🔬 Passionate about RNA biology? Join the lab of @sebastianfalk.bsky.social for your Master's project to explore the function of proteins and protein complexes using cutting-edge biochemical, structural, and cell biology approaches ➡️ tinyurl.com/3k7upan4
Posts by Sebastian Falk
I’m very happy to be part of our FWF “Emerging Fields” consortium!
Together with @gekaragoz.bsky.social, @sebastianfalk.bsky.social and CCRI/CeMM/VetMedUni colleagues Eleni Tomazou, @dseruggia.bsky.social and @floriangrebien.bsky.social, we will study the ribosome code in pediatric cancers.
Thank you, Yasin.
Die Grundlagen für neue Therapien gegen Kinderkrebs erforschen. Konsortiumsmitglieder und Forschungsstätten (von links nach rechts): Davide Seruggia (St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung) Sebastian Falk (Universität Wien) Marco Hein (Max Perutz Labs, Medizinische Universität Wien) Gülsün Elif Karagöz (Koordination, Max Perutz Labs, Medizinische Universität Wien) Florian Grebien (Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien) Eleni Marina Tomazou (St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung)
Enthüllung der Axiome der Mathematik. Konsortiumsmitglieder und Forschungsstätten (von links nach rechts): Laura Kovacs (Technische Universität Wien) Michael Pinsker (Technische Universität Wien) Juan P. Aguilera (Koordination, Technische Universität Wien) Sandra Müller (Technische Universität Wien) Vera Fischer (Universität Wien) Georg Schiemer (Universität Wien)
Dem Plastikstaub auf der Spur Konsortiumsmitglieder und Forschungsstätten (von links nach rechts): Andreas Stohl (Universität Wien) Lea Ann Dailey (Universität Wien) Markus Holzner (Koordination, BOKU University) Alfredo Soldati (Technische Universität Wien) Bernadette Rosati (BOKU University)
Wie Körper und Umwelt Erfindungen hervorbringen Konsortiumsmitglieder und Forschungsstätten (von links nach rechts): Barbara Klump (Universität Wien) Christoph Völter (Universität Wien) Alice Auersperg (Koordination, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien) Mark Christopher O’Hara (Universität Wien) Justus Piater (Universität Innsbruck)
Die Universität Wien ist an vier von insgesamt sechs neuen Emerging-Fields-Konsortien des @fwf-at.bsky.social beteiligt: Förderungen für die Bereiche #Kognitionsbiologie, #Genregulation, #Nanoplastik und #Mathematik. 🧪👨🔬👩🔬
Mehr Informationen zu den Projekten hier: ⤵️
www.univie.ac.at/aktuelles/pr...
A strong Perutz presence in a new @fwf-at.bsky.social consortium: @elifkaragoz.bsky.social will coordinate the Emerging Fields project 'Translating the Ribosome Code of Pediatric Cancers' 🤝 The team includes @sebastianfalk.bsky.social and @marco.heinlab.org ➡️ tinyurl.com/3d6z3ry5
We are excited to share our new preprint: iCLIP3 — an improved protocol for transcriptome-wide mapping of protein–RNA interactions at single-nucleotide resolution.
Biased statistics: graf was so long number 1 herself that she had few opportunities 🫠
And the 4th paper in this week contribution from our lab tells about ribosome biogenesis in yeast. A follow-up story from our wonderful collaborators in Graz - the Bergler Lab. Structural work was again done by the amazing @lgrundmann.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
LLOMe has long been used to study lysosomal damage, yet how it works has remained a mystery.
Using cryo-electron tomography, we show it forms amyloid structures inside lysosomes that mechanically rupture membranes – revealing a new paradigm for lysosomal failure.
🔗 doi.org/10.64898/202...
#CryoET
GERMAN PRESIDENT STEINMEIER:
“.. the United States has broken with the values that it helped to establish ..
“.. we have now moved beyond the stage where we can lament the lack of respect for international law or the erosion of the international order; we are far beyond that, I believe.”
Interested in the unexpected? How about a link between piRNAs and maternal histone mRNAs … Great collab with @sebastianfalk.bsky.social, @koenig-lab.bsky.social and Florian Steiner.
#piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
RNA decay via the nuclear exosome is essential for piwi-mediated transposon silencing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12...
RNA decay via the nuclear exosome is essential for piwi-mediated transposon silencing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12...
Please RT‼️ #TenureTrack position @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de one of the best #proteostasis research centres in the world. www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Structures from AlphaFold3 - while often impressively good - tend to fail representing the dynamic ensembles accurately. And often parts of the structure are not correct. Adding experimental data, directly in AlphaFold's diffusion step, provides physically realistic protein ensembles. This image shows two cases where AlphaFold3-only structures were largely improved by guiding with experimental data.
📢 New preprint:
Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves accurate protein ensembles.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
AlphaFold3 is incredible, but has crucial limitations: it typically collapses to a single conformation, ignoring the inherent dynamics of proteins. And it can be wrong. Here's a solution. 🧵👇
As 2025 comes to an end, it’s time for me to say good bye to my postdoc home during the past 6 years – the Pauli lab @pauligroup.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social
Come discuss recent breakthroughs in RNA biology, from molecules to organisms, at the EMBO | EMBL Symposium 'The complex life of RNA'! 👉 s.embl.org/ees26-12-bl
Submit your abstract by 7 July and present your research at #EESRNA 🥼
📢 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
Graphical abstract: The Drosophila OSC Genome as a resource for transposon and piRNA biology. The figure illustrates the workflow and key findings. Left: De novo genome assembly using Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads and Hi-C data generates a phased assembly distinguishing unique (blue) and repetitive (orange) sequences. Dot plot comparison between OSC-r1.01 and dm6 reference genomes shows overall synteny with extensive structural variation. Middle: A freely accessible UCSC genome browser session displays multi-omics data tracks including gene models, transposon insertions, chromatin accessibility, transcription, small RNAs, and histone modifications. Right: New insights into flamenco piRNA cluster biology reveal >730 kb transcribed from a single promoter without major splicing. Tethering assays demonstrate long-range silencing effects across the locus, and genome browser tracks show coordinated regulation of piRNA production, transcription, and chromatin state. This resource enables comprehensive studies of transposon regulation and piRNA pathway function in a widely-used Drosophila cell line.
When transposons jump, genomes diverge - even in cultured cells.
I am happy to share our new preprint: a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Drosophila OSC cells, one of the key model systems in the piRNA field, especially for nuclear piRNA biology. 🧬🧵 (1/12)
Professorship in plant genetics.
The Botanical Institute at Kiel University is advertising a W2 professorship. Great opportunity to do plant research in the north of Germany. See:
www.berufungen.uni-kiel.de/de/dateien/o...
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
I am excited to announce that I will be moving to IMB Mainz next year! The Winter call for the IPP PhD program is now open; if you are interested in maternal #mRNA regulation and #translation in early vertebrate development, please apply! Deadline: 16 October.
More info: www.imb.de/students-pos...
Join us for the Austrian Cryo-EM Symposium Nov 11–12 at @istaresearch.bsky.social!
Top speakers, cutting-edge cryo-EM, and a chance to explore Vienna & the ISTA campus.
Register now 👉 cryoem-symposium.pages.ist.ac.at #cryoEM #teamtomo
🎉 Congrats to @kgaurav.bsky.social, Lukas Stelzl & @reneketting.bsky.social (SFB1551) on their new Biophysical Journal paper! #MUT16 #PhaseSeparation #MutatorFoci #SmallRNA #GeneRegulation #Celegans #ProteinAssembly #RNAResearch #MultiscaleSimulations Great teamwork👏👏👏 www.cell.com/biophysj/ful....
Happy to share the latest work on a bacterial protein that inhibits human mRNA decay machinery, in collaboration with @smlea.bsky.social #RNAsky
www.nature.com/articles/s41... Intracellular pathogen effector reprograms host gene expression by inhibiting mRNA decay | Nature Communications
This guy…..
Exciting and rare opportunity to join the @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social as a Full Professor!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Congratulations Marco and team. Great to see it published 🎉