Two new EMBO Fellows on Campus

Guilherme Bastos-Ventura, postdoc in the Pinheiro lab at the IMP, has been awarded a prestigious EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his research into the molecular mechanisms that determine the timing of embryonic development.

Bastos-Ventura joined the IMP in the summer of last year, and studies how timing is regulated during early development. His project focuses on understanding how different species develop at different speeds—even under identical conditions—by studying embryos of zebrafish, medaka, and their hybrids. Using a combination of live imaging, computational modelling, and biophysical approaches, he aims to discover how cells generate the mechanical forces that sculpt tissues, and whether these forces contribute to species-specific developmental timing. The project is a collaboration with the Pauli lab at the IMP and seeks to illuminate the principles of morphogenesis in teleost fish—the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates.

Read more about his work here

Hyosang Kim, Postdoc in the Knoblich’s lab at IMBA, has received an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship to research the origins of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

ASD affects 1 in 36 individuals and is marked by challenges in social interaction, communication, and behavior. Research points to an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory signals in the brain, but its molecular causes in humans are unknown.

Hyosang Kim is investigating how patient-specific genetic mutations may disrupt this balance during brain development. Using advanced brain organoid models—3D brain-like tissues grown from patient-derived stem cells—he’ll examine how excitatory and inhibitory neurons mature and interact.
This work could reveal how single mutations alter neural circuits and lead to features of ASD, deepening our understanding of how genetic changes contribute to the disorder.

Read more about his work here