David Weismann

I joined Christoph Binder’s laboratory in 2006 as one of five students selected during the first round of the CeMM-PhD Program. Therefore, I had the pleasure to witness the institute’s development from a small group of laboratories scattered around Vienna into a striking landmark building housing more than 100 scientists from all over the world. One thing, however, was present from the very beginning, which in my eyes continues to distinguish CeMM from other top institutes: It is the spirit; a friendly and tolerant yet challenging atmosphere, which boosts creativity by communication and is maintained by well-attended institute seminars and a plethora of scientific and social events. As a student, I particularly profited from CeMM’s non-hierarchical structure and an omnipresent willingness to share knowledge, which made it easy to seek and find advice when needed. I also appreciated our involvement in events that were of great importance for the institute like the scientific advisory board meetings. I was granted a lot of scientific freedom and it was a great experience to follow a question from the beginning to the end, and to see that with the right collaborators in a supportive environment there are no boundaries for expertise. My time at CeMM taught me early in my career how science can and should be performed and communicated.

After my PhD, I joined Steve Jackson’s group at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, where I am currently trying to identify novel mechanisms of DNA damage repair.

Key publications

• Weismann D, Binder CJ: The innate immune response to products of phospholipid peroxidation. Biochim Biophys Acta, 2012, 1818(10): 2465–2475.
  
  
• Weismann D, Hartvigsen K, Lauer N, Bennett KL, Scholl HP, Charbel Issa P, Cano M, Brandstätter H, Tsimikas S, Skerka C, Superti-Furga G, Handa JT, Zipfel PF, Witztum JL, Binder CJ. Complement factor H binds malondialdehyde epitopes and protects from oxidative stress. Nature, 2011, 478(7367):76-81.