Program

Alexander Hanzl is a postdoctoral researcher with Nico Thomä at the FMI in Basel. Alex recently completed his PhD in the laboratory of Georg Winter at the Center for Molecular Medicine in Vienna. His thesis revolved around understanding resistance mechanisms in targeted protein degradation as well as employing phenotypic screening to identify novel E3 ligases amendable to this novel therapeutic modality. Prior to joining CeMM in 2017, Alex obtained his MSc with a focus on epigenetics in developmental biology. He originally trained as a chemist and soon moved into chemical biology after his BSc degree.

Matthias Hinterndorfer obtained his PhD from the University of Vienna, working on time-resolved genetic screens to dissect gene functions and regulatory networks under the supervision of Johannes Zuber at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) Vienna. In his PhD, he discovered AKIRIN2 as the factor that regulates the nuclear import of proteasomes in humans and animals, thus being absolutely essential for nuclear protein homeostasis especially in rapidly dividing cells.

He is currently working as postdoctoral fellow with Georg Winter at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he is applying phenotypic CRISPR screens to study the genetic machinery underlying chemically induced targeted protein degradation. This work has revealed a novel modality in targeted protein degradation, termed ‘intramolecular glue degraders’.

Carmen Buchrieser is currently Professor at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. She obtained her PhD from the University Salzburg, Austria, conducted postdoctoral trainings at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA and at the Institut Pasteur, Paris France. She is heading a research group at the Intitut Pasteur studying bacterial pathogenesis. Her major research interest is to understand how bacteria cause disease: what are the genetic factors conferring bacterial virulence, how do they evolve, what are the mechanisms by which they allow subverting host functions and more generally how do human pathogens emerge. Her team uses Legionella as a model, as these bacteria are at the crossroad between an environmental bacterium (parasite of protozoa) and a human pathogen (replicating in alveolar macrophages).

Dr. Christian M. Schürch is a physician-scientist with over fifteen years of experience in basic and translational cancer immunology research, focusing on hematological malignancies and the tumor microenvironment. He obtained his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and is board certified in surgical pathology by the Swiss Medical Association. Dr. Schürch was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Garry Nolan’s lab at Stanford University, where he worked on high-dimensional tissue imaging of human and murine immune organs and cancer tissues using high-multiplex microscopy. He also worked on the application of computer vision and deep learning to big microscopy imaging datasets. Currently, Dr. Schürch is full professor of pathology, consultant pathologist, and principal investigator at the Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Tübingen. Dr. Schürch’s lab focuses on understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment in (immuno)therapy response in solid and hematological malignancies, including human tumors, in vitro tumor models, and mouse models.

Almut Schulze, PhD, is a full Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg and heads the division of Tumor Metabolism and Microenvironment at the German Cancer Research Center. Her research interest is the regulation of cellular metabolic processes by oncogenic signalling pathways and the identification of metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer. She has a specific interest in the transcriptional control of lipid metabolism and its role in cell growth and cancer development. She has published over 70 primary research articles and reviews in the field of signal transduction and cancer metabolism. Prof. Schulze has supervised more than 10 PhD students and 9 post-doctoral fellows. She is member of the American Association of Cancer Research and Associate Editor of Cell Metabolism, Trends in Cancer, Metabolic Engineering and British Journal of Cancer. In 2008, she was elected as EMBO Young Investigator.

Anne Conibear completed her B.Sc.(Hons) and M.Sc. in Chemistry (2010) at Rhodes University, South Africa. She then moved to the University of Queensland, Australia for her PhD (2014) with Prof. David Craik, focusing on cyclic disulfide-rich peptides from mammals, the theta-defensins. In 2014, she was awarded an Interdisciplinary Cancer Research postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vienna and worked with Prof. Christian Becker and Syntab Therapeutics GmbH on targeted immune-stimulating molecules for cancer therapy. She returned to the University of Queensland in 2019 with a UQ Development Fellowship to work on the synthesis and structure of posttranslationally modified proteins. In 2022, she took up a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Peptide and Protein Chemistry at TU Wien, Austria. Her current research focuses on how posttranslational modifications regulate protein structure and biological function.

