2025... AlphaFold3 is incredible, but has crucial limitations: it typically collapses to a single conformation, ignoring the inherent dynamics of proteins. And it can be wrong. Here's a solution. 🧵👇

🚨 Abstract submission extended to Oct 21! Join us for the Austrian Cryo-EM Symposium (Nov 11–12) at @istaresearch.bsky.social / ISTA 🇦🇹 Explore cutting-edge cryo-EM, meet top speakers, and visit beautiful Vienna. 👉 cryoem-symposium.pages.ist.ac.at

This was the VISTA Opening Festival 2025! We listened to keynote speakers, got exciting insights from scientists and artists, and were amazed by the first exhibition „Science in the Making“. We feel proud to have celebrated this milestone with you. Thank you for joining us for this amazing event.

Our paper on chromosome segregation in the archaeon Sulfolobus Acidocaldarius has been published in PNAS! This has been a great collaboration with @joeparham19.bsky.social and the rest of @buzzbaum.bsky.social's team. Stay tuned for more to come!😉 @istaresearch.bsky.social doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

ISTA Professor Sandra Siegert was honored with a recognition prize at the Lower Austrian Science Awards for shedding light on how the interplay between neurons and microglia can affect brain function and lead to diseases. Congratulations to @siegertlab.bsky.social​ & the other recipients! 👏