The next PhD Program at CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna will start in October 2018. We offer 15 fully funded PhD positions and are looking for exceptionally motivated PhD candidates with a keen interest in genomics, medicine and interdisciplinary teamwork.

+++ Apply now! The application deadline is 2nd February 2018 +++

The 2018 CeMM PhD Program will focus on the thematic areas of Infection, Immunity, Metabolism, Cancer and Network Medicine. These areas are built on the pillars of epigenetics and genome integrity, bioinformatics and systems biology, chemical biology, high-throughput…

What impact do the nuclear components of metabolism have on gene expression? And how does the distribution of metabolites contribute to the emergence of cancer? To answer those key questions, a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council ERC was awarded to Stefan Kubicek, Principal Investigator at CeMM.

Genes need to be controlled. This very basic principle for a well-functioning cell – and thus a healthy organism – has been investigated thoroughly during the last decades. Huge progress in disciplines like epigenetics has revealed that in the cell´s nucleus various kinds of biomolecules are highly compartmentalized to occupy distinct…

The severe and debilitating genetic disease Xeroderma pigmentosum impedes cells to repair UV-induced DNA damage. Scientists from CeMM found a drug approved for diabetes treatment to alleviate the impact of the gene defect in cell culture, which led to the discovery of a previously unknown DNA repair mechanism. The study was published in Molecular Cell.

The destructive force of UV radiation on DNA molecules is only fully visible, when repair mechanisms fail: patients with the rare genetic disease Xeroderma pigmentosum – also known as “Moon children’ - develop inflammations upon exposure to only small amounts of sunlight, rough-surfaced…

Researchers at CeMM and the Medical University of Vienna presented a preliminary report published in The Lancet Hematology on the clinical impact of an integrated ex vivo approach termed pharmacoscopy. The interims analysis of the first-ever clinical trial with the approach shows that pharmacoscopy can assist decision-making of the responsible clinicians effectively and thus represent a powerful tool for practical precise and personalized medicine.

Patients suffering from refractory and relapsed blood cancers often have few treatment options and short survival times. At this stage, identifying effective therapies can be challenging for…

Defective DNA repair mechanisms can lead to diseases like Fanconi anemia. Utilizing a concept called “synthetic viability”, researchers at CeMM, in international collaboration, found additional gene disruptions that rescue the phenotype of this disease in cell culture and identified the responsible protein complex. The study, published in Nature Communications, intriguingly demonstrates the potential of synthetic viability screens to identify genetic interactions rescuing cells with defects in the DNA damage response.

Sunlight, cellular metabolism or simply faulty DNA replication: DNA damage occurs tens of thousands of times per day in…

CeMM had the pleasure to host the Federal President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, and the Mayor of the City of Vienna, Michael Häupl on October 3, 2017. The guests came to our institute on the occasion of CeMM´s 10th anniversary, which we celebrated in September, and to inaugurate our PhD Gallery.

Welcomed by CeMM Directors Giulio Superti-Furga and Anita Ender and cheered by the entire staff of CeMM, the guests were accompanied to the CeMM Time Capsule, the first stop of their visit. After receiving one of the notebooks with the invitation to write down their thoughts and ideas, President Van der Bellen and Mayor Häupl met PhD…

On September 29, 2017, the CeMM members went on the annual outing of the institute, to start the academic year with a community experience, to strengthen the relationships with colleagues, and to broaden our horizon. This year, we visited Göttweig Abby and the Schallaburg, both spectacular historic sites in a picturesque landscape.

On perfect weather, the trip started with a visit of Göttweig Abby, also known as “Lower Austria´s Montecassino” for its beautiful location on top of a hill. The Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11^th century, is full of valuable collections of religious engravings, coins, antiquities and musical manuscripts,…

CeMM is member of EU-LIFE (www.eu-life.eu). EU-LIFE is a European alliance of research centers of excellence in life sciences, whose mission is to support and strengthen European research excellence. Representing over 7,200 scientists and staff distributed in more than 500 research groups across Europe, EU-LIFE is a strong representative of the scientific community throughout Europe.

In a position paper we announce our key priorities for the next Framework Program for Research and Development (FP9) that will run from 2021 to 2027, which can be summarized as follows: 

• To double the investment by the European Commission to 150 billion euro…