When people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)

just in time for the opening of the @hohmannulrich.bsky.social group at @imbmainz.bsky.social what started as a project on how cells export piRNA precursors, ended up as a tour de force in mRNA export. truly wonderful collaboration with @plaschkalab.bsky.social at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social

👇 Very sad. Science moves forward through questioning and uncertainty. Claims later proven wrong can only increase society’s distrust in science. We, scientists, should be able to acknowledge gaps without fearing a loss of funding or the impact on our publications...

New paper alert! Scientists in Julius Brennecke’s lab at IMBA and Clemens Plaschka’s lab at @impvienna.bsky.social solved a decade-old puzzle, uncovering how the information molecule mRNA travels from the cell’s nucleus to its periphery. More: https://imba.science/3Xl2hJ3

New paper alert! Scientists in Clemens Plaschka’s lab at the IMP and @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social's lab at @imbavienna.bsky.social solved a decade-old puzzle, uncovering how the information molecule mRNA travels from the cell’s nucleus to its periphery. More: bit.ly/4nHcvys

🤯This is wow! Molecular mechanism of mRNA export. by @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social @plaschkalab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super cool! Again, how p-bodies control gene expression in cell fate transitions

We have a new preprint for you. Naked mole rats are very long-lived rodents and have increased translational fidelity. Interestingly, 28S ribosomal RNA is split. Here we investigated the structure of the ribosome by single particle cryo-EM. Take a look. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tour de force stuff! #SSU #Processome #RNAExosome www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A lot of pressure on the different grant schemes, and pretty much independent of career stage.

And it's out! Our paper on the optimization of smFISH to quantify cytokine mRNAs in T cells is published in EMBO Journal. Using this protocol, we gathered interesting insights on cytokine mRNAs co-expression and localization in these teeny tiny human cells. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

📈 Record interest in ERC Starting Grants 2026! 4,807 proposals - a 22% increase compared to last year’s call. 👩‍🔬 Women submitted nearly 43% of proposals - the highest share ever recorded in an ERC call. More stats 👉 bit.ly/4hcYJln #ChooseEurope

The 'Handler genome' of OSCs, a rare and stably growing cell line that runs a piRNA pathway to silence transposons. Dominik (@86dominik.bsky.social) assembled the genome of this Drosophila cell line. Besides making some cool findings, the goal was to turn this into useful resource for the field.

Check out the latest work from our lab, led by Arash Latifkar @ara-latifkar.bsky.social , www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Off he is ... Ulrich is one of the most remarkable scientists I had the pleasure to work with. I learned so much from him about biochemistry, proteins, structural biology, and so much more. Great people make great things happen. The really great people are rare. Ulrich is one of them ...

Thrilled to share that I’ll be joining @imbmainz.bsky.social in February 2026 to start my own group! We will explore new mechanisms in eukaryotic gene expression, leveraging ‘evolutionary play’ to uncover how regulation, repurposing, and hijacking shape RNA biology. PhD positions available!

We are very pleased to announce our joint meeting with the German @gfeev.bsky.social and the Dutch Developmental Biology Societies, which will take place in Potsdam from the 10-13th of March 2026. Registration is now open! www.uni-potsdam.de/en/gfe-meeti...

Congratulations to @vdeneke.bsky.social & Andreas Blaha @impvienna.bsky.social for their research on vertebrate fertilization, which was awarded this year's ÖGMBT Life Science Research Award in Austria for basic research!

Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Amazing work by the Santiago lab @unil.bsky.social. The malectin-LRR receptor kinase IGP1 senses cello-oligomers to alert the plant immune system & enhance disease resistance. Very nice discovery & mechanism. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We've updated our first #preprint from the lab! A collaboration with @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social 🔥 now including in vivo 🐭&👤 embryo data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The specific motif built up by these two RBPs cannot be identified by studying each of them in isolation, so one important question we would like to raise is: How many RBPs form heteromultimeric complexes with specificity other than the sum of the individual RBPs?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Delighted to share the story of two germline RBPs - one with little (DND1) and one with no (NANOS3) intrinsic sequence-specificity - that together build a continuous RNA binding surface recognizing a 7-mer (AUGAAUU) in target mRNA 3’UTRs, leading to deadenylation.

How are RNAs sorted for export vs. degradation in the nucleus? In collaboration with @heick.bsky.social’s lab we (@clemensplaschka.bsky.social and @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social labs) discovered a direct mechanistic link between the export and decay machineries: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/x)

My lab @mpi-muenster.bsky.social is looking for a computational biologist with a passion for imaging and spatial biology. A staff scientist position with long-term perspective! Apply and spread the word 🙏 jobs.mpi-muenster.mpg.de/jobposting/0...