Dr. Shruti Naik is an international leader in immunology and stem cell biology. Dr. Naik is an Assistant Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the Department of Pathology, Ronald O. Perlman Department of Dermatology and Department of Medicine. Her lab studies the crosstalk between immune cells and tissue stem cells in the skin and gut with a focus on 3 major areas of research: 1) inflammatory memory and autoimmunity, 2) tissue repair, and 3) host-microbe interactions. Naik is a strong advocate for increasing diversity in science and promoting the advancement of underrepresented and marginalized groups. She has been recognized for her research and advocacy through numerous accolades including the International Takeda Innovators in Science Award, Pew-Stewart Scholar, Packard Fellowship, NIH Directors Innovator Award and is a NYSCF Robertson Investigator.

The ÖGMBT Annual Meeting is also famous for its “Wine & Science” reception (Tuesday evening, September 19), which is included in the registration fee. This welcome reception is held within the industry exhibition area. The exhibitors bring along wine for tasting with the participants and ÖGMBT takes care of cheese and desserts. There are many wine specialties to taste and we have already counted at one of the tastings about 120 different varieties - but don't worry, there are also non-alcoholic offers ;-) Just join and enjoy the networking!

Johanna Gassler is currently a Wrap-Up postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Totipotency/Tachibana lab at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Munich, Germany. She obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology in 2023 as a student of the ViennaBioCenter PhD programme at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria and subsequently MPIB after the lab relocated. During her PhD studies, she investigated chromatin reorganization to totipotency during the murine oocyte-to-zygote transition. She uncovered that the 3D chromatin organization changes during this transition using single-nucleus Hi-C and further identified Nr5a2 as a pioneer factor required for zygotic genome activation.

David Hoi completed his PhD in Molecular Biology as part of the Vienna Biocenter PhD program at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in the Lab of Tim Clausen where he was studying functional protein degraders (Bacterial PROTACs) as therapeutic strategy against pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Within his work he discovered a novel mode of chaperone regulation in the protein quality control pathway of gram positive bacteria using isolated receptor domain proteins to control substrate turnover.

He is continuing his work on novel proximity inducing pharmacological concepts as postdoctoral fellow with Georg Winter at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine.

 

Klemens Kremser is a scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Science Vienna (BOKU) and the Austrian centre of industrial biotechnology (ACIB). His research at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology focusses on the development and investigation of bio-based processes for the recycling of different waste materials. Herein, the biological treatment of metal containing waste to exploit artificial ores for urban mining is one of his main research areas. Furthermore, his research focusses on the use and application of extreme acidophilic bacteria in different recycling processes like bioleaching, biogenic acid production and enzymatic plastic depolymerization. He was funded by the European Regional Development Fund with different projects dealing with innovative recycling strategies for ashes and slags and optimization of biogenic sulfuric acid production and is involved in different EU-projects. Mr. Kremser published part of his work in leading scientific journals and presents his research on international conferences.

Dr. Saul Villeda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Endowed Chair in Biomedical Science at the University of California San Francisco and serves as Associate Director of the Bakar Aging Research Institute. He obtained his PhD degree in Neuroscience from Stanford University and started his independent career at the University of California San Francisco as a Sandler Fellow. Dr. Villeda has made the exciting discovery that the aging process in the brain can be reversed by altering levels of circulating factors in blood. Dr. Villeda’s research is best known for the use of innovative heterochronic parabiosis and blood plasma administration approaches to investigate the influence that exposure to young blood-derived or exercise-induced circulating factors has in promoting molecular and cellular changes underlying cognitive rejuvenation.

Our group is focusing on the analysis of molecular interaction networks with the aim to understand the dynamics of molecular networks underlying cellular processes related to human disease. Experimental functional genomics techniques, e.g. HTP Y2H screening and mass spectrometry, are utilized in combination with biochemical, cell biological and computational methods.

