Researchers at CeMM and the Medical University of Vienna have developed an innovative microscopy-based approach that could predict the best approved drug to treat individual rheumatoid arthritis patients using samples of their blood. Published in the Lancet group journal EBioMedicine, the study demonstrates the feasibility of precision medicine to significantly enhance treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and likely other autoimmune diseases.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory joint disorder, affecting over 60,000 people in Austria alone, with women being three times as likely to suffer from the condition as men. While…

We thank all the CeMM members and Alumnae/Alumni, as well as our stakeholders, collaboration partners and friends for making 2024 a successful year. We deeply appreciate their commitment to continuous improvement and their openness to embracing new endeavors.

We congratulate CeMM Adjunct PI Nuno Maulide for an ERC Advanced Grant, Georg Winter for an ERC Consolidator Grant and being part of a global Cancer Grand Challenges team, and Stefan Kubicek for an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, CeMM Adjunct PI Miriam Unterlass for taking over the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Würzburg, and CeMM Adjunct PI Jörg Menche for…

CeMM would like to show respect and gratitude to Hannes Androsch who passed away on 11 December 2024. He will be remembered as an Austrian business man and politician, being Austrian Finance Minister from 1970 to 1981 and Vice Chancellor from 1976 to 1981. Austria lost a person of broad interests and community work.

For CeMM and the scientific community his constant support of research and development activities and tireless public advocacy to invest more in research and education was highly appreciated and of great importance and inspiration. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and former collaborators.

Dr. Hannes Androsch, being a…

Tailored small molecules that bind to cancer-causing proteins and neutralize tumor cells—this is the specialty of Georg Winter, Principal Investigator at CeMM, who has established himself as a global leader in the field. His latest ERC CoG project proposal, GE|NEomorph, will take his research to a new level. Instead of marking cancer proteins for cellular degradation, as in previous approaches, Winter’s designer molecules now target transcription factors. These molecules aim to reprogram the genetic activity of cancer cells—a promising new strategy for developing innovative therapies. The European Research Council (ERC) agrees, awarding €1.9…

A study on "The Contribution of Basic Research Projects Funded by the Austrian Science Fund to Economic and Societal Impacts” has been published by WIFO, Joanneum Research and IHS. Proxygen, a CeMM OeAW spin-off company founded in 2020 is a great example for basic research & innovation. 

Link to Study: https://www.wifo.ac.at/publication/274018/
Austrian Institute of Economic Research, Institute for Advanced Studies, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Policies, Institute for Economic, Social and Innovation Research 

Link to Proxygen: https://proxygen.com/
„We founded Proxygen because we felt a strong need for the industrial…

Secondary lymphoid organs are specialized regions in the body where immune cells multiply and develop to respond to new pathogens like viruses and bacteria. An international team led by Kaan Boztug, CeMM Adjunct PI, Scientific Director of the CCRI and Professor at the Medical University of Vienna, has identified a completely new form of a rare disease that affects these organs, shedding light on the significance of these structures for the human immune system. A genetic defect – discovered by the researchers – leads to either the absence or significant dysfunction of these organs in several children. As a result, affected children suffer from…

From 21-22 November 2024, the directors and main representatives of the 15 EU-LIFE member institutes came together to reflect on the activities, challenges and achievements of 2024, and to talk about the action plan and priorities for 2025. EU-LIFE Chair Giulio Superti-Furga, CeMM, and EU-LIFE Vice-Chair Marta Miączyńska, IIMCB, will now follow up on the decisions made with the help of the EU-LIFE office under the leadership of Marta Agostinho, and the different working groups.

On top of creating an ambitious EU-LIFE action plan for 2025, and the exchange of best practices, two very interesting panel discussions took place in Copenhagen. The…

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) supported by an international hiring committee of top scientists and entrepreneurs is seeking an outstanding scientist and visionary leader to serve as the SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR (F/M/X) of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine. The candidate will follow the founding Director Giulio Superti-Furga, a renowned molecular biologist who will become Director of the Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center in Sicily.

The Scientific Director of CeMM will share the management and CEO leadership role with Anita Ender, Administrative Director of CeMM, who is also the Managing Director of AITHYRA, a…

Rapid demographic changes are a central cause of the societal and political phenomena of our time, leaving “the world in pieces.” This key argument was compellingly elaborated by Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, at the 13th CeMM S.M.A.R.T. Lecture held on 30 October 2024.

Before a packed audience, Krastev explored the complex interplay between demographic challenges, migration, and populist politics, particularly in Eastern Europe. He argued that many European nations are facing shrinking populations due to low birth rates and…

Cell division is a pivotal moment in the life cycle of a cell: when things go wrong, the cell typically triggers growth arrest or its own self-destruction. Researchers in Austria and Italy have now discovered a previously unknown process that initiates cancer cell death in two distinct ways. This newly uncovered mechanism could help fighting blood cancer, as many modern therapies target the last step in cell division in tumor cells. The study was published in Science Advances.

Unseen and ongoing, thousands of times every second: to keep a complex organism like humans alive, an immense number of new cells must be continuously produced. Up…