Two IMP Postdocs join ESPRIT Program
Victoria Deneke (Pauli lab) and Matthias Vorländer (Plaschka lab) will take part in the Austrian Science Fund’s (FWF) ESPRIT Program. The programme supports promising postdocs with three years of research funding and career development opportunities.
The Austrian Science Fund awarded two prestigious postdoctoral fellowships to IMP researchers: Victoria Deneke from the lab of Andrea Pauli, and Matthias Vorländer from the lab of Clemens Plaschka.
Characterising the fertilisation complex
With the funding, Victoria will use a combination of biochemical, genetic, and structural approaches to characterise the vertebrate fertilisation complex she and the Pauli lab have recently identified. This complex, found in sperm and conserved across vertebrate groups, interacts with divergent egg proteins, offering a new perspective on how sperm-egg binding and fusion occur. Her future research will focus on characterising this fertilisation complex, particularly the interaction between the three proteins Izumo1-Spaca6-Tmem81, and investigating the role of novel factors in vertebrate fertilisation.
Victoria Deneke earned her PhD in cell biology from Duke University, North Carolina, USA, where she conducted research in the lab of Stefano Di Talia. Her doctoral research focused on how embryonic cell cycles are organised in space and time in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Prior to her PhD, she obtained a Bachelor in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. In 2019, Victoria joined the IMP as a postdoc in the lab of Andrea Pauli, where she studies the mechanisms of egg-sperm interaction. During her scientific career, Victoria has received several prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award in 2020, an HFSP Program Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an HHMI International Student Fellowship. For the IMP’s Birnstiel Award, she was on the “honourable mentions” list in 2019.
An atomic look at how cells cut and combine RNA
Vorländer will build on his expertise in structural biology, and will study the molecular mechanisms of trans-splicing. While trans-splicing, where RNA segments from different molecules are joined to form functional messenger RNA (mRNA), is common in many organisms, the mechanism remains a mystery. Matthias will use advanced imaging techniques, such as cryo-electron microscopy, to study the molecular machinery responsible for this process—the trans-spliceosome—using the nematode worm C. elegans as a model organism. His work aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of gene expression regulation at the molecular level.
Matthias Vorländer studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, where he earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. For his Master's thesis, he worked in the lab of Thilo Stehle, specialising in X-ray crystallography and structural biology. During his studies, Matthias completed an internship at the NIMR in London, where he worked in the lab of Steve Gamblin. He then pursued his PhD at EMBL Heidelberg in the lab of Christoph Müller, with a focus on single-particle cryo-electron microscopy to study RNA Polymerase III transcription. In 2020, Vorländer joined the IMP as a postdoc in the lab of Clemens Plaschka, where he investigates the molecular mechanisms of mRNA processing and export. His postdoctoral research has been supported by other prestigious fellowships, including an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship.
About the ESPRIT Program
The ESPRIT program (Early-Stage Program: Research - Innovation - Training) is a funding initiative by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) designed to support the professional development of early-career researchers. It offers postdoctoral researchers the chance to lead independent research projects across all disciplines, helping them establish their research profiles. The program provides funding for up to three years.
Further Reading
Lab of Andrea Pauli
Lab of Clemens Plaschka