👨‍🔬 Our IMP Alumni Portrait series is back! From collecting freshwater invertebrates in St. Petersburg to leading a lab at @ki.se Taras Kreslavskiy shares how curiosity—and his years at the IMP—shaped his scientific journey. 👉 Read the interview: www.imp.ac.at/career/beyon...

Pathogens have spent millions of years learning how to hijack human cells. Now, researchers from the Stark lab at the IMP and the Taipale lab at the Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, have built a platform to systematically discover how they do it:

Thank you for attending the 20th Microsymposium on RNA Biology at the Vienna BioCenter! Three days of talks on small RNAs, from gene silencing to the role these molecules play in development, physiology, and disease.

The IMP is among Austria's leading contributors to exceptional life science research. In QED Science's new analysis of 57,455 bioRxiv preprints, Austria emerged as the strongest overperformer for its size. Of the 31 Austrian preprints in "The 1%", 11 include the IMP:

📅 Deadline is approaching! The International Birnstiel Award is accepting nominations until 30 June, don’t miss the chance to recognise outstanding talent in molecular life sciences. Submit your nomination here 👉 https://www.imp.ac.at/achievements/birnstiel-award

How do cells distinguish functional genetic messages from molecular noise? Researchers in Clemens Plaschka's lab at IMP, together with Julius Brennecke's lab at IMBA and collaborators at Aarhus University, reveal a new principle of gene regulation: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10650-0

WWTF funds research into precision medicine with a twist 🔬 A new collaborative project between the IMP and St. Anna CCRI aims to identify biomarkers that can help guide the use of existing therapies in paediatric cancers: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...

FÄKT goes Vienna BioCenter! Check out the video (in German) stemming from their visit to @impvienna.bsky.social and Andrea Pauli's Lab: youtu.be/naPNMyxMP9w?... #viennabiocenter #FÄKT #lifescience

From the Vienna BioCenter to Max Planck: Fränze Müller is launching her own Proteomics Lab in Potsdam. We spoke with her about the move, the future of proteomics, and the kind of lab culture she hopes to build:

How do cells keep powerful antiviral responses under control—while staying ready to activate them within moments of infection? Researchers from Moritz Gaidt's lab at the IMP discovered that repetitive DNA can act as a powerful immune switch:

🎉 Congratulations to our Victoria Deneke, Research Associate in the lab of Andrea Pauli, who has been awarded a 2025 IBSA Foundation Fellowship! The award supports pioneering work across a range of biomedical fields and recognises outstanding early-career scientists:

Ida Jentoft won a Birnstiel Award for her outstanding doctoral research in 2023. Do you know an exceptional PhD student? The Birnstiel Award has an open call! 📅 Nominate by 30 June: https://www.imp.ac.at/achievements/birnstiel-award

Join us on June 18 at ISTA for a day dedicated to developmental and stem cell biology, with talks, poster sessions, flash talks, and opportunities to connect across the Vienna life science community. More. 👇

Celebrating success stories is so important! Take the time to nominate your PhD students for awards, it will show how much you appreciate their achievements and help build their careers. The Birnstiel Award for Doctoral Research in the Molecular Life Sciences now has an open call:

PhD awards and honours boost not only students' visibility—but that of entire PhD programmes, says Christopher Robinson of the Vienna BioCenter training team. The Birnstiel Award offers an opportunity to enjoy this for yourself: we have an open call until 30 June!

📣 Registration is open for the 20th Microsymposium on RNA Biology! Join in at the Vienna BioCenter for three days of cutting-edge science, discussion & networking. 📅 17-19 June 2026 🧬 Poster abstract deadline: 19 May Info & registration: www.oeaw.ac.at/imba/seminar...

📣 Open call: the International Birnstiel Award for Doctoral Research in Molecular Life Sciences is now accepting nominations! Do you know an exceptional PhD student whose work deserves recognition? Nominate them by 30 June 👉 www.imp.ac.at/birnstiel-aw...

🧬 Inside the cell nucleus, two meters of DNA are folded into shape by cohesin—a protein complex that forms DNA loops. But how is this process controlled? Our Peters’ lab and collaborators have discovered how cells put the brakes on DNA loop formation: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How do cells respond differently to the same signal? 📽️ 2025 Birnstiel Award laureate Shirsha Saha discovered how certain receptors selectively activate different signalling pathways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCo6QiW2dEw

How do brain cells age over time? 📽️ 2025 Birnstiel Award laureate Eric Sun mapped brain aging at single-cell resolution and showed that some cells can speed up or slow down aging in their neighbours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHhEFBS0foI

A new paper in which we could contribute structural insights to the great biochemical work from our collaborators from UNC Chapel Hill. Sascha Amann from our lab was yet again able to solve several very challenging structures. This time of a SCF with Protac and target www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cells have a built-in cleanup system to remove unwanted proteins, and scientists can hijack it to destroy cancer drivers. Now, researchers from our Haselbach lab and collaborators reveal how this works in near-atomic detail: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72235-9

Are you a #Masters student interested in translational #cancer research, tumor immunology and #CRISPR screens? Then apply to our lab at the @impvienna.bsky.social in Vienna: www.imp.ac.at/career/open-... #oncology, #cancerresearch, #CRISPR

And now the final published version is available! 🕊️ @science.org science.org/doi/10.1126/... @lmu.de @impvienna.bsky.social

🎉 Congratulations to our Anna Obenauf, IMP Senior Group Leader, who has been elected as a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, for her outstanding contributions to cancer research: https://www.imp.ac.at/news/article/anna-obenauf-elected-to-the-austrian-academy-of-sciences

The IMP community remembers 1989 Nobel laureate J. Michael Bishop, a pioneering immunologist and microbiologist, who served on the IMP Scientific Advisory Board from 1991 to 1999: https://www.imp.ac.at/news/article/in-memoriam-j-michael-bishop-1936-2026

Congratulations to Alessandro Passera on the completion of his PhD! Passera, a researcher in the Balzarotti lab, presented his dissertation titled “Development of combinatorially-multiplexed DNA-PAINT and application to super-resolved RNA-FISH imaging” during his PhD defense.

