Lab News Archive Until 2017
2017
November 8
Our institute hosts Kim Nasmyth for a Bonhoeffer Award Lecture.
November 7
Patrick Cramer gives Weigle Lecture in Geneva, where early molecular biology was done.
November 6
Congratulations to Lucas Farnung and Hauke Hillen for passing their PhD exams!
November 4
From now on, updates will be shared on twitter.
November 1
Nature published our milestone structure of the 46-subunit, ~2 MDa transcription initiation complex with TFIIH and core Mediator. Link to article.
October 31
DNA alkylation stops transcription using a novel mechanism that we discovered in a collaboration with the Sturla lab. Link to article.
October 27
The program for the new Genome Science Lecture Series is out. View program.
October 25
At our 12th lab retreat we hosted seven external speakers in Hamburg and defined our strategy for 2018.
October 22
The Göttingen Max Planck Institutes host another great speaker at the Literature Festival, Patrick Kingsley (New York Times) who describes current migration to Europe.
October 12
Cell published our mechanism of replication-transcription switching in mitochondria that we elucidated in collaboration with the Temiakov laboratory. Link to article.
October 11
Nature published our nucleosome-Chd1 structure that suggests a model for DNA translocation by chromatin remodeling enzymes. Link to article.
October 10
Our new eLife paper shows that polymerase pausing controls transcription initiation. Link to article.
October 4
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for the development of cryo-electron microscopy, congratulations! Link to press release.
September 29
Göttingen Research Campus advances in national competition for excellence clusters. Link to press release.
September 15
Our institute hosted Jennifer Doudna for a Bonhoeffer Award Lecture on CRISPR systems. Link to press release.
September 13
Congratulations to former lab member Alessandro Vannini who obtained tenure at ICR London! Link to press release.
September 12
Our structure of human DSIF bound to transcribing RNA polymerase II is out. Link to article.
August 23
Congratulations to Carrie Bernecky who obtained an Assistsant Professorship at IST Austria in Vienna! Link to press release.
August 16
Our 'expressome' appears in Miller spreads from 1970. Link to article.
August 2
Our team wins the institute's volleyball tournament.
June 28
Edith Heard selected as next Director-General of EMBL. Link to press release.
June 7
We now located the chromatin transcription factor Paf1 complex on one side of RNA polymerase II: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15741
May 29
Sofia Battaglia, Carina Demel and Tobias Gubbey passed their PhD exams, congratulations and all the best for the future!
May 24
Our new paper uses several 'omics' techniques to reveal a critical role of nascent RNA in coordinating the transcription cycle: https://elifesciences.org/articles/25637
May 12
JMB published our reflection on the history and future of molecular biology on the occasion of John Kendrew's 100th birthday: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283617302218
May 3
Nature published our 15-subunit core Mediator structure that leads to an extended transcription initiation complex model: https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22328.html
April 26
Christoph Wigge and Dietmar Riedel organized a symposium to inaugurate the new Titan electron microscope. More information
April 25
Our latest review summarizes the current understanding of the conserved Pol II initiation complex structure: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959440X16302408
April 22
We support the global March for Science.
April 18
Science published our work on the 'expressome' that visualizes the central dogma of molecular biology: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/194
April 11
New EMBL site in Barcelona opened! More information.
April 3
We are co-organizing the Eukaryotic Transcription Meeting at Cold Spring Harbor this summer and the speaker list is out.
March 23
Cell just published our paper on Pol I initiation that suggests a basis for promoter recognition: http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674%2817%2930251-9
March 18
Our new paper defines the critical transition at the end of genes: http://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765%2817%2930123-5
March 9
Our latest paper shows how to map enhancer landscapes with high temporal resolution: http://msb.embopress.org/content/13/3/920
March 6
The new IMPRS for Genome Science goes public: http://www.mpibpc.mpg.de/15621186/pr_1706
February 16
Patrick Cramer joins the University of Göttingen as honorary professor.
February 13
Patrick Cramer joins the Editorial Advisory Board of Molecular Systems Biology.
February 1
Our coordinator for the new International Max Planck Research School for Genome Science, Henriette Irmer, started today, welcome!
January 25
Simon Neyer and Youwei Xu passed their PhD exams, congratulations!