In our work we focus on the systematic analyses of the functional impact of genetic variation and post-translational protein modification on protein-protein interaction, which - as universal protein function - underlies cellular phenotypes. Using deep scanning mutagenesis approaches we bridge the knowledge gap between nucleotide resolution genomics and protein resolution proteomics.

For our record please visit

https://europepmc.org/search?query=AUTH%3A%22Stelzl%20U%22

 

Alain Hovnanian is professor of Genetics at Necker hospital for sick children at University of Paris, France. He is the director of a research laboratory at the Imagine Institute for genetic diseases in Paris. His laboratory studies rare and severe genetic skin diseases. His laboratory has identified the genetic bases of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), Darier disease, Netherton syndrome (NS) and a subset of Olmsted syndrome. He has generated several murine models for RDEB and NS and has used transcriptomic and proteomic studies to understand the underlying disease mechanisms. He has developed new targeted therapeutic strategies using gene and cell therapy, small molecules and pharmacological approaches. He recently used repurposed medicines to successfully treat Olmsted syndrome and Pachyonychia Congenita with the oral EGFR inhibitor erlotinib and NS patients with anti-IL17 therapy. Dr Hovnanian is the recipient of the Black Pearl Scientist Award of EURORDIS 2021.

Since February 2022, Sebastian Schwaminger has been working on "Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery" at the Chair of Medical Chemistry at the Otto Loewi Research Center of the Medical University of Graz. After studying Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (2007-2013), he pursued a doctoral degree in the field of nanotechnology at the Chair of Selective Separation Technology at TU Munich. During research stays in Lund (2011), Dublin (2018), and Ljubljana (2022), Sebastian Schwaminger gained experience with nanoparticulate systems and their interactions with biomolecules and organisms. With an EU-funded Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship, he led a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2021), where the binding behavior of biomolecules to nanoparticles is electrically controlled. At the Otto Loewi Research Center, he is involved in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials in the field of circulatory and vascular research. His focus is on the use of magnetic nanomaterials for medical and pharmaceutical applications. In particular, iron oxide-based nanomaterials are to be used to enable magnetically controlled drug transport.

Jörg Menche studied physics in Germany and Brazil and obtained a PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in 2010. He worked as a postdoc at Northeastern University and Harvard Medical School in Boston, before starting his own research group at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine in Vienna in 2015. In 2020 he became full professor at the University of Vienna where he holds a shared appointment at the Center for Molecular Biology (Max Perutz Labs) and the Faculty of Mathematics. His interdisciplinary team combines backgrounds ranging from biology and bioinformatics to medicine, physics, mathematics & arts. The broad ambition of his group is to use tools and concepts from network theory to elucidate the complex machinery of interacting molecules that constitutes the basis of (patho-)physiological states. Major areas of interest are network-based approaches to rare diseases, understanding the basic principles of how perturbations of biological systems influence each other and developing novel Virtual Reality (VR) based technologies for analyzing large genomic data.

We want to explore the beautiful Salzburg together and let us get to know the history and places during a guided walk (approx. 1,5h) over the Mönchsberg. The tour will be led by professional guides and some locals in smaller groups directly from the meeting place. Together we will then walk to the traditional Augustinerbräu, which is over 400 years old, and end the evening in a convivial atmosphere. The Bräustübl is today the largest beer restaurant in Austria - the beer comes from wooden barrels and is served in stone mugs. We find the matching dishes in the various stalls of the "Schmankerlgang" and look forward to the advice from the locals!

Pieter Vader graduated in Chemistry (B.Sc., 2005) and Drug Innovation (M.Sc., 2007) from the University of Utrecht. He earned his PhD degree in 2012 from the University of Utrecht on the subject of targeted delivery of siRNA to inhibit tumor angiogenesis.

From 2012 to 2014, Pieter was employed as a (senior) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, in the lab of Prof. Matthew Wood, supported by a NWO Rubicon fellowship. The research topic was development of small RNA-loaded extracellular vesicles for targeted delivery.

