🎉 Our first paper from the Querques lab is out! We uncover the molecular checkpoints controlling cut-and-paste transposition by CRISPR-associated transposons. Congrats to Mateusz & the whole team! 🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

Max Perutz Labs Vienna@maxperutzlabs.ac.at · 2mo ago

Paper alert! 📢 The @irmaquerques.bsky.social lab, with Mateusz Walter as co-first author, reveals in @natcomms.nature.com the molecular checkpoints that control how and when CRISPR-associated transposons move DNA ➡️ tinyurl.com/4mzkhwz6 @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

Paper alert! 📢 The @irmaquerques.bsky.social lab, with Mateusz Walter as co-first author, reveals in @natcomms.nature.com the molecular checkpoints that control how and when CRISPR-associated transposons move DNA ➡️ tinyurl.com/4mzkhwz6 @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge. Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases

Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...

science.org

What an incredible time at #EMBOMobileGenome last week! 🧬 A huge thank you to everyone who made it such a success – our speakers for their inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussions, our participants for their enthusiasm and engagement, and our team for their hard work behind the scenes 🙏🏼

📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Integrative Structure Biology with a focus on in situ structural biology using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and related methods. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/brswbymu

13 years ago, the revolutionary genetic tool #CRISPR/Cas9 was published in Science, work that Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna won a #NobelPrize for in 2020. On #WorldCRISPRDay, read the landmark paper that describes the discovery: https://scim.ag/42JHuSN

A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity

A prokaryotic RNA–directed targeting system can be designed to cleave any DNA sequence.

scim.ag

EMBL’s 2025 Kendrew alumni award recipient may know how to make fairy tales come true. Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer. www.embl.org/news/people-...

Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life

In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

biorxiv.org

De novo design of RNA and nucleoprotein complexes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679929v1

Scientists uncovered how the immune protein ZNFX1 enables cells to walk the fine line between fighting infection & avoiding autoimmune damage. ZNFX1 can ubiquitinate & compact host & viral RNA into molecular condensates, extending ubiquitin biology to RNA itself. More: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...

ZNFX1 compacts and tags RNA to keep immunity in check

Tim Clausen’s lab at the IMP and collaborators have uncovered how the ancient immune protein ZNFX1 enables cells to walk the fine line between fighting infection and avoiding autoimmune damage. The te...

imp.ac.at

Excited to share my talk at the EMBL John Kendrew Award ceremony about what transposons taught me about science, life, and change along the way. Big thanks to my mentors, the @embl.org Alumni community, and my current scientific home @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social 💛 youtu.be/NwIikKS7EWE?...

Irma Querques - 2025 John Kendrew Award Recipient

YouTube video by EMBL Alumni

youtu.be

Exciting times ahead! Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.

Congrats to group leader @irmaquerques.bsky.social on receiving the EMBL's John Kendrew Award! 🎉 From left to right: Irma's former advisor Christoph Müller, Irma, and Pavel Tomancak, Chair of the EMBL Alumni Association. (c) @embl.org

last call! submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!

EMBL Events@events.embl.org · last yr.

⏰ Abstract deadline for 'The mobile genome' is 29 July! 👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍 ⭐🧑🏼‍🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out! #EMBOMobileGenome

First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The DOC-torate dream team! 🎓 Seven Perutz PhD students just secured @oeaw.bsky.social DOC Fellowships - the most we've ever had in one year! Huge Congrats! 🎉➡️ tinyurl.com/29nvtf7j @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

Pls. share widely Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025 → Vibrant & friendly community → Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology → Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating) submit abstract by July 29

EMBL Events@events.embl.org · last yr.

⏰ Abstract deadline for 'The mobile genome' is 29 July! 👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍 ⭐🧑🏼‍🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out! #EMBOMobileGenome

My colleagues are awesome!

Max Perutz Labs Vienna@maxperutzlabs.ac.at · last yr.

🔬 Big boost for bold ideas! Four group leaders have secured over €1.9 million in @fwf-at.bsky.social funding. Congratulations to Erinc Hallacli, @huis.bsky.social, @martinleeb.bsky.social, and Joao Matos! ➡️ tinyurl.com/2paphtc6 @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease. More information ➡️ tinyurl.com/3yn883b8

Exclusive: An international scientific competition widely credited with spurring the development of artificial intelligence for biology appears to be on its deathbed. scim.ag/44ukS90

Exclusive: Famed protein structure competition nears end as NIH grant money runs out

Agency silent on funding renewal for contest that inspired creation of AIs that predicted how proteins would fold

scim.ag

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint! Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cyanobacterial cell shape

Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...

biorxiv.org

🌞 A warm welcome to our summer school students! We're excited to have eight bright young scientists joining us at the Perutz for the next few weeks – diving into research, discovery, and lab life. Here's to a summer full of science and inspiration! @vbcscitraining.bsky.social

Exciting and rare opportunity to join the @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social as a Full Professor! www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease - Vienna BioCenter, Austria job with Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna | 12841053

Join theMax Perutz Labs as Full Professor to unravel disease mechanisms—from metabolism and stress to RNA regulation, epigenetics, and immunity.

nature.com

Congrats to Clemens Plaschka, who was selected to become a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO bsky.app/profile/embo...), becoming the eighth out of 14 IMP faculty members to receive this honour. More on Clemens Plaschka and his research: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...

Spoke at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social last week about my path from lab bench to newsroom. I talked science journalism (what it is + isn’t), how to talk to journalists, and how to start in #scicomm. Thanks to @irmaquerques.bsky.social & @vbcscitraining.bsky.social for having me!

Huge congratulations @sramundo.bsky.social So well deserved!

Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology@gmivienna.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to Silvia Ramundo, Group Leader at the GMI, who has been awarded an ASTRA Award from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in recognition of her research on chloroplast biology! Read more: https://thegmi.science/049300

👏 Alwin Köhler, group leader and scientific director, has received an @erc.europa.eu Advanced Grant! His project will explore how nuclear pore complexes remodel nuclear membranes to form functional channels ➡️ tinyurl.com/3wcvexc9 #ERCAdG @univie.ac.at @meduniwien.ac.at

What’s it like to be a postdoc at the Vienna BioCenter? Anna Osnato shares her experience from joining the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology. The VIP³ PostDoc Program call is open – apply now for this unique opportunity! training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vi... #VBCPostDoc

Professional gene editor and professor of Genetics here. The world does not need more negativity. It does not need more nonscientific hype, either. I will be data-based negative and say to Colossal: give me a double-strand break!! [1/3]

Employing engineered split inteins to replace the internal regions of target proteins in a single reaction. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #NBThighlight

Protein editing using a coordinated transposition reaction

Protein engineering through the ligation of polypeptide fragments has proven enormously powerful for studying biochemical processes. In general, this strategy necessitates a final protein-folding step...

science.org