IBMC researcher is awarded with EMBO installation grant

Reto Gassmann is among the 10 researchers who received an EMBO Installation Grant. This entitles his lab to receive 50.000€ per year for three to five years.

The purpose of these grants is to make it easier for scientists to establish their research groups in the scientific community. This is certainly true for Gassmann, who arrived in March at IBMC with this very goal. “Above all, it is a confirmation that I am on the right track with my ideas, and that is very encouraging. Of course, the 50000 Euros per year are a great help when building a lab from scratch”, Gassmann acknowledges and adds that “the funds will allow me to recruit additional researchers to my team and to acquire some specialized pieces of equipment for the work with my favorite model organism, the nematode C. elegans. Equally important are the various possibilities that the grant gives me to interact with colleagues in Portugal and throughout Europe.”

Most of Gassmann’s PhD and postdoctoral work has addressed the question of how cells segregate their genome. During his postdoc at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego, he studied the function of kinetochores, the structures on chromosomes to which the microtubules of the spindle attach during cell division. He was particularly interested in the kinetochore role of the microtubule minus-end-directed motor cytoplasmic dynein. The EMBO installation grant proposal is about expanding on this work to more broadly investigate how cytoplasmic dynein is regulated in space and time to fulfill its many other important cellular functions.

Besides the monetary award, the EMBO Installation Grant also allows Gassmann to enter the prestigious network of EMBO Young Investigators, which for the IBMC researcher is “a great opportunity to get advice and feedback on my work.”