Ending 2025 with two new FWF grants
Two Perutz group leaders – Gang Dong and Javier Martinez – have secured new Principal Investigator grants from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Their projects will investigate how a parasite evades the immune system, and how the tRNA ligase complex is regulated and degraded. With approximately €6 million in FWF funding awarded to Perutz researchers this year – including €1 million in this call alone – the institute marks one of its most successful funding years to date.
FWF Special Research Program ‘Meiosis‘ extended
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has approved the prolongation of the Special Research Program (SFB) ‘Meiosis’, coordinated by Perutz Group Leader Verena Jantsch-Plunger, extending the collaborative project from 2026 to 2030. Originally launched in 2022, the SFB brings together nine research groups across Austria and Germany to study the fundamental mechanisms of meiotic recombination and genome haploidization, with a total funding volume of more than €8.8 million across both funding periods. Five labs from the Perutz are involved in the consortium, underscoring the institute’s strong contribution to this interdisciplinary effort.
Jovana Jovanovic secures this year’s 14th PhD Fellowship for the Perutz
The Perutz concludes its 20th anniversary year with another great achievement: Jovana Jovanovic (Ameres lab) is the 14th PhD researcher to receive a major fellowship this year – a new institutional record. Jovana has been awarded the highly competitive Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BIF) PhD Fellowship, which provides up to 3.5 years of funding as well as access to an international network of BIF Fellows. The fellowship recognizes top young scientists with fewer than 10% of roughly 550 applicants selected annually across Europe.
Irene Schwartz wins VBC PhD Award for outstanding research
Irene Schwartz has been awarded the Vienna BioCenter PhD Award for her exceptional doctoral research on how cells maintain immune balance through controlled proteasomal degradation. She is the 22nd Perutz graduate to receive this distinction, following Laura Santini in 2024. Established by former Perutz group leader Renée Schroeder, the prize honors outstanding PhD theses from across the Vienna BioCenter institutes, highlighting the excellence of young scientists in Vienna’s vibrant life sciences community.
Sascha Martens secures ERC Synergy Grant for autophagy research
How do harmful protein aggregates accumulate in our cells – and why can’t the cell’s natural garbage disposal system always remove them? ‘DegrAbility’, the new ERC Synergy Grant awarded to Perutz group leader Sascha Martens, in collaboration with former Perutz group leader Claudine Kraft (now University of Freiburg) and James Hurley (UC Berkeley), aims to answer this fundamental question. Over the next six years, the team will receive a total of €10 million to uncover how the cellular recycling system, known as autophagy, can be strengthened to prevent the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This prestigious and highly competitive grant represents a major investment in fundamental cell biology research and unites three experts in autophagy and protein quality control.
Unable to unwind, but not unhealthy
When chromosomes swap genetic material during meiosis – a process that generates crossovers – precision is everything. Double-strand DNA breaks are essential for chromosome alignment and segregation, but too many can threaten genome stability. The right balance fuels genetic diversity while preserving genome integrity. An enzyme long thought to inhibit crossover formation is now revealed to be a crucial architect of the process. In a new study published in Nucleic Acids Research, researchers from the Jantsch-Plunger lab discovered that the Bloom helicase, HIM-6, an enzyme that unwinds DNA, plays a previously unrecognized non-catalytic role in supporting successful meiosis in nematodes.
FWF funding for group leaders Elif Karagöz and Pavel Kovarik
Perutz group leaders Elif Karagöz and Pavel Kovarik have been awarded more than € 850,000 in Principal Investigator Grants from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The new funding deepens RNA research at the Perutz, supporting two projects that explore how RNA-binding proteins fine-tune cellular stress and immune responses at the post-transcriptional level. While the Karagöz lab investigates how IGF2BP3 modulates gene expression during endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, the Kovarik lab explores how the anti-inflammatory protein TTP helps maintain immune homeostasis by controlling inflammation.
The secret of safe reproduction
Sexual reproduction involves the formation of gametes – specialized cells containing half the genetic content of their parental cells. During meiosis, maternal and paternal chromosomes align and swap DNA segments, a process which requires programmed double strand breaks. Cells must guarantee at least one crossover per chromosome pair, but excessive double strand breaks can lead to deleterious DNA damage. How do cells balance these requirements? A new study from the Matos lab in Nature reveals a crucial mechanism involving Holliday junctions and the synaptonemal complex that ensures genetic diversity.
Unnatural selection
Hospital-acquired fungal infections, which pose a serious risk to immunocompromised patients, are a growing global health challenge. In a new study published in Cell Reports, first author Trinh Phan-Canh, a PhD student at the Perutz, discovered that a morphogenetic switch between White and Brown phenotypes in the human pathogen Candida auris correlates with virulence, pathogenicity, and drug resistance, with implications for the treatment of systemic Candida infections.
A new start for mitophagy
The recycling of damaged or surplus organelles by autophagy is crucial to maintaining cellular fitness. Dysregulation of mitophagy, in particular, is linked to Parkinson’s disease. A new study by postdoc Elias Adriaenssens (Martens lab), published in Nature Cell Biology, reveals a new mechanism for mitophagy initiation – showing that conventional downstream autophagy proteins, specifically WIPI proteins, are sometimes required in the early steps of autophagosome biogenesis. The discovery provokes a reconsideration of the hierarchy of factors in autophagy initiation. The study is part of the ‘Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP)’ scientific collaboration network.
Over €1.9 million in FWF funding for four Perutz group leaders
Four group leaders at the Max Perutz Labs – Erinc Hallacli, Pim Huis in 't Veld, Martin Leeb, and Joao Matos – have secured more than €1.9 million funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) to pursue new research directions. Erinc Hallacli’s work explores how disruptions in mRNA regulation contribute to Parkinson’s Disease, while Pim Huis in 't Veld investigates how molecular machines detect and repair fragile DNA bridges during cell division. Martin Leeb explores how human embryonic stem cells transition into a state capable of forming all tissues in the early embryo. Joao Matos received funding through the FWF’s ‘1000 Ideas’ program to study whether metabolic enzyme polymers help preserve the quality of aging oocytes.
Seven Perutz PhD students awarded prestigious ÖAW DOC Fellowships
The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)’s DOC Fellowship program supports outstanding PhD students by funding their innovative research projects. This year, seven talented Perutz PhD students received this highly competitive fellowship: Kathleen Berkun and Elizabeth Ethier (Hallacli lab), María García Gallardo (Buecker lab), Aswini Kumar Panda (Falk lab), Sebastian Platzer and Kavya Shetty (Hein lab), and Mateusz Walter (Querques lab). Their work spans a wide range of topics, from neurodegenerative diseases to fundamental protein biology. Congratulations to all on this remarkable achievement!
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