Karlheinz Töchterle visited the IMP

Karlheinz Töchterle, the Austrian Federal Minister for Science and Research, and three executives from his office visited the IMP on November 20. The visit was triggered by the minister’s interest in the EU-project “MitoSys” and the accompanying art-project “Lens on Life”.

Senior Scientist Jan-Michael Peters, the coordinator of MitoSys, gave an overview of the research efforts and the outreach activities associated with the project.

Postdocs Mariana Coelho Correia da Silva and Iain Davidson went on to demonstrate how eggs of Xenopus frogs and mice are used to study cell division. An introduction to the powers of the confocal laser scanning microscope rounded off the tour. It was an impressive demonstration of how far light microscopy has advanced since Leeuwenhoek’s first model, a replica of which Jan-Michael Peters had displayed during his talk. Minister Töchterle, who proceeded to visit IMBA, thanked the IMP scientists, saying that he took back valuable insights and ideas.