CCRI - CeMM Collaboration Agreement
CCRI Directors Kaan Boztug and Jörg Bürger, and CeMM Directors Giulio Superti-Furga and Anita Ender have signed a partnership agreement which further strengthens scientific collaborations and training aspects. CeMM’s research is strongly oriented towards medical needs and integrates research on fundamental biological processes with clinical expertise to gain new insights into human pathophysiology and develop innovative diagnostic and…
Vaccine boosts innate immunity in people with dormant immune cells
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is one of the world’s oldest and most widely used vaccines. It was developed in the early 20th century to provide protection from tuberculosis. Surprisingly, this vaccine protects not only against tuberculosis but also reduces the risk for various other infections, through a mechanism called trained immunity. A new study led by Christoph Bock and Mihai Netea found that epigenetic cell states predict whether or not…
Giulio Superti-Furga and Marta Miączyńska are appointed new chair and co-chair of EU-LIFE
Giulio Superti-Furga, Scientific Director of the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Marta Miączyńska, Director of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB), have been appointed new Chair and Co-Chair of the EU-LIFE alliance of leading life science research institutes in Europe. Over the next two years, Giulio and Marta will work closely with Marta Agostinho,…
Season Greetings 2023
We would like to thank our CeMM members and collaborators for their efforts and dedication to research. 2023 was a successful year with many achievements and we paved the way for new projects and endeavors in the upcoming year. An excerpt about CeMM accomplishments in 2023: the ERC Starting Grants of Barbara Maier and Clarissa Campbell the Kubicek lab pinpointing the exact location of the SMNDC1 protein within the cell nucleus and…
Artist Jun Yang designed chair’s backrest for CeMM’s Brain Lounge
On Thursday, 30 November 2023, CeMM welcomed artist Jun Yang for the inauguration of the new chair backrest that he specially designed for CeMM’s Brain Lounge, which completes the carousel. During the event, Jun Yang presented his piece of art entitled “The Voyage of Barbarella” and discussed with CeMM PhD students the process of conception and creation, how the story and narration can be the art as much as the physical representation. He spent…
12th CeMM S.M.A.R.T. Lecture with Prof. Barbara Seidlhofer
On 27 November, Barbara Seidlhofer, Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Vienna, gave an inspiring 12th S.M.A.R.T. Lecture at CeMM. In this session, Professor Seidlhofer discussed the topic of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), i.e. the means of communication regarded as the most convenient (and workable) one by speakers from a different first-language background. More often than not, there are no native speakers of…
Newly discovered compound blocks signalling pathway of immune response
Scientists at CeMM, the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Lausanne succeeded for the first time in identifying and characterizing a new small molecule called "Feeblin", which can inhibit the interaction of the transporter protein SLC15A4 with the adapter protein TASL. Both proteins are part of proinflammatory signalling pathways in the body. In particular, patients with autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus (SLE) could…
Giulio Superti-Furga becomes director of the Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center in Sicily
CeMM Director Giulio Superti-Furga, a renowned molecular biologist in Austria, takes on a new task: The Italian Ri.MED Foundation and UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) selected the native Italian for the position of director of the new Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (BRBC) currently under construction in Sicily. Superti-Furga will initially support the Ri.MED Foundation with consultancy services of one week per month,…
CeMM stands in solidarity with Israel
CeMM strongly condemns the attacks and war in Israel and wholeheartedly wishes to express solidarity with the citizens across Israel. We send our support to scientific colleagues, collaborators, and CeMM friends and alumni in these difficult times.
RESOLUTE and REsolution Final Conference on 27-29 September 2023
From 27 to 29 September 2023, the 'Unlocking Transporters for Drug Discovery' Conference took place at the historic Palais Niederösterreich in Vienna, Austria. The event, open for the first time to the entire scientific community, marked the conclusion of the RESOLUTE and REsolution projects, which are set to conclude by the end of 2023. The REsolution and RESOLUTE consortia are public-private research partnerships supported by the Innovative…
Thomas Reiberger and Laura de Rooij received the prestigious LBG CRG funding for their project "MOTION"
Congratulations to CeMM Adjunct Principal Investigator Thomas Reiberger and CeMM Principal Investigator Laura de Rooij, who received the prestigious CRG funding from the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft for their project entitled "Disease-Driving Mechanisms in Patients with Portal Hypertension," in short "MOTION"! Portal Hypertension (PH) is a severe consequence of liver diseases, causing more than 2 million (4% of all) deaths worldwide each year.…
Johanna Strobl awarded the ÖGAI Karl Landsteiner Prize 2023
Congratulations to Johanna Strobl, a postdoc in the group of CeMM Adjunct Principal Investigator Georg Stary at the Medical University of Vienna, for receiving the Karl Landsteiner Prize in basic immunological research in 2023! Every year, the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) and the Karl Landsteiner and Eisler-Terramare Private Memorial Foundation (Bio&Bio) present this award in honor of the significant contributions of…
Clarissa Campbell and Barbara Maier at CeMM receive ERC Starting Grants
Two scientists at the CeMM have received prestigious ERC Starting Grants from the European Commission: Clarissa Campbell and Barbara Maier. In Clarissa Campbell's laboratory, researchers are working to better understand the interplay between the immune system and metabolism. Barbara Maier and her team are researching the role of lymph nodes in the context of cancer. The ERC grants are among the most prestigious and competitive research grants…
Network-based approaches open a new avenue to classify and treat rare diseases
Scientists at CeMM, Max Perutz Labs, and St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute have achieved a significant advancement in the research of rare immune system disorders. Through a network-based approach, they have reclassified approximately 200 rare diseases. Initial comparisons with clinical data already demonstrate how this can enhance the prediction of treatment efficacy. Moreover, the study reveals for the first time the strong…
Gene mutation in the immune system: Anti-diabetes drugs make immune cells more effective again
T cells are an essential component of the immune system - they fight foreign structures such as bacteria and viruses or cancer-related changes in cells. This defense reaction requires energy. Scientists led by the St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute and the Marmara University Istanbul have now shown for the first time that a defect in the gene for the transcription factor NFATC1 leads to an immune defect with a disruption of metabolism…