In 2014 he moved back to The Netherlands to continue his work at the University Medical Center Utrecht. Currently, he is Associate Professor at CDL Research and at the Department of Experimental Cardiology. His main research interests are in the field of therapeutic applications of extracellular vesicles, including unraveling the mechanisms underlying extracellular vesicle-mediated cargo transfer. His research has been supported by a NWO Veni Grant (2014), ERC Starting Grant (2019), Dutch Heart Foundation Dekker Senior Scientist Grant (2019), and NWO Vidi Grant (2020). In 2021, Pieter was awarded the Prix Galien Research Award for his work on drug delivery.

Professor Rick Maizels is at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Parasitology in the University of Glasgow's School of Infection and Immunity.  He is an immunologist interested in fundamental questions of how parasites suppress the mammalian immune system, primarily for their own survival but in so doing, also dampen inflammatory disorders, particularly allergy and IBD.  His work aims to discover novel immunomodulators from parasites that may be useful in suppressing inflammation and disease, and to develop new vaccine strategies that can lead to clearance of these very prevalent parasites. Rick moved to the University of Glasgow in 2016; until 2015 he held the Chair of Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, and was previously Professor of Parasite Immunology at Imperial College London. Prior to this, he held positions at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, as well as UCLA and California Institute of Technology. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018.

Wilfried Posch is Associate Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. Wilfried studied Molecular Biology and the focus of his PhD was the characterization of host-pathogen interactions. During his research stays at the University College London, London, UK and at the INSERM UMR-S945 in Paris, France, he could further develop his knowledge in infection biology, inflammation and immune regulation. In 2018, he received his Habilitation in Immunology and established a research group at the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology. He and his team have been working on developing novel strategies for investigating viral infections using human 3D cell culture models. Due to his ample expertise in T cell immunity, the group is currently also interested in studying adaptive immune responses within 3D cell culture systems.

Wilhelm Palm investigates the interplay between signaling and metabolism in mammalian cells. A main focus of his lab are cellular adaptations to environmental stresses, which are exploited by cancer cells to survive and grow in nutrient-poor tumors. Wilhelm Palm has conducted his master research with Titia de Lange at The Rockefeller University, his PhD with Suzanne Eaton at the MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, and his postdoc with Craig Thompson at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He currently is a group leader at the German Cancer Research Center (DFKZ) in Heidelberg.

Andrew Plested trained as a physicist but moved into biology for a PhD on anaesthetic mechanisms with Nick Franks and Bill Lieb at Imperial College London, which he completed in 2002. After this he worked on ion channel biophysics and structural biology with David Colquhoun at UCL and Mark Mayer at the NIH, USA. Following a junior group at the FMP in Berlin (2008-2017), he took up a professorship at the Humboldt University Berlin. His main research interests are glutamate receptors and the excitatory synapses in which they reside. He aims to understand the molecular basis of synaptic transmission, and to develop methods to observe and alter neuronal activity. To achieve this, his lab uses a range of biophysical techniques, complemented by fluorescence microscopy and chemical biology. Recently, he has extend these studies to the enzyme CaMKII. His lab uses a range of experimental systems, from single channel recording and single molecule imaging to neurophysiology in brain slices.

Paraminder Dhillon is a scientific editor with over a decade of experience in handling original research and review articles submitted at high-quality biomedical journals. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge for studying aspects of flagellar type III secretion in Salmonella typhimurium, and began her editorial career in 2012 as Assistant Editor at the BMC journal Genome Medicine. After a brief stint as an editor in the science education division at Cambridge University Press, she returned to STM journal publishing in 2013 as Scientific Editor of Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), an Open Access journal published by the Company of Biologists. In 2018, she joined The FEBS Journal, based in Cambridge, UK, as its Managing Editor and is now Senior Managing Editor at the journal. The FEBS Journal is the flagship journal of FEBS Press and publishes research and reviews across the breadth of the molecular, cellular and biochemical life sciences.