What makes us unique: Long non-coding RNAs displays higher expression variation than “classic” genes
Every human expresses a unique set of genes. This is a long known fact for “classic” protein-coding genes, but little was known about long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes, that surprisingly outnumber protein-coding genes in the human genome. A new study, performed by CeMM researchers in collaboration with MUW researchers and published in “Genome Biology”, now shows that the expression state of lncRNA genes is more highly variable compared to…
First single-cell transcriptomes of pancreas cells established
The pancreas is a crucial organ for eating behavior, digestion and metabolism and it plays a major role in the development of diabetes. In so called “Langerhans Islets”, specialized groups of cells precisely regulate blood sugar. But they are hard to study, only a few molecular markers are known to differentiate those pancreatic cell types. With the first single cell transcriptomes, established by Stefan Kubicek and Christoph Bock at CeMM, a new…
Giulio Superti-Furga @ TEDxLinz
We are proud to present the first TEDx Talk of our Scientific Director Giulio Superti Furga: The Human 2.0 - Genome Imperfection and the Garden of Eden We are becoming the first generation of living beings in billions of years that knows its genetic code and can change it and with it the fate of the planet. Is humanity – and life on earth – at a turning point? Are we walking towards the Garden of Eden or turning our backs to it forever? In…
Two ERC Starting Grants awarded to CeMM Principal Investigators Andreas Bergthaler and Christoph Bock
It is with great pleasure to announce that the European Research Council has awarded ERC Starting Grants to two Principal Investigators in 2015. CeMM congratulates Andreas Bergthaler and Christoph Bock and their teams for receiving this prestigious and well-endowed grants! Andreas Bergthaler joined CeMM in 2011. He studied Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, and undertook graduate and postgraduate research with Hans Hengartner and Rolf Zinkernagel…
Friend or foe? Antiviral molecule kills liver cells during hepatitis
Viral hepatitis is a global health threat: More than five hundred million people worldwide are infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses. The pathogens have a detrimental effect on the liver, which manifests with a complex pathology that is largely unknown. In their most recent study, published in “Immunity”, CeMM researchers shed light on how this damage develops. This study, which is the result of an international collaborative network led by…
EU-LIFE launches LIBRA - Top European research institutes move towards gender equality
LIBRA – the EU-LIFE alliance project to develop and implement gender equality in research – has been launched. The kick off meeting of this H2020 funded project took place on 27-28 October 2015 at Sitges, Spain. CeMM is one of the thirteen partners, who are going to contribute to the design and implementation of harmonised and tailored Gender Equality Plans at the research institutes’ level. Approximately half of the PhD students in Europe are…
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases
We congratulate Kaan Boztug and his team whose proposal for the establishment of a Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases has been selected for funding out of 26 applications! Kaan Boztug is Principal Investigator at CeMM and Associate Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. He is a specialist in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, focusing his research on rare diseases in the field of immunology and hematology. In…
Essential genes for the survival of human cells
In a combined effort researchers of Thijn Brummelkamp´s group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the groups of Giulio Superti-Furga, Jacques Colinge (presently at the Institut de Recherche en Cancérologie de Montpellier), and Keiryn Bennett at CeMM identified about 1.700 genes being important for the survival of human cells. By conducting large scale mutagenesis analysis on two haploid human cell lines they found that approximately 10…
5th SMART Lecture by Albert-László Barabási
On October 12th, we had the great pleasure to host Albert-László Barabási at CeMM. After several rounds of meetings with PhD students and faculty, as well as a stimulating discussion with invited artists in the brain lounge, Albert-László Barabási delivered the 5th SMART lecture. His talk on “Network Science: From the WWW to Human Diseases” attracted an exceptional audience of some 150 people. After a general introduction and welcome note by…
Thank you to Rectorate of the Medical University of Vienna
CeMM would like to welcome the new Rector of the Medical University of Vienna, Prof. Dr. Markus Müller, and his team, and takes the occasion to thank the former Rector, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schütz, for his continues support over the last years. Rector Schütz played a crucial role in the development of CeMM, its location in the middle of the medical campus, and set the path for a fruitful collaboration, being always open for new ideas and…
A “hot” approach for understanding drug action and identifying new drug targets
How do successful drugs actually work? And how can we identify new targets for drug discovery to enable the development of novel potential therapeutics? A key challenge for scientists in academia and the pharmaceutical industry is to find out how small molecules such as drugs or cellular metabolites act within a cell – who are the mediators and effectors required for a drug or metabolite to exert their effect e.g. on cell proliferation, shape…
Festive Lecture by George Church
How new genomic technologies will impact us all On 17 September 2015 a festive lecture held by geneticist George Church (Harvard Medical School) marked the beginning the GET Global Conference, hosted by CeMM in the context of Genom Austria. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Personal Genome Project, the conference brought together pioneers of personal genome sequencing and open science, discussing technological advances and associated…
Obituary William E. Paul
It is with great sadness that we learn of the decease of Prof. Dr. William E. Paul, Chief of the Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, USA. Bill Paul was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CeMM from the very beginning and had a great influence on the development of our institute. We lose an extraordinary scientist and highly esteemed mentor. His advice, constructive criticism and…
Visit of H.E. Sergio Mattarella and H.E. Heinz Fischer at CeMM
On September 16, 2015 CeMM was honored by the visit of H.E. Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic of Italy, and H.E. Heinz Fischer, President of the Republic of Austria. It was the first official visit of President Mattarella to Austria and we are very grateful for this unique opportunity to present CeMM and its research highlights to such an honorable audience. The visit started with a short introduction to CeMM’s art façade created by…
ChIPmentation: fast, robust, low-input ChIP-seq for histones and transcription factors
To understand how genes are regulated, researchers create genome-wide maps that connect regulatory proteins to their target sites on the DNA. This analysis is typically performed using “chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing” (ChIP-seq). With this method, the cell’s chromosomes are cut into small pieces, and an antibody is used to fish out those DNA fragments that are bound by the regulatory protein of interest. Unfortunately,…
