🚨Deadline is approaching! Don’t miss the Symposium for our White Space on September 2nd. 🎯If you want to participate, please let us know by August 9th at the latest, including a short outline of your research. Your full proposal documents have to be submitted by August 29th.

CECAD Cologne@cecad.bsky.social · last wk.

📢 Update on Open Call for White Space 📅 To meet the deadline of the next ERC starting grant round we will organize a mini symposium on September 2nd, 2026 where you can introduce yourself to the CECAD community. Groups not funded by ERC are also welcome. Find all information here uni.koeln/LT8ZZ

📢 Update on Open Call for White Space 📅 To meet the deadline of the next ERC starting grant round we will organize a mini symposium on September 2nd, 2026 where you can introduce yourself to the CECAD community. Groups not funded by ERC are also welcome. Find all information here uni.koeln/LT8ZZ

🚨 Publication Alert 🚨 New work from #CRC1678 member @riemerlab.bsky.social shows how ALR broadens IMS redox control, stabilizing CPOX to ensure efficient heme biosynthesis. Congrats to everyone involved 🥳 👉 doi.org/10.1126/scia...

ALR couples IMS redox and heme biosynthesis beyond the disulfide relay

CPOX is a direct substrate of the mitochondrial oxidase ALR, linking intermembrane space redox chemistry to heme biosynthesis.

doi.org

🎓 Excited to share that Anita Jopkiewicz, a member of the CGA Class of 2021 and Stephanie Panier's lab, successfully defended her PhD thesis! Anita, we are so happy for you and hope you’re enjoying this amazing feeling! 🎉💃 Wishing you all the very best as you embark on your next chapter. ✨

Our latest is now out in @nataging.nature.com giving reason to celebrate! Led by talented Spiros Palikyras, it improves our preprint (posted 2 years ago!) dissecting the mechanism and functional consequences of CTCF clustering upon senescence commitment of human cells. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Senescent cells cluster CTCF on nuclear speckles to instruct an alternative splicing program - Nature Aging

Palikyras and colleagues investigate chromatin reorganization upon senescence induction, reporting that components of nuclear speckles coordinate chromatin rewiring and a senescence-associated splicin...

nature.com

Today is a truly special milestone for #CRC1678 and for Dr. Anita Jopkiewicz from the group of @spanier55.bsky.social. You have successfully defended your PhD and become the very first doctoral researcher in our consortium to complete her dissertation. We are so proud of you! Congratulations! 🎉

🚨 Excited to share a review by our #FOR5762 project leader @thevilchezlab.bsky.social. This highlights how multimodal approaches can better capture the complexity of human aging. Great work by @sedakoyuncu.bsky.social and Dunja Petrovic! #MultiOmics #AgingResearch www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Bridging omics and physiology to build multimodal clocks of human aging

Human aging is a heterogeneous, multi-system process that spans molecular, tissue, and physiological decline. In this issue of Cell, Li et al. integrate clinical data, multi-omics, and organ-associate...

cell.com

💡🌍 New CGA Facts! Starting your PhD at CGA? Our CGA Buddy Programme connects new students with experienced CGA students before they even arrive in Cologne and helps to make the transition much easier. More info: 🔗 www.ageing-grad-school.de/phd/buddy-pr...

🚨 Publication Alert 🚨 New Cell preview from #CRC1678 lab led by @thevilchezlab.bsky.social highlights a powerful multimodal framework for quantifying human aging. Congratulations to everyone involved 🥳

David Vilchez@thevilchezlab.bsky.social · 4w ago

Bridging omics and physiology to build multimodal clocks of human aging: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

🚴 City Cycling 2026 – Thank you for riding with us! Great effort from the #CRC1678 team this year! Together with the University Hospital Cologne team, we reached 2nd place across the city. Thanks to everyone who joined the ride and supported a healthier, more sustainable future 🌿💙

Interested in working on RNA-biology in human disease? We can offer a PhD student position in a great team. Looking into RNA-modifications as a driver of polycystic kidney disease together with @landthalerm.bsky.social www.jobvector.de/job/phd-stud...