Love RNA biology? Join us to explore the piRNA pathway with structural and genetic approaches (see 👇👇). PhD student/postdoc position co-supervised by Clemens Plaschka & myself. DM or email us if you’d like to know more! @vbcscitraining.bsky.social @imbavienna.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social

PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity. But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing? PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Join us for the Austrian Cryo-EM Symposium Nov 11–12 at @istaresearch.bsky.social! Top speakers, cutting-edge cryo-EM, and a chance to explore Vienna & the ISTA campus. Register now 👉 cryoem-symposium.pages.ist.ac.at #cryoEM #teamtomo

Be our new colleague! 🎉 The Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Geneva is hiring an Assistant Professor or Associate Professor. 👉 More details here: lnkd.in/e8Z9eAm4 👉 Our department: mocel.unige.ch Please feel free to share this opportunity with your network.

I am excited to announce that I will be moving to IMB Mainz next year! The Winter call for the IPP PhD program is now open; if you are interested in maternal #mRNA regulation and #translation in early vertebrate development, please apply! Deadline: 16 October. More info: www.imb.de/students-pos...

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, social insects reveal another surprise.” https://scim.ag/47sVFyS

Happy to share our work on the structure and function of the unusual E3 ligase ZNFX1 @cp-cell.bsky.social. It uses a nucleic acid-activated transthiolation mechanism, ubiquitinating and clustering RNA to protect cells in an immune response. @clausenlab.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Discovery happens less when you're trying to be the expert and more when you're trying to be the learner.

If you are thinking about the future of structural biology, we are too! Our two cents (Jürgen Plitzko and I) just got published online here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Our latest on brassinosteroid signaling: Ligand binding spectrum, specificity & selectivity of all BR receptors in Arabidopsis. By @albertocaregnato.bsky.social , @hmchen93.bsky.social and our great chemistry collaborators Mirek Kvasnica, Jana Oklestkova and Mirek Strnad.

We are searching for an enthusiastic scientist to join our team and establish annual killifish as a model system for early developmental biology and biophysics! @embl.org @embldbunit.bsky.social Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hei... Please re-post 🙏

Our RAPPL purification of ribosomes and associated material is out. I am really proud of this study in collaboration primary with Pavlovic-Djuranovic lab, as well as Jovanovic and Hashem Labs. This method aims to replace 60 years old purification of ribosomes by sucrose cushions rdcu.be/ezlhg

My colleagues Baptise Rafanel et al. investigated how a newly invading transposon can be silenced. They found that not only antisense insertions in piRNA clusters such as flamenco, but also insertions in the 3‘UTR of genes can drive potent silencing.

New method drop: HCR-Proxy, a modular proximity labelling approach to profile local proteome composition around RNA at nanoscale, subcompartmental resolution. Thereby we resolved nested nucleolar layers and uncovered the grammar of spatial protein partitioning. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Maria Leptin | EMBO Science Journalism Fellowships support life scientists pursuing a career in #ScienceJournalism and science journalists who wish to further their scientific education. Apply now: www.embo.org/funding/fell... #LifeSciences #funding 🧪

It was super fun working on this interview with Saanjbati Adhikari about my path during my scientific training.

Say hello to Florida's newest established species, Typhlonectes natans - the Rio Cauca Caecilian! You can read about their relative abundance, distribution, & natural history, in our brand new paper: journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda... Here is one individual I CT scanned that had 7 babies inside!

Thrilled to announce the nexy Austrian Cryo-EM Symposium, taking place 11th-12th November at @istaresearch.bsky.social, with speakers inc. @grigoriefflab.bsky.social, @oliveiramann.bsky.social, @bjgreber.bsky.social @svenklumpe.bsky.social @sebastianglatt.bsky.social ‪‬https://tinyurl.com/cryo2025

Postdoc positions available in the THJ group in Aarhus, Denmark 🇩🇰 Please share around 🤝

Yahoo! 🎉 Congrats Andi @pauligroup.bsky.social ! Super well deserved 😎

I may be biased by my career stage, but I don't understand how anyone can look at the European academia (DACH, particularly) and conclude that we need even more centralization of research.

📣 Ever considered applying for a ERC Starting Grant? The 2026 Call for proposals is now open! Application portal 👉 lnkd.in/dcsPAwqJ Information for Applicants 👉 lnkd.in/dsE6B8eE Deadline to apply for #ERCStG is 14 October 2025.

6/How we should do #science?

5/What’s #science