Congratulations to Lena on the great placement as finalist in the 2022 Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators for her work on the relationship between mitochondrial health and microbial fitness.
This award acknowledges her outstanding contributions to biomedical research in Europe based on methods of molecular biology, including novel analytical concepts.
Keep on rocking!
https://corporate.eppendorf.com/en/company/scientific-awards/european-award/2022-award-finalist-lena-pernas/
Thanks to his great abstract, Li was selected as speaker for a short talk at FEBS/EMBO lecture course on 'Lipids, proteins and their interactions in organelle biology', a 6-day summer school that took place in Spetses, a small island of Greece, from May 29th to June 3rd 2022. Well done Li!
The biennial meeting on Toxoplasma Biology and Toxoplasmosis is the most important event for researchers in this field. Its XVI version was held in Riverside, California from May 22-26 2022. During this meeting representatives from almost all laboratories working on this parasite were present and thanks to his fascinating project “Cellular Senescence: A Hideout for Chronic Microbial Infections?”, Patrick was selected to give a turbo talk for the audience. Congrats Patrick!
Speaker on behalf of our Institute, last Thursday May 19th, Chahat gave an intriguing and amusing talk at the exhibition on aging “Cellular aging – Order is half the battle” by Steffi Sonntag at the VHS (Volkshochschule) of Cologne.
Chahat and Prof. Dr. David Vilchez (CECAD – Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research at the University of Cologne), presented to the broad public different aspects of the processes going on during aging, one in the context of an infection, the other focusing on the importance of an ordered environment inside the cells of our bodies.
The explanations of the two experts were embedded in an exhibition on aging at the VHS, which could be visited in this time.
We show that mitochondria shed their 'SPOTs' both in response to parasite-induced and infection-independent OMM stress. Check out our video summary (thanks to the talented Katharina Link and Maren Berghoff @MPI-AGE)!
After almost two years, in which we were constantly told to isolate ourselves and to avoid other people's company, our group was finally able to spend few days close to each other. We got to know better the people that work next to us every day, remembering what being in a group meant before the pandemic.
We thought that the best way to achieve this was to get in a house surrounded by nature where we could fully enjoy the time with our colleagues without external distractions, escaping from a solitary routine that has accompanied us all since early 2020.
Between an excursions in the Eiffel park, lightening talks, projects future prospects, self-made meals and a walk in Monschau, we spent three incredible and interesting days full of laughter.
We are awarded an ERC Starting Grant to investigate the competition between mitochondria and Toxoplasma for nutrients!!!
Trip to the bowling alley with the lab and special guests. I think the image speaks for itself.
Sara was admitted to the 2019 Biology of Parasitism course at Woods Hole at the Marine Biological Laboratory and won a Boehringer Travel Fellowship to support this endeavor! Send us postcards and popovers from Pie in the Sky!!!
MPI has an annual costume competition…we went as the Toxoplasma life cycle complete with Toxoplasma (Ece), an infected human brain (Sara), the cat host (Bruna), Chronic stage in hiding (Shamir) and a crazy cat lady (me).
Host (Bruna) and parasite (Ece)
Infected Toxo brain (Sara)
Host and its Toxo-infected poop (Bruna), crazy cat lady (me), Infected brain (Sara)
Photos of the lab space prior to colonization!
Lab officially opens at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Of Ageing In 1/1/2019
Bruna Garcia Martins will be joining following the completion of her Master’s Thesis with Dr. Marcos Chiaratti at the Federal University of São Carlos! Hopefully she brings some brigadeiros with her :)
On viewing Toxoplasma infection as a kind of ‘hunger games’ between host mitochondria and microbe. Piece by Aimee Cunningham.