PhD Student*in (m/w/d) | Job in Düsseldorf

Conducting innovative research in line with the above-mentioned project. Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data using various OMICs techniques. Conducting in vitro and in vivo experiments. Colla...

jobvector.de

⏰ There's still time to apply! Start your Master's in Biology or Biochemistry at the University of Cologne with the CGA Master Fellowship Programme and join our vibrant ageing research community. Apply by July 15! 🎬 Watch our short video to learn more. 🔗 www.ageing-grad-school.de/master/maste...

We welcomed 14 high school students from the "Girls for Innovation" program! 🎓🌟 Through excursions like this, they learn about study opportunities and meet role models. 🏛️💡 We hope to have inspired them! 🔍🧪 What inspired you to pursue a career in science? 💭 #WomenInSTEM #EmpoweringWomen

🚴City Cycling 2026 – Mission accomplished! Congrats to the mitoCRC team, especially Robert Düster and Alex Kaczmarek, our top riders! As part of the University Hospital team we finished second in all of Cologne 💪 Thanks to everyone who pedaled with us towards a healthier & more sustainable future🌍

It's #Diversity Week at @unicologne.bsky.social! To spotlight the fantastic women in science within #CRC1678, we've set up a small gallery at the @cecad.bsky.social entrance: posters with personal profiles, motivations, and research stories. Check them out and meet the women behind our science! 👩‍🔬🌍🫶🔬

🚨Speaker Alert!🚨 We’re excited to welcome Gunter Meister to our upcoming #CRC1678 Seminar 🧬From tRNA modifications to microproteins: non-coding and coding regulation of mitochondrial activity 📅 July 1 📍CECAD Lecture Hall ⏰ 2 PM Dive into the RNA‑driven mechanisms that control mitochondrial activity!

The #CRC1678 Summer Symposium is underway! A day of exciting talks from CRC members and guest speakers @lapassmore.bsky.social, Joshua Arribere and @pelechanolab.bsky.social, bringing together perspectives on mRNA and protein biosynthesis fidelity, aging, and cellular stress responses! 🧪🧬🧫

🎉 Congratulations to our #CRC1678 project leader Paola Picotti @picottilab.bsky.social on receiving the 2026 Otto Naegeli Prize! Her pioneering LiP‑MS work is transforming how we study protein structure and neurodegeneration.🧪⚗️🧫

Department of Biology, ETH Zurich@eth-dbiol.bsky.social · 4mo ago

D-BIOL is so proud to share that proteomics researcher Paola Picotti (IMSB) is to be awarded this year’s Otto Naegeli Prize for her research into the molecular causes of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. A well deserved recognition! ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

🚴‍♂️🌍 STADTRADELN 2026: Jetzt mitmachen! Vom 10. bis 30. Juni 2026 ist es wieder soweit: Köln nimmt an der deutschlandweiten Klimaschutzaktion STADTRADELN teil! Für den Klimaschutz. 🌱 📲🚴‍♀️ Mehr dazu 🔗 uni.koeln/9CXJ2 Bild: Stadt Köln #UniKöln #UniCologne #Stadtradeln #Klimaschutz #Köln

🚨 Publication Alert 🚨 New review from our #CRC1678 member @riemerlab.bsky.social explores how redox conditions and ROS dynamics shape mitochondrial protein import mapping the redox‑dependent mechanisms linking metabolism, stress, and organelle homeostasis. 🥳 👉 doi.org/10.1002/pro....

Redox signals and oxidative stress in the control of mitochondrial protein import

Mitochondrial protein import is essential for organelle biogenesis and cellular homeostasis. It operates in an environment that is intrinsically shaped by redox chemistry. Mitochondria are major sour...

doi.org

🏆 Congratulations to our CGA alumni members Aishwarya Acharya @aishacharya.bsky.social and David Meyer @meyerdh.bsky.social on receiving the Klaus Liebrecht Award 2026 from the University of Cologne for their outstanding doctoral theses! 🎉 We are proud to celebrate this well-deserved success! 👏🧬

📣 News! Deadline Extended! 📣 📅 New Deadline: June 15th, 2026 Good news for those who missed out our last call: The deadline for abstract submissions for the AHA- and EFAR-conferences in October has been extended. Take advantage of this extra time to submit your abstract. uni.koeln/7AYK6

🎓Reflecting on a wonderful graduate symposium: we shared some great moments with inspiring talks and opportunities to connect within our CGA community and beyond. Congrats to all our incredible students from the CGA class of 2022, and big thanks to the class of 2023 for organizing everything. 🎉🍾

👉Paper alert👈 The @riemerlab.bsky.social discovered that cytosolic PRDX1 acts as an extramitochondrial sink to set mitochondrial H2O2 levels and enable resilience to chronic mitochondrial oxidative stress. Congrats to all researchers involved! 👏 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cytosolic PRDX1 acts as an extramitochondrial sink to set mitochondrial H2O2 levels and enable resilience to chronic mitochondrial oxidative stress

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays a dual role as both a signalling molecule and a mediator of oxidative stress. Although mitochondria are major producers…

sciencedirect.com

Big week at #CRC1678 🚀 Three of our fantastic doctoral researchers interviewed several of our project leaders on key topics around equity and diversity 🎤💬. Final interviews are coming soon, both here and on our website. Stay tuned and enjoy a behind‑the‑scenes look from our production day 🎥📸

🎉 Congrats to Dr. David Meyer @meyerdh.bsky.social from the Schumacher Lab! Our #CRC1678 researcher has been awarded the Klaus Liebrecht-Prize of the @unicologne.bsky.social for his outstanding work on biological aging clocks 👵⏰👴. A fantastic achievement! 👉 uni.koeln/48RZE

🌈 Heute ist Deutscher Diversity-Tag Wie gelingt Dialog in polarisierten Zeiten? Darüber sprechen wir am heute bei der Veranstaltung: „Im Gespräch bleiben: Wissenschaftskommunikation in polarisierten Debatten“ → Philosophikum, Universität zu Köln → 16:00–18:00 Uhr 🔗 uni.koeln/JZQPK

🚨 Publication Alert 🚨 New work from our #CRC1678 labs led by @spanier55.bsky.social & @epistrucstab.bsky.social in @embojournal.org shows SLX4IP restrains Bloom syndrome helicase (BLM) to protect replication fork integrity. Congrats to everyone involved🥳 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s443...

SLX4IP limits replication stress globally and at ALT telomeres - The EMBO Journal

Faithful DNA replication is essential for genome stability, yet replication forks face constant stress. The Bloom syndrome helicase (BLM) safeguards fork integrity, but excessive BLM activity can itself induce replication stress. We identify SLX4IP as a genome-wide regulator that restrains BLM to maintain replication fork stability. SLX4IP localizes broadly across chromatin with recruitment enhanced under replication stress. Loss of SLX4IP slows replication forks, remodels the replisome, and generates post-replicative single-stranded DNA gaps that are accompanied by elevated nuclear ADP ribose, reflecting compromised replication integrity. These defects are driven by dysregulated BLM activity, establishing SLX4IP as a negative regulator of BLM-dependent replication stress. At ALT telomeres, SLX4IP deficiency triggers ATR signaling, telomere fragility, and accumulation of ALT-associated PML bodies. Here, SLX4IP functions in parallel with FANCM to restrain BLM at ALT telomeres, with co-depletion of SLX4IP and FANCM causing synthetic lethality in ALT-positive cells, a phenotype fully rescued by BLM loss. Together, our results define SLX4IP as a critical genome-wide regulator of replication fork integrity and reveal SLX4IP as a potential vulnerability in ALT-positive cancers.

doi.org

Our preprint on how variant U1 snRNAs control transcriptional and splicing homeostasis of hiPSCs is now officially out in @natcomms.nature.com and accessible via this link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... This has been the culmination of our work as part of the SPP1935 program funded by @dfg.de 1/n

Akis (Argyris) Papantonis @akispapantonis.bsky.social · 11mo ago

In our latest preprinted work, Yajie and Kostas combine computational analysis with precision KO of single variant U1 snRNA genes in human iPSCs to find pronounced deregulation of both gene expression and splicing that seem to affect the cell cycle and the differentiation potency of stem cells. 1/n

I usually think twice before posting preprints. But this time it’s different. MEDA-PKD is the essence of our work over more than a decade — and, to me, one of the most meaningful contributions I’ve been able to make to biomedical research. 🧵