Lab News

Pauli lab members at the VBC PostDoc retreat in Brno

10 Oct 2025

Four members of the Pauli Lab, Ida, Victoria, Theresa, and Ezra, joined fellow VBC PostDocs for a two-day retreat in Brno, Czech Republic.

The retreat kicked off with a visit to the CEITEC Institute, where they toured the Institute’s core facilities and exchanged ideas during a poster session. On the second day, the group explored the Mendel Museum, gaining insight into the life and legacy of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. Beyond his groundbreaking pea plant experiments, the group discovered one of Mendel’s lesser-known interests: meteorology. Fun fact: Mendel was the first person to scientifically document a tornado in Europe!

The retreat was a refreshing mix of science, history, and networking - a big thank you to the VBC Postdoc Reps (including Ida) for organising such a great event!

IMP-IMBA recess

01 Oct 2025

The Pauli lab left the lab benches for three-days for this year’s IMP–IMBA recess!

The event featured talks from all group leaders, providing a great overview of the breadth of research happening across the two institutes. While Andi presented the latest updates on our fertilisation work, Josef represented the dormancy side of the lab during the poster session. The event wrapped up with a great added dimension speaker - Jutta Kleinschmidt, who is the first woman to win the Dakar Rally – and a fun dinner together, featuring scientific cocktails!

Victoria receives Life Sciences Research Award Austria for Basic Research

25 Sep 2025

This week Victoria travelled to Innsbruck to receive the Life Sciences Research Award Austria in the category Basic Research. She was honored for her outstanding publication, “A conserved fertilisation complex bridges sperm and egg in vertebrates”, published in Cell. This award-winning study sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms of fertilisation and represents a major step forward in understanding reproductive biology. The project was a collaborative effort, and Victoria shares first authorship with PhD student Andreas, whose strong contributions were essential to the success of the work. Congratulations to Victoria and Andreas on this remarkable achievement and well-deserved recognition!