Irma Querques
@irmaquerques.bsky.social
Assistant Prof and Group Leader at Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna
Reposted by Irma Querques
1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases
Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...
science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Irma Querques
What an incredible time at #EMBOMobileGenome last week! 🧬
A huge thank you to everyone who made it such a success – our speakers for their inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussions, our participants for their enthusiasm and engagement, and our team for their hard work behind the scenes 🙏🏼
A huge thank you to everyone who made it such a success – our speakers for their inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussions, our participants for their enthusiasm and engagement, and our team for their hard work behind the scenes 🙏🏼
November 10, 2025 at 4:44 PM
What an incredible time at #EMBOMobileGenome last week! 🧬
A huge thank you to everyone who made it such a success – our speakers for their inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussions, our participants for their enthusiasm and engagement, and our team for their hard work behind the scenes 🙏🏼
A huge thank you to everyone who made it such a success – our speakers for their inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussions, our participants for their enthusiasm and engagement, and our team for their hard work behind the scenes 🙏🏼
Reposted by Irma Querques
📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Integrative Structure Biology with a focus on in situ structural biology using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and related methods. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/brswbymu
October 31, 2025 at 9:24 AM
📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Integrative Structure Biology with a focus on in situ structural biology using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and related methods. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/brswbymu
Reposted by Irma Querques
13 years ago, the revolutionary genetic tool #CRISPR/Cas9 was published in Science, work that Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna won a #NobelPrize for in 2020.
On #WorldCRISPRDay, read the landmark paper that describes the discovery: https://scim.ag/42JHuSN
On #WorldCRISPRDay, read the landmark paper that describes the discovery: https://scim.ag/42JHuSN
A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity
A prokaryotic RNA–directed targeting system can be designed to cleave any DNA sequence.
scim.ag
October 20, 2025 at 7:33 PM
13 years ago, the revolutionary genetic tool #CRISPR/Cas9 was published in Science, work that Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna won a #NobelPrize for in 2020.
On #WorldCRISPRDay, read the landmark paper that describes the discovery: https://scim.ag/42JHuSN
On #WorldCRISPRDay, read the landmark paper that describes the discovery: https://scim.ag/42JHuSN
Reposted by Irma Querques
EMBL’s 2025 Kendrew alumni award recipient may know how to make fairy tales come true.
Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer.
www.embl.org/news/people-...
Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer.
www.embl.org/news/people-...
October 14, 2025 at 11:46 AM
EMBL’s 2025 Kendrew alumni award recipient may know how to make fairy tales come true.
Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer.
www.embl.org/news/people-...
Irma Querques (@irmaquerques.bsky.social) repurposed the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ transposon as a genetic tool for new therapeutics, particularly against cancer.
www.embl.org/news/people-...
Reposted by Irma Querques
Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life
In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...
www.biorxiv.org
October 2, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Irma Querques
De novo design of RNA and nucleoprotein complexes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679929v1
October 2, 2025 at 10:46 PM
De novo design of RNA and nucleoprotein complexes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679929v1
Reposted by Irma Querques
Scientists uncovered how the immune protein ZNFX1 enables cells to walk the fine line between fighting infection & avoiding autoimmune damage. ZNFX1 can ubiquitinate & compact host & viral RNA into molecular condensates, extending ubiquitin biology to RNA itself. More: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...
ZNFX1 compacts and tags RNA to keep immunity in check
Tim Clausen’s lab at the IMP and collaborators have uncovered how the ancient immune protein ZNFX1 enables cells to walk the fine line between fighting infection and avoiding autoimmune damage. The te...
www.imp.ac.at
August 28, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Scientists uncovered how the immune protein ZNFX1 enables cells to walk the fine line between fighting infection & avoiding autoimmune damage. ZNFX1 can ubiquitinate & compact host & viral RNA into molecular condensates, extending ubiquitin biology to RNA itself. More: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...
Excited to share my talk at the EMBL John Kendrew Award ceremony about what transposons taught me about science, life, and change along the way.
Big thanks to my mentors, the @embl.org Alumni community, and my current scientific home @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social 💛
youtu.be/NwIikKS7EWE?...
Big thanks to my mentors, the @embl.org Alumni community, and my current scientific home @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social 💛
youtu.be/NwIikKS7EWE?...
Irma Querques - 2025 John Kendrew Award Recipient
YouTube video by EMBL Alumni
youtu.be
August 26, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Excited to share my talk at the EMBL John Kendrew Award ceremony about what transposons taught me about science, life, and change along the way.
Big thanks to my mentors, the @embl.org Alumni community, and my current scientific home @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social 💛
youtu.be/NwIikKS7EWE?...
Big thanks to my mentors, the @embl.org Alumni community, and my current scientific home @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social 💛
youtu.be/NwIikKS7EWE?...
Reposted by Irma Querques
Exciting times ahead!
Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.
Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.
August 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Exciting times ahead!
Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.
Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.
Reposted by Irma Querques
Congrats to group leader @irmaquerques.bsky.social on receiving the EMBL's John Kendrew Award! 🎉 From left to right: Irma's former advisor Christoph Müller, Irma, and Pavel Tomancak, Chair of the EMBL Alumni Association. (c) @embl.org
August 18, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Congrats to group leader @irmaquerques.bsky.social on receiving the EMBL's John Kendrew Award! 🎉 From left to right: Irma's former advisor Christoph Müller, Irma, and Pavel Tomancak, Chair of the EMBL Alumni Association. (c) @embl.org
Reposted by Irma Querques
last call!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
⏰ Abstract deadline for 'The mobile genome' is 29 July!
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
July 29, 2025 at 8:41 AM
last call!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!