Congratulations to Jingyi Shen on the completion of her PhD! Shen, a researcher in the Obenauf lab, presented her dissertation titled “Exploring the immunogenicity of cell death through the induction of GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis in cancer cells” during her PhD defense.

An FWF grant will support a new method to study gene activity and proteins at single-cell resolution. The funding is awarded to a collaborative project led by Manuel Matzinger (Proteomics Technology Hub of IMP, IMBA, GMI) & Viktoria Dorfer (Research Center Hagenberg).

Securing two group leader positions at the same institute is no small feat.  From IMP postdocs to group leaders: Laura Lorenzo-Orts and Ulrich Hohmann started their labs at IMB Mainz this year:

Can we engineer proteins that switch on and off inside living cells? 📽️ 2025 Birnstiel Award laureate Vojislav Gligorovski developed a light-controlled evolution system to do exactly that: https://youtu.be/ShHa1eEWFvk

At SY-Stem today, Francesco Boccelatto (University of Oxford), who earlier presented a talk titled “A YAP1–DKK1–Wnt mechanochemical circuit defines the human gastric regenerative niche,” contributes to the discussion following another presentation.

Learn more about the collaboration possibilities offered at Vienna BioCenter as Victoria Deneke shares her insights as a Postdoc at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology. The VIP³ PostDoc Program call is open – apply now! training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vi... #VBCPostDoc

Coffee breaks are an important part of conferences. At SY-Stem today, attendees had time for conversations, to ask questions sparked by presentations, and to connect with researchers they might not otherwise approach.

Why do some BRCA1-mutant cancers resist therapy? 📽️ 2025 Birnstiel Award laureate Sarah Moser identified a new DNA repair protein and discovered how cancer cells develop resistance to PARP inhibitors: https://youtu.be/vb1E3W9PvRQ

Today at SY-Stem: Marianne Bronner, California Institute of Technology, presented on “Gene regulatory subcircuits controlling neural crest stem cell fate along the body axis.”

A consortium of group leaders from IMP, IMBA (Vienna BioCenter) and ISTA has been awarded an FWF Emerging Fields grant to study how germ cells safeguard and pass on genetic information across generations.

The new Vienna BioCenter Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Program (VIP³) is here! We have 8 fully-funded positions for scientists with a PhD in biology, chemistry, physics, bioinformatics etc. The call is open! More information: training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vi... #VBCPostDoc

How does one genome create so much complexity? 📽️ 2025 Birnstiel Award laureate Jimmy Ly discovered hidden protein variants in the “dark proteome” that shape cell function and disease: https://youtu.be/wY1HbfY3fTE

🎉 Congratulations to our Ezra Levy, postdoc in Andrea Pauli’s lab at the IMP, who has been awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. More about his project: https://www.imp.ac.at/news/article/ezra-levy-awarded-marie-sklodowska-curie-postdoctoral-fellowship

Final registration reminder for SY-Stem 2026. The deadline is on Monday, February 16.

Viruses shut down antiviral defences to evade detection—but this can backfire. Researchers uncovered how human immune cells sense viral sabotage and trigger inflammation. UC Berkeley study with contributions from IMP’s Moritz Gaidt: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw4937

To regulate gene activity, proteasomes - waste disposal machines of cells - must enter the nucleus. IMP Researchers now show how the adaptor protein AKIRIN2 helps ferry this massive complex through the nuclear pore: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69162-0

Sven Klumpe, joint Group Leader at the IMP and IMBA has received a grant by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Biohub to support fibsem-os, an open-source software platform for focused ion beam–scanning electron microscopy. Read more 👉 https://imba.science/4tiwEP9

🔬 Our Research Milestones essays are back! This feature highlights Alipasha Vaziri, former Group Leader at the IMP and Max Perutz Labs. At the IMP, he developed imaging technologies that enabled large-scale recording of neuronal activity at single-cell resolution:

Paper alert! 📢 How do cells fight viruses without harming themselves? 🧬 In @natcomms.nature.com, the @versteegga.bsky.social lab uncover a previously unknown safeguard that keeps DNA-mutating antiviral enzymes in check, protecting the genome while preserving antiviral defense ➡️ tinyurl.com/4xbxz9e8

We are hiring! Join our Sterile Processing Unit as a technical assistant and provide scientists at the IMP, IMBA, and GMI with sterile laboratory glass and plastic goods.

Plasma cells are the immune system’s antibody factories, producing the molecules that protect us after infection or vaccination. They originate from B cell. Yet how B cells make the switch to become plasma cells—and which genes control this transition—isn’t known. Researchers from the lab of

Plasma cells are the immune system’s antibody factories, and they originate from B-cells. Researchers from our Busslinger lab developed a new CRISPR screening method to find the genes that control this transition inside living mice:

New work from our Haselbach lab with collaborators captures ribosomes 𝘮𝘪𝘥-𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 and reveals a flexible, modular strategy behind their assembly, rather than a strict assembly line. Published in _Nucleic Acids Research _👉 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkag036