Last week, we hosted the @eu-life.bsky.social Strategy Meeting, bringing together Directors and key representatives of the 17 member institutes to discuss 2026 priorities. Participants also met leaders from the Basel Life Science cluster, heard from FMI group leaders & toured the Novartis Pavillon.

Excellent news for research in Switzerland — and for institutes like ours that depend on international grants, collaborations and networks. #HorizonEurope

📢 Last days to apply for our #PhD and #MDPhD programs! Become part of Basel, Europe’s #LifeScience hub, and grow in a dynamic, international, and supportive community. Apply by Nov 15: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

The FMI, fmiscience.bsky.social, hosted the TriRhena Gene Regulation Club on Nov 5! 80+ researchers from Basel, Strasbourg & Freiburg joined for a half-day of talks on gene regulation, transcription & RNA. Thanks to all speakers — it was a blast! See you at IGBMC, Strasbourg, March 18, 2026!

🔒 Strengthening research security through collaboration Last week, EU-LIFE joined the European Commission @ec.europa.eu and 11 major research & innovation organisations to co-organise the 1st European Flagship Conference on #ResearchSecurity Find out more ➡️ eu-life.eu/newsroom/new...

#SwissScienceImage 📷 Submit your best #photos and #videos of your research to the SNSF Scientific Image Competition! The winning entries will be exhibited at the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography in May 2026. 🗓️ Submission deadline: 2 February 2026 ➡️ https://sohub.io/kw8d

Now in @embojournal.org: Researchers in @labgrosshans.bsky.social & UCSC found that similar molecular machineries control daily circadian rhythms & developmental timing—showing that evolution can repurpose core timing systems to coordinate both daily cycles & growth. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

#Call for Postdoc.Mobility. Expand your #research experience with a stay abroad. If you would like to find out more about this call, take part in our online information event on 17. November 2025. ➡️ sohub.io/51a4 🗓️Submission deadline: 3 February 2026

Is this a spooky spiderweb? 🕸️Or the veins of a vampire bat’s wing?🦇 Nope! It’s a microscopy image of the mouse barrel cortex—where clusters of brain cells process input from each whisker 🐭 (Image by Gabriele Pumo) Happy Halloween! 🎃

Yesterday at the FMI, we paired checkmates with cheddar 🧀♟️ Clever moves, cheesy snacks and lots of laughs made for a fun afternoon!

...and one week later: the next one @fmiscience.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We were thrilled to welcome Novartis Chairman Giovanni Caforio to the FMI! He toured our labs and saw the work taking place at the new FMI-Novartis Applied Tissue Models Center. We are grateful for his visit and support in strengthening the collaboration between FMI and Novartis.

Here is the schedule for the next TriRhena Gene Regulation Club at the FMI @fmiscience.bsky.social in Basel 🇨🇭 next week (5 Nov 2025; 14:00-18:45). Exciting topics ahead & we are looking forward to the #newPI talks by @julianeg.bsky.social (MPI) & Anupama Hemalatha (FMI). www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/grc

Nektarios Tavernarakis on why curiosity-driven research, not focusing on application, is fundamental to problem solving and requires government support in @emboreports.org doi.org/10.1038/s443...

Three FMI researchers—Nanci Winke, @neuramos.bsky.social & @lukas-anneser.bsky.social—have received @snsf.ch Ambizione Grants! Their projects explore how emotions shape behavior, how the brain responds to anxiety treatments, and how brain states affect learning & memory 🧠 www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

another fascinating collaboration with the Turco lab @fmiscience.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very much looking forward to this collaboration with @georgkeller.bsky.social at @fmiscience.bsky.social, using a cross-species approach in humans and mice to investigate the effects of antipsychotics on cortical circuit function.

FMI’s Prof. @georgkeller.bsky.social and UPK Basel’s Prof. Philip Sterzer have been awarded a 1.5 M CHF @snf-fns.ch grant to study how brain circuit changes underlie schizophrenia — bridging fundamental neuroscience and clinical research from mice to humans 🧠 www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Today at the FMI, we celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights! 🪔 A huge thank you to our Indian colleagues for sharing this beautiful tradition that honors the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil 💫

Last week, we hosted an insightful event organised by @twist-basel.bsky.social, highlighting diverse career paths outside of academia. The panel discussion, followed by a lively apéro, was a great reminder of the many opportunities a PhD can open beyond the lab 🎓

And the next one: dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44318-025-00585-z . Super-fun collaboration with @partchlab.bsky.social & @gotworms.bsky.social to find similarities between developmental and circadian clocks – supported by @fmiscience.bsky.social Facilities and, financially, @snsf.ch and @erc.europa.eu . 1/n

Registration closes today. Hurry up. ⌛ 👉 The next TriRhena Gene Regulation Club takes place at the Friedrich Miescher Institute @fmiscience.bsky.social in Basel 🇨🇭. 📅 Nov. 5th, 2025 (14:00-20:00) 📌 FMI, Basel ✍️ Registration deadline: Oct. 20th, 2025

Huge congrats to our Marius Mählen for having his image (taken with support from Koen Oost, Prisca Liberali & Laurent Gelman) selected among the top 20 photos in the Nikon Small World Competition—the world’s leading showcase of life under the microscope 🔬 www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

And here is a layperson video summary of parts of our recent paper👇

🎥 FMI scientists discovered that thousands of C. elegans genes switch on and off in rhythmic patterns controlled by chromatin, revealing how gene timing shapes development & offering clues to human biological clocks. @labgrosshans.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dibw...

