The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a basic biomedical research center sponsored largely by the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, and located in the Campus Vienna Biocenter (VBC). The IMP's primary goal is to conduct innovative basic research in the molecular life sciences. Over the years, the IMP has rapidly established a strong international reputation, reflected in the numerous national and international awards bestowed upon its scientists, and the many key research papers published in top-ranking scientific journals each year. The IMP attracts researchers from all over the world, almost all of whom move on after several years to leading scientific positions elsewhere in Austria or abroad. This constant turnover gives the IMP a young, dynamic and international spirit, and the flexibility to continually hire promising new scientific talents and expand its research activities into exciting new directions. Researchers at the IMP are committed to basic science, striving to unlock life's fundamental mysteries at the molecular and cellular levels.
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In most animals and plants, the life cycle of an individual begins with fertilization, when egg and sperm fuse to combine their genetic material. Together, they form the zygote, the first cell of an embryo that will eventually ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 24, 2021
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45
The spinal cord is an important component of our central nervous system: it connects the brain with the rest of the body and plays a crucial part in coordinating our sensations with our actions. Falls, violence, disease—various ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 15, 2021
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165
Proteins are the essence of life: they give structure to cells and organelles, catalyze metabolic reactions, build, break, tug, and pull—they carry out most of the actions that sustain a cell's existence.
Biotechnology
Jun 9, 2021
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10
In Lake Xochimilco of central Mexico dwells a rare salamander, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). In the wild, the axolotls do not metamorphose: adults very much resemble their larval counterparts and keep the external gills ...
Plants & Animals
May 19, 2021
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126
Mature egg cells and early embryos do not generate their own RNA molecules—instead, they rely on stored maternal RNAs to synthesize their proteins. As the embryo develops, some of these RNAs become superfluous and need ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 10, 2021
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16
New insights into the process of DNA looping have changed old perspectives about how the genome is organized within cells. Discoveries by IMP researchers have now elucidated a fundamental mechanism of life and settle a decade-long ...
Biotechnology
Nov 22, 2019
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420
IMP scientists from the lab of Alexander Stark show why certain activators—enhancers or cofactor proteins—activate specific promoters. The findings, which are now reported in the journal Nature, could have implications ...
Biotechnology
May 16, 2019
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83
Minimalism is an increasingly popular lifestyle choice that encourages individuals to decrease the overall number of possessions owned and live more simply. According to minimalist philosophy, the reduction of unnecessary ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 16, 2017
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3
Twenty years ago, the protein complex cohesin was first described by researchers at the IMP. They found that its shape strikingly corresponds to its function: when a cell divides, the ring-shaped structure of cohesin keeps ...
Biotechnology
Apr 20, 2017
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2
Cells never forget to take out the trash. It has long been known that cells tag proteins for degradation by labelling them with ubiquitin, a signal described as "the molecular kiss of death". Tim Clausen's group at the Research ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 7, 2016
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