Spinning-off with Inhibiting STAT5

The SFB members Anna Orlova and Richard Moriggl are co-founders of the pharmaceutical start-up RIANA Therapeutics spun out of Vetmeduni Vienna in February 2023. RIANA Therapeutics focuses on developing novel anti-cancer treatments with hope to improve life of cancer patients. For further information see https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/universitaet/infoservice/presseinformationen/presseinformationen-2023/riana-viennese-start-up-develops-novel-precise-anti-cancer-drugs

Change of Subproject Leadership

The SFB Jak-Stat subproject leader Veronika Sexl took the lead of the University of Innsbruck (https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/) in March 2023. Veronika was appointed head of the rectorate in an international selection process for a period of four years. The SFB members congratulate Veronika to this highly responsible and prestigious position. We will miss Veronika’s scientific excellence […]

Recent Paper: Interferons and stress boost the good and the bad of macrophages

Interferons (IFNs) activate cell-intrinsic defence mechanisms to fight infections. The innate immune response to infections overlaps and cooperates with cellular stress signalling governed by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38. Laura Boccuni in the group of Thomas Decker unravelled the molecular mechanism how macrophages merge the IFN JAK-STAT and the stress p38 MAPK pathways to […]

JAK-STAT 30th Anniversary

The JAK-STAT signaling pioneers James E Darnell, John J O‘Shea and George R Stark and former or current co-workers in their labs co-author a comprehensive review on the current knowledge on the cellular and systemic activities of JAKs and STATs and possibilities of their therapeutic targeting in disease settings (see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.09.023). The Viennese JAK-STAT community […]

Katarzyna Sitnik wins Merit Award of CMV Conference

  https://www.cmv2022.org Abstract of Oral Presentation Pdgfra-positive fibroblasts are a major site of mouse cytomegalovirus latency in vivo. Latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections pertain to most of the human population, yet our understanding of the cell types that carry latent CMV in vivo remains limited. While endothelial cells and macrophages have been identified previously as sites […]

Recent Paper: Antiviral immunity requires changes of chromosome structure

Innate immunity to viral infection is achieved by a group of polypeptide mediators, the interferons (IFN). By binding to cell surface receptors they initiate signal transduction via Janus kinases (JAK) that the STATs target, a group of transcription factors. STATs combine to form a transcription factor, ISGF3, that activates transcription of a large number of […]

Recent Paper: Oncogenically mutated TYK2 can be targeted by combinatorial treatment in modelled cell lines and patient-derived cells

Our work builds on a previously published paper (https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2016.277) describing germ-line TYK2 gain-of-function (GOF) mutations identified in childhood leukemia. In close collaboration with the Dutch pediatric oncologists we studied the oncogenic and druggable properties of the two activating mutations of this JAK family member tyrosine kinase. We demonstrate the transformation capacity of the potent TYK2P760L […]

Press Release: Vetmeduni Vienna

Vetmeduni Vienna, January 25th 2021: Extension of “Monarchies and Hierarchies in Shaping Chromatin Landscapes” Special Research Programme funded by Austrian Science Fund FWF https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/infoservice/press-releases/presseinformationen-2021/extension-of-monarchies-and-hierarchies-in-shaping-chromatin-landscapes-special-research-programme/   Second funding period (2021-2025) for SFB F61 approved in the FWF Board meeting from 23rd to 25th of November 2020.   Summary of the Research Program The STAT proteins are […]

Press Release: Joined seminar series of FWF Vienna DocFund with SFBs

In Q2 2021 a common seminar series of the FWF-funded Vienna Life Science Region research consortia of DocFund TissueHome (speakers Karl Kuchler & Birgit Strobl; https://tissuehome.meduniwien.ac.at), SFB HIT: HADCs – Immunomolulation – T cells (speaker Willfried Ellmeier; https://www-new.meduniwien.ac.at/HIT/) and the SFB JAK-STAT & Chromatin Landscapes (speakers Mathias Müller & Thomas Decker) will start. Please look […]

Press Release: Joined forces of FWF SFB with DFG TRR

Joined forces of FWF SFB with DFG TRR: the Viennese JAK-STAT consortium and the DFG funded Transregio (TRR) research consortium ‘Determinants and Dynamics of Elimination versus Persistence of Hepatitis Virus Infection’ (TRR179) coordinated by Ralf Bartenschlager (http://www.trr179.de/en/) initiated a collaboration with future researcher exchanges and lab visitations.