Seven FWF Grants awarded to Vienna BioCenter Researchers

Sabrina Turker - Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology
Language learning for the aging brain

Sabrina Turker's FWF-funded project “Language learning for the aging brain” studies whether taking up a new language in late adulthood can slow cognitive decline, modulate brain function and support mental health and well-being. Sabrina will examine both immediate and long-term effects of an eight-week language course on cognition, mental health and brain function. Additionally, she will explore which behavioural factors and neurobiological characteristics can best predict foreign language learning success in late adulthood. 

Eighty healthy older adults between 65 and 75 years will be assigned to either an intensive 8-week language training course or a socio-cognitive control condition. All participants will undergo behavioural assessments and neuroimaging across multiple timepoints, building a longitudinal picture of how the ageing brain responds to foreign language learning. By combining individual profiling with advanced neuroimaging, the project will advance our understanding of how late-life learning shapes cognition, brain function and mental health, informing training programmes designed to promote healthy ageing.

Meriam Guellil - Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
Surviving into adulthood: Palaeogenomics & Childhood Health

Meriam Guellil’s FWF project “Surviving into adulthood: Palaeogenomics & Childhood Health” investigates why so many children in the past failed to reach adulthood by bringing the tools of ancient DNA to an understudied demographic. The project targets infectious diseases and genetic congenital disorders expected to drive pre-pubescent mortality.

Leveraging high-depth shotgun sequencing, metagenomics, phylogenomics, and targeted analyses of immunity-linked loci, the team will generate large-scale data from three well-preserved Early Medieval archaeological sites in Central Europe. As the first systematic palaeogenomic study of childhood health, it aims to reveal a distinct juvenile pathobiome, recover previously unstudied microbial diversity, trace epidemic and endemic pathogens, and establish a framework for detecting congenital disorders, thus reshaping our understanding of health in the past.

Nika Pende - Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology
Chromosome Configuration and Segregation in Archaea

In her new FWF project “Chromosome Configuration and Segregation in Archaea”, Nika Pende investigates how methanogenic archaea organize and segregate their genomes. This fundamental question has implications for microbial ecology, biotechnology, and evolutionary biology. The project focuses on three hypotheses: that methanogen recombinases recognise highly divergent or entirely novel dif sites on the chromosome; that monoploid Euryarchaeota exist; and that the methanogen minD ATPase does not require specific DNA binding sites to bind DNA and potentially drives chromosome segregation.

The team will use three methanogenic archaea as model systems, among them one genetically tractable species. A combination of immunocytochemistry, biochemistry, imaging, and multi-omics approaches will be used. Key aspects include minD knockouts, DNA fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and qPCR to answer questions of ploidy and chromosome architecture. By introducing new archaeal models and methods not previously applied in this field, the project aims to deliver the first mechanistic insights into archaeal chromosome organization.

FWF ESPRIT 

The ESPRIT program (Early-Stage Program: Research – Innovation – Training) is designed to develop the skills and advance the careers of researchers in all disciplines at the beginning of their academic careers by enabling them to carry out an independent research project.

Anastasia Morandi Raikova - Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Biology
Integration of social information in the dove brain 

Anastasia Morandi Raikova’s FWF ESPRIT project “Integration of social information in the dove brain” studies how the avian brain integrates auditory, visual, and audiovisual information during social interactions – and which neural circuits allow animals to distinguish between different social contexts, such as courtship and aggression. 

Using ring doves as a model, female subjects will be exposed to audio and visual playbacks of male courtship and aggressive displays while brain activity is mapped through immediate early gene expression in histological sections. Machine-learning-assisted analysis will quantify behaviour, and blood sampling will track their physiological state. By comparing activation patterns, the project establishes a multimodal framework for studying avian social neuroscience and opens a window onto the core mechanisms by which vertebrate brains process the signals of complex social interactions.

Bhavna Ahlawat - Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
Biomolecular Insights into Human-Animal Ties in South Asia

Bhavna Ahlawat’s FWF ESPRIT project “Biomolecular Insights into Human–Animal Ties in South Asia” investigates how advanced biomolecular techniques can transform our understanding of zooarchaeological research in the region. Addressing a significant research gap in the Global South, the project uses Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to analyse fragmented animal remains from various sites in India. The outcome will lead to developing India's first comprehensive ZooMS reference database and enable the team to trace the spatio-temporal arc of human-animal co-evolution.

The analytical toolkit spans Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to assess collagen preservation, ZooMS for taxonomic identification, LC-MS/MS for biomarker discovery, and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to chronologically anchor key assemblages. As the first large-scale paleoproteomics study in India, the project will address longstanding questions about human-animal interaction, migration, trade networks, and subsistence strategies in South Asia.

Bojan Žagrović
Impact of frameshifting on protein structure

Žagrović has been awarded funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for a three-year project investigating how frameshift mutations reshape proteins and drive evolution. Frameshift mutations alter the genetic reading frame, dramatically changing the resulting protein sequence. Consequently, they are generally considered to be deleterious. Bojan and his collaborators aim to challenge this long-standing view by combining novel computational approaches, AI-based protein structure prediction, and experimental validation to study whether some frameshifted proteins can still adopt functional, native-like structures.

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Joanna Jachowicz

IMBA Group Leader Joanna Jachowicz was awarded a Principal Investigator Project grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Together with her team, she will study how RNA molecules produced by LINE-1 elements — repetitive DNA sequences once considered “junk DNA” — help shape genome organization and control gene activity during the earliest stages of mammalian development.

The “dark genome” — including transposons, repetitive DNA sequences, and long non-coding RNAs — accounts for much of mammalian DNA. For many years, these sequences were thought to be mostly inactive or non-functional. More recently, however, scientists have discovered that some of these elements can influence how the genome is organized inside the nucleus and how genes are switched on and off.

These discoveries have raised new questions about the role of the dark genome during the earliest stages of mammalian development, when cells rapidly change identity and developmental potential.

To address these questions, Joanna Jachowicz has received funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Together with her team, she will investigate how RNA molecules produced from LINE-1 elements help control gene activity during early mammalian development.

Read more here