Don’t miss this career event, taking place tomorrow at the FMI 👇🏽

Watch Lucas' amazing artistic/musical rendition of C. elegans larval development and our work on developmental timing and molting here youtu.be/-hGHYRvw87w and read on his inspiration and challenges below

Please share: Postdoc position available in a new collaborative SNSF project with @georgkeller.bsky.social at @fmiscience.bsky.social using a cross-species approach in humans and mice to investigate the cortical circuit mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. Apply at karriere.upk.ch/Postdoctoral...

Paper alert! doi.org/10.1038/s443... - "A scheduler for rhythmic gene expression". We show how 9 txn factors suffice for rhythmic gene expression of thousands of genes with any phase or amplitude in #Celegans larvae (and also look at the tissues where oscillations happen) 1/n

In May, Lucas Morales represented the FMI at the @eu-life.bsky.social Science Vision Talk Contest in Brno—Eurovision for science. His live talk had surprises, but he later recorded a new version. Watch it and read his Q&A on science, career and communication: www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

🚀 Students & researchers from @theneurotecheu.bsky.social! Join Neurospark 2025 Hackathon (Nov 4–6, Elche). Team up to solve challenges in brain–machine interfaces & shape the future of neurotech! 🧠👇 neurotecheu.umh.es/2025/09/08/h... @umh.es

Are you an ERC-funded researcher who is ready to inspire the next generation of scientists? Apply now to showcase your research in fun, creative ways at the #ScienceisWonderful exhibition! 👉 link.europa.eu/vgTTr4 📅 18–20 March 2026 📍Brussels ⏳Apply until 20 October @ercgrantees.bsky.social

Join @stemcellreports.bsky.social and @bacell3d.bsky.social on 4 November to learn how organoid models are being used to study human development, infection, tissue dynamics, and cancer across various organ systems. Features Short Talk Winners! Register today👉 bit.ly/4o46DzZ

Preprint by the Grosshans lab w/ co-1st authors Dimos Gaidatzis, Maike Graf-Landua & Stephen P. Methot "A scheduler for rhythmic gene expression" @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025... @labgrosshans.bsky.social @smethot.bsky.social @fmiscience.bsky.social

2nd Meeting on Early Embryogenesis and Epigenetics 16 - 18 Feb 2026 at MPI for Molecular Genetics, Berlin with support by the Weizmann Institute for Science. Early bird registration until 30 Sep - register now👇 www.molgen.mpg.de/embryo2026

After 23 years at the FMI, we bid farewell to Debby Hynx, technical associate in our animal facility. She’s heading south to be closer to family. Wishing her the very best in this new chapter—she will be deeply missed!

We’re excited to host the next TriRhena Gene Regulation Club on November 5! Attendance is free, but registration (by October 20) is mandatory 👇🏽

📢 Spread the word: Applications are now open for our #PhD and #MDPhD programs! Become part of Basel, Europe’s #LifeScience hub, and grow in a dynamic, international, and supportive community. Apply by Nov 15: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

We’re proud that the work of FMI group leader Margherita Yayoi Turco on reproductive organoids is featured in @nature.com. From the first placental organoid in 2017 to today’s advances, Turco's research is helping reshape reproductive health. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Really excited to share our latest work led by @mattiaubertini.bsky.social and @nesslfy.bsky.social: we report that cohesin loop extrusion creates rare but long-lived encounters between genomic sequences which underlie efficient enhancer-promoter communication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A🧵👇

Now in @dev-journal.bsky.social: Researchers in the Tsiairis lab have discovered how Hydra cells decide to form stinging tentacles or an anchoring foot, revealing key rules of body patterning. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

📣 EU-LIFE brings together the voices of 16 leading #biotech #innovation experts, including scientists, CEOs, investors & #TechTransfer professionals, who all agree on one thing: 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴, 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵. ➡️ doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

With the FMI Annual Meeting underway last week, admin staff & some retired colleagues enjoyed an excursion to Broc & the district of Gruyère. With cheese-making, a tasty lunch & a sweet finale at a chocolate factory, it was a chance to strengthen ties and enjoy time together.

Last week in Davos, our Annual Meeting gathered the FMI’s scientific community, Novartis colleagues & the Scientific Advisory Board. Highlights included the FMI science prize ceremony, honoring creative thinking, outstanding PhD theses & exceptional postdoc studies 🏆 www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Congrats to the mixed football team FMI + @biozentrum.unibas.ch for bringing home a coveted trophy at the tournament organized by @eth-bsse.bsky.social ⚽ Fantastic grit and teamwork!

Truly honored (and a little overwhelmed) to see our work featured in The Transmitter's "This Paper Changed My Life." Huge thanks to @neural-reckoning.org for the kind words - and to our amazing community that keeps pushing spiking neural network research forward 🙏

Very grateful to the Ruth Chiquet Prize committee for recognizing our efforts and to the FMI community for their invaluable support in this project.

Another FMI Annual Meeting is in the books! After a night of follies and plenty of dancing, today brought the announcement of our internal prize winners, more inspiring talks, and a vibrant poster session. Already looking forward to next year! 🙌

This year's Ruth Chiquet Prize goes to @solygamagda.bsky.social, who sent a video message, for her work on how the brain detects sensory mismatches. Read more at: www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

The Max Burger Prize 2025 goes to Josip Ahel (@aheljo.bsky.social), Aparna Pandey & Michaela Schwaiger for adding a key piece to the puzzle of how cells protect the DNA from “jumping genes.” Read more at www.fmi.ch/news-events/...