Gene variant activity is surprisingly dynamic during development
Every tissue has its own pattern of active alleles (the gene variants inherited from the mother or father),. For the first time, scientists were able to show that the differential allele activity is regulated by tissue-specific, regulatory DNA elements known as enhancers – a process that could also be involved in many diseases. The results of the former CeMM group of Denise Barlow were published in the high-profile open access journal…
Newly discovered rare disease helps understand the complexity of bowel homeostasis
A single-gene mutation may cause a severe bowel disease in children. This could be shown in a recent study by an international research team led by Kaan Boztug at CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD) together with Michael Lenardo, National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda. The newly discovered alterations lead to total…
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic awarded to Giulio Superti-Furga
On June 7th, 2017 Giulio Superti-Furga was awarded the title of Commendatore (Commander) dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) by HE Giorgio Marrapodi, Ambassador of Italy. The order was given by decree of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, who had visited CeMM together with Austria´s former President Heinz Fischer during his first official states visit to Austria in 2015.…
A CLOUD of Possibilities: Finding New Therapies by Combining Drugs
The CeMM Library of Unique Drugs (CLOUD) is the first condensed set of FDA-approved drugs representing the entire target and chemical space of all clinical compounds. Its potential was shown in a combinatorial high throughput screen at the CeMM chemical screening platform and published in Nature Chemical Biology: A pair of hitherto unrelated drugs proved to be highly effective against multiple prostate cancer cell lines. (Vienna, May 22, 2017)…
Taking out the Cell Garbage with Chemical Degraders
The 11th CeMM Landsteiner Lecture, held by James “Jay” Bradner, President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) on May 15, 2017, was a truly memorable event: with enthusiasm and with great incisiveness, Dr. Bradner illustrated for the audience principles and examples of medical innovation and eloquently argued about their impact on the whole of humankind. This year’s CeMM Landsteiner Lecture was accompanied by the wonderful…
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the European Research Council in Vienna with ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
On May 10, 2017 Austria celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the European Research Council (ERC) in Vienna in the presence of ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. The festive program “Cultivating Talents - the next ERC Decade” organized by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and masterfully moderated by former ERC President and Chair of the…
LBI-RUD opening celebration
On May 9, 2017 the opening celebration of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD) took place at CeMM with keynote speaker and LBI-RUD Scientific Advisory Board Chair Prof. William Gahl (NIH) and special guest Prof. Jean -Pierre Bourguignon (ERC President). We thank Kaan Boztug and his LBI-RUD team for the wonderful party and wish them all the best for their research endeavours! LBI-RUD will establish…
Next-Generation Microscopy with Pharmacoscopy
A novel microscopy method, developed and patented by scientists from CeMM, allows unprecedented insights into the spatial organization and direct interactions of immune cells within blood and other liquid multi-lineage tissues. The assay, called Pharmacoscopy and published in Nature Chemical Biology, is able to determine the immunomodulatory properties of drugs within large libraries on immune cells in high resolution and high throughput. The…
7th CeMM S.M.A.R.T. Lecture with Hermann Hauser
In CeMM’s 7th S.M.A.R.T. Lecture, Hermann Hauser held a fascinating talk on how “Machine learning is changing everything” – from every day communication technologies to transportation habits to business strategies. “Machine learning is the most powerful tool that mankind developed so far” – with these words, Hermann Hauser, physicist and extremely successful serial entrepreneur at Cambridge, opened his Lecture on one of the fastest developing…
ERC’s 10th anniversary: EU-LIFE statement on the need for increased ERC budget
EU-LIFE, the alliance of research centres in life sciences congratulates the European Research Council (ERC) on its 10th anniversary and wishes to acknowledge publicly the key role of this European Commission initiative in promoting excellent basic research. In only a decade, the ERC has become a flagship for excellent scientific research in - and for - Europe which is key to innovation. This is particularly relevant because even though- and…
Kickoff for Pharmacoscopy – a novel tool for precision medicine
In light of the importance of research on precision, molecular, and personalized medicine, CeMM and the Medical University of Vienna hosted on March 6, 2017 a kick off meeting to celebrate the start of Pharmacoscopy, a novel high-content screening and imaging platform to break resistance of relapsed and refractory hematological malignancies - a true bench-to-bedside circle. This meeting presented and celebrated the collaborative project between…
Christoph Bock receives Overton Prize
We congratulate CeMM PI Christoph Bock on being awarded the 2017 Overton Prize of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB). Each year, this prestigious award is given to one early to mid-career scientist from any country who is recognized as an emerging leader in computational biology and bioinformatics. Christoph Bock has been one of the first computational biologists who dedicated his career to understanding epigenetics and…
CeMM statement on the importance of freedom of movement for the scientific discovery process
(Modern) civil societies rely on the sharing of goods and information that allow the best use of resources and labor for the common good and well-being of the people. At the heart of all innovation in human civilization is the scientific research process. No Ideas – No Scientific Progress: Progress in all scientific disciplines, whether in the natural sciences, or humanities, mathematics, engineering or medicine, dramatically relies on the…
LIBRA Workshop “Best Practice in Gender-Inclusive Recruitment Processes”
On January 26, 2017, a LIBRA Workshop on “Best Practice in Gender-Inclusive Recruitment Processes” with representatives of the partner institutes took place at CeMM in Vienna. It provided expert insights into the topic of unbiased recruitment with the goal to start discussions on best practices, and to define recommendations to remove gender barriers in hiring processes at the LIBRA partner institutes, especially for leading positions. LIBRA…
CeMM Director Giulio Superti-Furga new Member of Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC)
Giulio Superti-Furga, Scientific Director of CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor for Medical Systems Biology of the Medical University of Vienna has been appointed Member of the Scientific Council of the ERC, on the 10th anniversary of its existence, for a function period of 4 years. The European Research Council is the most important and prestigious funding institution for basic…