Reposted by Irma Querques
First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
July 21, 2025 at 12:06 PM
First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Irma Querques
The DOC-torate dream team! 🎓 Seven Perutz PhD students just secured @oeaw.bsky.social DOC Fellowships - the most we've ever had in one year! Huge Congrats! 🎉➡️ tinyurl.com/29nvtf7j
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
July 15, 2025 at 1:37 PM
The DOC-torate dream team! 🎓 Seven Perutz PhD students just secured @oeaw.bsky.social DOC Fellowships - the most we've ever had in one year! Huge Congrats! 🎉➡️ tinyurl.com/29nvtf7j
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
Reposted by Irma Querques
Pls. share widely
Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation
MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025
→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)
submit abstract by July 29
Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation
MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025
→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)
submit abstract by July 29
⏰ Abstract deadline for 'The mobile genome' is 29 July!
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
👉 https://s.embl.org/mge25-01-bl
Join us 4–7 Nov 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg (or online) to explore the impact of TEs across biology. 🧬🔍
⭐🧑🏼🔬 24 talks + 15 flash talks from posters – don't miss out!
#EMBOMobileGenome
July 16, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Pls. share widely
Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation
MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025
→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)
submit abstract by July 29
Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation
MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025
→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)
submit abstract by July 29
Reposted by Irma Querques
My colleagues are awesome!
🔬 Big boost for bold ideas! Four group leaders have secured over €1.9 million in @fwf-at.bsky.social funding. Congratulations to Erinc Hallacli, @huis.bsky.social, @martinleeb.bsky.social, and Joao Matos! ➡️ tinyurl.com/2paphtc6
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
July 16, 2025 at 3:28 PM
My colleagues are awesome!
Reposted by Irma Querques
📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease. More information ➡️ tinyurl.com/3yn883b8
July 7, 2025 at 12:08 PM
📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease. More information ➡️ tinyurl.com/3yn883b8
Reposted by Irma Querques
Exclusive: An international scientific competition widely credited with spurring the development of artificial intelligence for biology appears to be on its deathbed. scim.ag/44ukS90
Exclusive: Famed protein structure competition nears end as NIH grant money runs out
Agency silent on funding renewal for contest that inspired creation of AIs that predicted how proteins would fold
scim.ag
July 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Exclusive: An international scientific competition widely credited with spurring the development of artificial intelligence for biology appears to be on its deathbed. scim.ag/44ukS90
Reposted by Irma Querques
One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cyanobacterial cell shape
Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...
www.biorxiv.org
July 2, 2025 at 11:35 AM
One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Irma Querques
🌞 A warm welcome to our summer school students! We're excited to have eight bright young scientists joining us at the Perutz for the next few weeks – diving into research, discovery, and lab life. Here's to a summer full of science and inspiration!
@vbcscitraining.bsky.social
@vbcscitraining.bsky.social
July 2, 2025 at 4:22 PM
🌞 A warm welcome to our summer school students! We're excited to have eight bright young scientists joining us at the Perutz for the next few weeks – diving into research, discovery, and lab life. Here's to a summer full of science and inspiration!
@vbcscitraining.bsky.social
@vbcscitraining.bsky.social
Reposted by Irma Querques
Exciting and rare opportunity to join the @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social as a Full Professor!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease - Vienna BioCenter, Austria job with Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna | 12841053
Join theMax Perutz Labs as Full Professor to unravel disease mechanisms—from metabolism and stress to RNA regulation, epigenetics, and immunity.
www.nature.com
July 2, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Exciting and rare opportunity to join the @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social as a Full Professor!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Reposted by Irma Querques
Congrats to Clemens Plaschka, who was selected to become a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO bsky.app/profile/embo...), becoming the eighth out of 14 IMP faculty members to receive this honour. More on Clemens Plaschka and his research: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...
July 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Congrats to Clemens Plaschka, who was selected to become a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO bsky.app/profile/embo...), becoming the eighth out of 14 IMP faculty members to receive this honour. More on Clemens Plaschka and his research: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...
Reposted by Irma Querques
Spoke at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social last week about my path from lab bench to newsroom. I talked science journalism (what it is + isn’t), how to talk to journalists, and how to start in #scicomm.
Thanks to @irmaquerques.bsky.social & @vbcscitraining.bsky.social for having me!
Thanks to @irmaquerques.bsky.social & @vbcscitraining.bsky.social for having me!
July 2, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Spoke at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social last week about my path from lab bench to newsroom. I talked science journalism (what it is + isn’t), how to talk to journalists, and how to start in #scicomm.
Thanks to @irmaquerques.bsky.social & @vbcscitraining.bsky.social for having me!
Thanks to @irmaquerques.bsky.social & @vbcscitraining.bsky.social for having me!
Huge congratulations @sramundo.bsky.social So well deserved!
Congratulations to Silvia Ramundo, Group Leader at the GMI, who has been awarded an ASTRA Award from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in recognition of her research on chloroplast biology!
Read more: https://thegmi.science/049300
Read more: https://thegmi.science/049300
June 27, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Huge congratulations @sramundo.bsky.social So well deserved!
Reposted by Irma Querques
👏 Alwin Köhler, group leader and scientific director, has received an @erc.europa.eu Advanced Grant! His project will explore how nuclear pore complexes remodel nuclear membranes to form functional channels ➡️ tinyurl.com/3wcvexc9
#ERCAdG
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
#ERCAdG
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
June 17, 2025 at 10:04 AM
👏 Alwin Köhler, group leader and scientific director, has received an @erc.europa.eu Advanced Grant! His project will explore how nuclear pore complexes remodel nuclear membranes to form functional channels ➡️ tinyurl.com/3wcvexc9
#ERCAdG
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at
#ERCAdG
@univie.ac.at
@meduniwien.ac.at