Chatting with Your Cells: Natural-Language AI for Single-Cell Data Analysis
Single-cell sequencing provides great insights into the inner workings of cells – but making sense of the data requires advanced bioinformatics skills. Researchers at CeMM, Medical University of Vienna, and St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute have now developed an artificial intelligence (AI) method and software tool that lets scientists explore such datasets through natural-language conversations – speaking English with the computer…
Maria Rescigno New Director of CeMM
ÖAW President Heinz Faßmann welcomes a highly accomplished researcher as the new Director of CeMM the Research Center for Molecular Medicine. Maria Rescigno, the 57-year-old Italian scientist specialized in the gut-brain axis, will demonstrate that gut-derived immune stimuli can train the brain’s immune borders. Maria Rescigno, will lead the Academy Institute as Scientific Director, alongside Anita Ender, Administrative Director of CeMM. Rescigno…
The Enzyme that Acts Through Structure, Not Catalysis
A surprising discovery reveals how a single protein helps cells decide when to make the building blocks of DNA. Researchers at CeMM, together with collaborators from the University of Oxford, have discovered that the enzyme NUDT5 acts not through its chemical activity, but as a physical “scaffold” that helps switch off a key metabolic pathway when purine levels are high. The study, published in Science (DOI 10.1126/science.adv4257), reveals a…
How Immune Cells Deliver Their Deadly Cargo
When immune cells strike, precision is everything. New research reveals how natural killer and T cells orchestrate the release of toxic granules – microscopic packages that destroy virus-infected or cancerous cells. The study led by researchers from CeMM, St. Anna CCRI, MedUni Vienna, Med Uni Graz, the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, published in Science Immunology (DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.ado3825), uncovers an…
CeMM Researchers Win Three “Transfer Science to Spin-off” Grants From the Christian Doppler Research Association
CeMM celebrates a major success in the 2024 call of the Christian Doppler Research Association´s Transfer Science to Spin-off program. Three CeMM researchers – Project Scientist Danica Drpić (from the team of Adjunct Principal Investigator Miriam Unterlass), Adjunct Principal Investigator Georg Winter (together with his Postdoc Juraj Konc), and Principal Investigator Christoph Bock – have each been awarded a grant to advance innovative research…
CeMM Outing 2025
On 3 October 2025, the CeMM community gathered for the annual outing at the historic Theater an der Wien. Built in 1801 by Mozart’s librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, the theatre has hosted many world premieres, including Beethoven’s Fidelio. Reopened in 2006 as Vienna’s “new opera house,” it remains a cultural landmark and was the perfect setting for our 2025 theme: “changing the scenery.” CeMM colleagues enjoyed guided tours that offered a…
Boosting the Body’s Cancer Fighters: CRISPR Screens Unlock the Potential of CAR T Cells
CAR T cells have revolutionized the treatment of certain blood cancers, but they often fail. A new study published in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09507-9) by scientists at CeMM and the Medical University of Vienna introduces a novel CRISPR screening platform, which discovered unexpected genetic edits that make CAR T cells more effective as cancer therapies. CAR T cells are patient-derived, genetically engineered immune cells. They are…
Better Therapy Selection for Childhood Leukemia
Despite decades of optimization of treatment protocols, the prognosis for acute myeloid leukemia in children (pediatric AML, pedAML) remains poor for many patients. A research team from CeMM, St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI), the Medical University of Vienna, and St. Anna Children’s Hospital has now succeeded in developing a method for the early detection of resistance mechanisms in pediatric AML, using cutting-edge imaging,…
From Basic Research to Biotech Innovation: Five Years of Proxygen and Solgate
In 2020, two biotech startups with roots at CeMM set out to turn academic discoveries into innovative drug discovery platforms. Five years later, Proxygen and Solgate have established themselves as promising players in the biotech landscape. In this joint interview of Bernd Boidol (Proxygen) and Ariel Bensimon (Solgate), the co-founders reflect on their journeys, challenges, and the crucial role of basic research. Looking back at your founding…
Aging studied at multiple scales: CeMM PI André Rendeiro awarded ERC Starting Grant
CeMM Principal Investigator André Rendeiro has been awarded a prestigious Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). His project will combine large-scale human tissue imaging with advanced computational methods to unravel how aging manifests across different anatomical scales – from cells and tissues to organs – and how these changes contribute to the onset of age-associated diseases. Aging is one of the most fundamental biological…
European alliance to advance proximity-induced drug modalities
In a now published Perspective in Molecular Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2025.07.018), scientists from six leading European research institutions, Goethe University Frankfurt, IRB Barcelona, CeMM and AITHYRA in Vienna, the University of Dundee, and EPFL Lausanne, propose the creation of a European Alliance to accelerate the development of proximity-induced drug modalities. These therapeutic approaches aim to harness the concept of bringing…
Kaan Boztug Receives Novartis Prize for Therapy-Relevant Immunological Research
As a pediatrician and expert in rare diseases of the immune system and blood formation, CeMM Adjunct PI Kaan Boztug bridges clinical practice and research in his work. This approach enables him to translate molecular insights directly into the care of young patient. A strategy that lends his scientific breakthroughs exceptional clinical relevance. Boztug’s field of expertise is the study of inborn errors of immunity (IEI) and the elucidation of…
How Immune Cells Switch into Attack Mode – New Insights into Macrophage Biology
Fighting off pathogens is a tour de force that must happen with speed and precision. A team of researchers at CeMM and MedUni Vienna led by Christoph Bock and Matthias Farlik has investigated how macrophages—immune cells that are the body’s first responders—master this challenge. Their study, published in Cell Systems (DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101346), offers a time-resolved analysis of the molecular processes that unfold when these cells…
Christoph Bock elected as EMBO Member
We are delighted to announce that Christoph Bock, Principal Investigator at CeMM, has been elected as a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). With this prestigious recognition, EMBO honors Christoph Bock for his scientific contributions at the interface of biotechnology, bioinformatics, and molecular medicine. His research combines experimental immunology and cancer biology with computational methods, including machine…
How a Faulty Transport Protein in the Brain Can Trigger Severe Epilepsy
Citrate is essential for the metabolism and development of neurons. A membrane transport protein called SLC13A5 plays a central role in this process and has previously been linked to a particularly severe form of epileptic encephalopathy. Building on data from the recently completed RESOLUTE and REsolution flagship projects, scientists at CeMM have comprehensively studied the function and structure of the membrane transporter SLC13A5,…
