Aiming for the basket
The nuclear pore basket is a conical, net-like structure that is attached to the main body of the nuclear pore complex. The basket is crucial for the transport of macromolecules between the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm, while it also regulates many aspects of gene expression. The lab of Alwin Köhler has, for the first time, managed to reconstitute key parts of the basket on synthetic membranes. Their study, published in Science Advances, provides new insights into the intricate assembly principles of this important structure, helping to explain how it achieves the flexibility necessary for the transport of large cargo.
ERC grant for Thomas Juffmann
The European Research Council ERC has awarded a Proof of Concept grant to the group of Thomas Juffmann. Following up on an ERC Starting Grant in 2018, the 150.000 EUR funding enables the team to explore applications of fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) in medicine and super-resolution microscopy.
Blooming too soon: timing is crucial to error-free cell division
The Bloom (BLM) DNA helicase is an important enzyme in DNA repair and the maintenance of genome stability. Mutations in BLM are associated with Bloom’s Syndrome, a disease characterized by growth defects and increased susceptibility to cancer. In their latest study, published in Science Advances, the lab of Joao Matos and their colleagues at the IRB-Bellinzona and ETH-Zürich (Switzerland) have elucidated the mechanism that regulates the correct timing of BLM activity during mitotic cell division. They show that BLM activity depends on its phosphorylation by two cell cycle kinases and that active BLM promotes the dissolution of potentially dangerous recombination intermediates.
New funding for meiosis research
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has awarded a special research programme (SFB) grant to six research groups from the Max Perutz Labs and scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), the Institute for Science and Technology Austria (IST), and the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria (JKU). The program is coordinated by Verena Jantsch and aims to gain novel mechanistic insights into the fundamental biological process of meiosis.
Anete Romanauska wins Science & SciLifeLab Prize
Congratulations to Anete Romanauska who has been awarded the Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists in the category “Cell and Molecular Biology”. The international award was created by Science magazine/AAAS and the Swedish research center SciLifeLab with the goal to recognize excellent PhD theses in the life sciences. As part of her prize, Anete has published an essay in Science about her contributions to our understanding of the lipid metabolism of the nuclear envelope.
Faculty promotions at the Max Perutz Labs
Congratulations to Karl Kuchler and Thomas Leonard who have been appointed Professors in the subject field of Molecular Biology by the Medical University of Vienna, and Thomas Juffmann who has been promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Vienna.
‘Network medicine’ directs disease diagnosis
Rare diseases are usually caused by a single genetic defect. Nevertheless, the search for the cause and the assessment of the effects is highly complex and difficult. Jörg Menche’s lab has now developed a multiplex network that maps all genes and their interactions on multiple levels of biological organization. Their study, published in Nature Communications, could help scientists better diagnose the causative genetic defects in disease, as well as understand the underlying mechanisms.
Decoding the role of PHF3 in transcription
Yeast homologue of the PHD finger protein 3 (PHF3) is known to be involved in transcription regulation, but its exact function in mammalian cells has remained unclear. New work from the lab of Dea Slade now shows that PHF3 regulates RNA polymerase II through a specialized domain called SPOC. Their study, published in Nature Communications, identifies PHF3 as a regulator of both transcription and mRNA stability during neuronal differentiation. The work is a collaboration between the Slade Lab, scientists from the Vienna BioCenter, the Institute of Science and Technology (IST, Austria), the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC, Czech Republic) and the Max Delbrück Center (Germany).
FWF grants awarded to Max Perutz Labs researchers
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has awarded individual project grants to Manuela Baccarini, Boris Görke and Robert Konrat. The funding amounts to a total of 1.3 million Euros and will support research on the ERK signaling pathway, bacterial envelope stress responses, and intrinsically disordered proteins.
“Always try to disprove your results”
Andrea Barta has been leading the doctoral program (DK) “RNA Biology” since its inception in 2007. Over the years, the doctoral school has trained dozens of PhD students with a focus on RNA research. On the occasion of the closing conference, we talked to her about the scientific highlights of the program, the importance of thematically structured PhD education, and why the big picture matters as much as the little details.
How to detox the nucleus of unsaturated fat
In eukaryotes, the nucleus harbors the genetic information of a cell, protected by a double lipid membrane called the nuclear envelope. The lipid composition of membranes is tightly regulated, thereby controlling its biophysical properties and functionality. In work published in Developmental Cell, Anete Romanauska and Alwin Köhler have discovered a detoxification mechanism that protects the inner nuclear membrane from high concentrations of unsaturated lipids that can alter the viscosity and function of the envelope. They have delineated the mechanism by which excess unsaturated fatty acids are stored in cytoplasmic lipid droplets and thus kept away from the nucleus.
Coffee with a view
It is the highlight of a series of architectural changes at the Perutz: The Max Bar on the Roof has opened its doors.
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