Article

IMP Group Leader Luisa Cochella is among only 28 researchers that have been selected by the European Molecular Biology Organisation EMBO as Young Investigators. For the coming three years, she will join a prestigious network of promising young scientists who represent some of the best up-and-coming group leaders in the life sciences in Europe and beyond.

"I am thrilled to become a part of this community doing exciting research in a broad range of fields”, Luisa Cochella says. “I’m very much looking forward to meeting many new colleagues I probably wouldn’t have otherwise met, and exchanging thoughts and ideas. Also, as I have seen from previous awardees at our campus, this support from EMBO will be very important to raise the visibility of our research and of the students and postdocs in the lab by affording them to present their work at international conferences. As a team, we are extremely grateful for this."

Luisa Cochella studies the mechanisms that regulate gene expression during animal development in order to turn a fertilized egg into a complex organism with many different cell types. To do this, she uses the nematode worm C. elegans as a model organism.

Selection to the EMBO Young Investigator Programme (YIP) is a recognition of exceptional research and scientific potential. Through the programme, EMBO identifies and supports some of the best researchers under 40 years of age who are in the process of establishing their own laboratories. During their three-year tenure, they receive a range of benefits, including an award of 15,000 euros and possible additional funds to support the establishment of their first independent labs and to travel to meetings.

The 28 newly appointed Young Investigators were selected out of 224 eligible applications. For the IMP, it is the ninth time that a group leader has been chosen to join the exclusive round of young talents.

Luisa Cochella did her undergraduate studies at Universidad de Buenos Aires, followed by PhD studies at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. After post-doctoral years at Columbia University in New York, she moved to Austria to became a group leader at the IMP in 2013.

More about Luisa Cochella's research: https://www.imp.ac.at/groups/luisa-cochella/  

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