Article

IMP Group Leader Andrea Pauli is one of 26 researchers that have been selected to join the Young Investigators Programme of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2018. For the coming four years, she will join this prestigious network of young scientists.

Andrea Pauli is fascinated by the question how life begins. Two highly specialized cells, a sperm and an egg, need to meet and fuse to give rise to a single cell, the zygote, which then develops in a highly stereotypic manner into an embryo. Although these processes are fundamental for sexually reproducing organisms, the molecular mechanisms that drive fertilization and the germline-to-embryo transition are far from understood. To gain insights into the earliest steps of embryo development, she and her lab use zebrafish as their main model organism - for research that she will now pursue with the support of the EMBO Young Investigators Programme (YIP).

"I am delighted to become a member of the EMBO YIP community", says Andrea Pauli in response to the announcement. "It is a great honour that recognizes the work we have been pursuing over the past three years. This would have been impossible without the many people involved, whom I am thankful for: foremost my fantastic lab for doing all the work, my colleagues at IMP, IMBA, GMI and MFPL for guidance and support, and the entire Vienna BioCenter community for embracing the value of curiosity-driven research. Big thank you to everyone!"

To be selected for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme (YIP) is a distinction for young principal investigators who have demonstrated outstanding research potential. The EMBO Young Investigator Programme identifies recent group leaders with a proven record of scientific excellence and offers them access to a range of benefits during their four-year tenure. These include an award of 15,000 euros, with the potential for additional funding, mentorship by a senior scientist from the community of EMBO Members, access to training in leadership skills and responsible research practices, as well as networking opportunities. Additional benefits provided by the Programme include the use of core facilities at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and travel grants for the Young Investigators and their research groups to attend conferences.

"The accepted candidates have all shown outstanding promise in their early careers and impressed our selection committee with both the quality of their current work and their proposals for future research," says EMBO Director, Maria Leptin. "We look forward to supporting them in establishing their own research groups."

The 26 newly appointed Young Investigators are joining a network of 102 current and 314 former "YIPs". For the IMP, it is the tenth time that one of its group leader has been chosen to join the exclusive round of young talents.

Andrea Pauli did her undergraduate studies in Regensburg and Heidelberg, followed by PhD studies started at the IMP in Kim Nasmyth's and Barry Dickson’s labs. She moved with Kim Nasmyth to the University of Oxford, where she finished her doctoral studies in 2009. Following this, Andrea Pauli was a postdoctoral fellow in Alex Schier's lab at Harvard, before starting her own lab at the IMP in 2015.

EMBO press release: http://embo.org/news/press-releases/2018/embo-welcomes-twenty-six-new-young-investigators 

More about Andrea Pauli's lab and work

https://www.imp.ac.at/groups/andrea-pauli/
http://paulilab.org/ 

About EMBO

The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) is an organisation of more than 1700 leading researchers that promotes excellence in the life sciences. The major goals of the organisation are to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, stimulate the exchange of scientific information, and help build a European research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. www.embo.org

About the IMP

The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna is a basic biomedical research institute largely sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. With over 200 scientists from nearly 40 nations, the IMP is committed to scientific discovery of fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying complex biological phenomena. Research at the IMP addresses topics in molecular and cellular biology; structural biology and biochemistry; gene expression and chromosome biology; stem cell biology and development; immunology and cancer; and neuroscience. The IMP is located at the Vienna BioCenter.

About the Vienna BioCenter

Vienna BioCenter (VBC) is a leading life sciences hub in Europe, offering an extraordinary combination of research, business and education in a single location. About 1,700 employees, 86 research groups, 18 biotech companies, 1,300 students, and scientists from 69 nations create a highly dynamic and stimulating environment. http://www.viennabiocenter.org