January 20
10 years after the Nobel Prize: our general review is out at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201608066/abstract
2016
December 8
We host Torben Heick-Jensen as our Christmas speaker.
December 8
Congratulations to our close colleagues Jörg Vogel and Karl-Peter Hopfner on being awarded the Leibniz Prize 2017, the most important science prize in Germany!
December 1
Svetlana Dodonova receives an EMBO long-term fellowship, many congratulations!
November 21
We received funding to set up a new International Max Planck Research School for Genome Science.
November 14
Merle Hantsche passes her PhD exam, many congratulations"
November 14
Our collaborative paper with the Frangakis lab is out at Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature20561.html
October 24
Our 11th annual lab retreat in Berlin hosts 7 external speakers.
September 5
Congratulations to Margaux Michel on passing her PhD exam!
August 1
Patrick Cramer receives the Centenary Award of the British Biochemical Society. The award medal will be given at the 80th Harden Conference at Macclesfield, UK.
July 15
Felix Wagner receives Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship, congratulations!
June 15
Clemens Plaschka receives the Otto Hahn Medal in Saarbrücken.
Link to press release (in German).
June 3
Our paper on TT-Seq is out in Science, see the press release here.
May 11
Our paper on initiation complex structure (Plaschka, Hantsche et al.) is out at Nature!
May 2
Philipp Eser and Benedikt Zacher receive their PhD, congratulations!
April 15
Our lab will be funded again with an Advanced Investigator Grant of the European Research Council, ERC. We will receive a total of Euro 2.5 Mio during 2016-2021.
Link to Press Release (in German).
February 24
We co-organize a symposium on biological networks in Berlin.
February 8
Congratulations to former lab member Claus Kuhn who will receive a prestigious award (Paul Ehrlich- und Ludwig Darmstaedter Nachwuchspreis) on March 14 in Frankfurt. The two other awardees are Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (Paul Ehrlich- und Ludwig Darmstaedter Preis).
January 20
Our paper on the first mammalian RNA polymerase structure (Carrie Bernecky et al.) is out at Nature.
January 1
Patrick Cramer takes up chair of EMBL council.
January 1
Patrick Cramer joins the Editorial Board of "Cell".
2015
November 25-26
We co-organize workshop on the future of structural biology in Berlin. [more]
November 18
Clemens Plaschka receives prestigous "Kulturpreis Bayern" of the Bayernwerk AG.
November 17
Goran Kokic is awarded a Boehringer Ingelheim PhD Student Fellowship.
November 10
Paulina Seweryn is awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship.
October 8
We're hosting the KFB lecture by Nick Proudfoot (University of Oxford).
September 30
Jürgen Niesser and David Pöllman receive their PhD, congratulations.
August 31
Patrick Cramer gives Sumner Lecture.
July 21
Wolfgang Mühlbacher receives his PhD, congratulations!
July 1
Anna Sawicka takes on EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship.
June 1
Katja Fruehauf and Michael Lidschreiber start as first team members at our sattelite lab in Stockholm.
May 22
Christoph Engel receives prestigious ‘Promotionspreis’ of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM).
April
Together with colleagues at the institute, we secure funding for a new Titan electron microscope with K2 and Falcon-III cameras, to be set up in 2016
March 19
Patrick Cramer receives Arthur Burkhardt Prize. (Click here for more information)
February 5
Our Nature article on the Pol II-Mediator core initiation complex by Clemens Plaschka et al. is published. (Click here to view the article)
January 21
The lab obtained additional funding within the SFB860 research network ‘Integrative Structural Biology of Dynamic Macromolecular Complexes’
January 1
Livia Caizzi takes on EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship
January 1
Patrick Cramer starts as guest professor at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm:
http://ki.se/en/genome-regulation-patrick-cramer
2014
December 5
Carlo Bäjen receives award for his PhD work by the Dr. Klaus Römer Foundation
November 20
Review on the occasion of the 100th birthday of crystallography published. (Click here to view the article)
October 1
Hauke Hillen takes on Boehringer Ingelheim PhD Student Fellowship.
July 1
Seychelle Vos takes on EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship.
June 30
The lab obtains additional funding by the Lower Saxonian Ministry for Science and Culture (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur) to extend functional genomics efforts.
April 1
First group members from our Munich lab start at MPIbpc.
January 1
Patrick Cramer starts as director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry