Over the past 20 years, IMBA has been the source of many ground-breaking discoveries, inspired the development of several spinoff companies and contributed to establishing international symposia. This timeline highlights some of the most relevant moments in IMBA's history, which serve as an inspiration for our mission going forward.
2024
2023
First multi-chamber heart organoids
Sasha Mendjan and his lab develop the first multi-chamber cardiac organoids that recapitulate the normal functioning of the heart
Development of the CHOOSE system
Jürgen Knoblich and his team develop a novel technique to study the effect of multiple mutations in organoids at a single-cell level.
Mavericks identified as a vector of horizontal gene transfer
Research by Alejandro Burga and his teamThe 100th IMBA PhD student graduates
from the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program
2022
Chromosome stabilization during cell division described
Daniel Gerlich and his lab discover how chromatin compaction mechanically stabilizes chromosomes during cell division
2021
New mouse model for cancer research
Bon-Kyoung Koo develops Red2Onco, a new mouse model to detect initial steps in cancer development
COVID surveillance system developed
Ulrich Elling and his team develop a system for multiplexed detection of SARS-CoV-2 and establish the primary COVID surveillance system in Austria
HeartBeat.bio is launched
A spin-off to develop new drugs for heart disease based on cardiac organoids
Launch of Angios Biotech
A spin-off that uses human vascular organoids to develop new approaches for vascular therapy
First heart organoids that simulate heartbeat
Sasha Mendjan and his team produce cardioids, heart organoid models that simulate the heartbeat in a dish
2020
Thymus role in pregnancy revealed
Josef Penninger and his team uncover how the thymus contributes to healthy pregnancies
Description of cytoplasm removal in the nucleus
Research by Daniel Gerlich and his lab describes how the nuclear cytoplasm is removed from the nucleus after cell division
Quantro Therapeutics is founded
A spin-off company to generate a cancer drug discovery pipeline
Markus Kiess joins IMBA
as Administrative Director
2019
Upcycling of proteins protects DNA from parasites
Julius Brennecke and his team show how the piRNA pathway upcycles building blocks to protect genome integrity
Founding of a:head bio
A spin-off using brain organoids to develop new therapies for brain disorders
2018
SLAM-seq is developed
Stefan Ameres and his team, together with researchers at the IMP, develop SLAM-seq, a method that allows them to characterize cancer genes
2017
Development of Haplobank
Josef Penninger and his team develop a reversible haploid mouse embryonic stem cell biobank resource for functional genomics
Genome architecture of the embryo revealed
Research by Kikuë Tachibana and her group uncovers key mechanisms in chromatin organization unique to zygote nuclei uncover
Launch of SY-Stem
An annual conference on stem cell research
IMBA hosts its first Bioethics Symposium
2016
Ki-67 identified as key regulator of mitotic chromosome assembly
Work by Daniel Gerlich and his team
Launch of the DBA initiative
Since then, the initiative has raised nearly 1 million Euro so far to fund research on the understudied disease Diamond-Blackfan anemia
Zygotic DNA surveillance system described
Kikuë Tachibana and her team describe a surveillance system that ensures repair of DNA lesions during zygotic reprogramming
2013
First brain organoid
Developed by Jürgen Knoblich and Madeline Lancaster and voted one of the Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2013 by the journal Science
2012
Maelstrom identified as an essential effector of Piwi-mediated transposon silencing
Discovery by Julius Brennecke and his team
2011
2010
Launch of the Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities
2007
Austria’s first electron microscope
Established as a joint effort between IMBA and the IMP
2006
2005
Key gene in Osteoporosis revealed
Josef Penninger and his team single out RANKL as the key gene involved in osteoporosis
2003
Michael Krebs joins IMBA
as Administrative Director
2002
Josef Penninger joins IMBA
as Scientific Director
1999
