Because we really enjoyed the werewolves game at our retreat, we did an encore – Halloween edition! On the night of the 31st, spooky creatures gathered in the seminar room to save themselves, the institute and the world, from evil werewolves…or did everyone turn into one? Thanks to Hari for being the creative master mind behind this special setting and Tabitha for her cameo!

I am so proud of my lab…Alina, despite a having her leg in a cast, flew to Edinburgh because she was selected for a short talk at the meeting on “Membrane contact sites in cellular homeostasis“. And Marlena went to two meetings back to back, and even won the Poster prize at the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO) conference on “Cell Death at the Crossroads of Neurodegeneration and Cancer” in Luxembourg. WE ROCK!

Even though most of the lab was absent on several meetings and retreats, we still took advantage of photographer Axel Griesch visiting our institute. He took amazing pictures of things that are normal for us, but now make us look very cool 🙂 Especially the shots in the cold room…*brrrr*

Time for another retreat at the TUM Research Station Friedrich N. Schwarz in Berchtesgaden! This time we invited our friends from the Behrends lab at the LMU. We brainstormed a lot about autophagy and post-translational modifications and how everything can work in neurons, but also enjoyed the beautiful nature and rich history of our surroundings. We had crazy weather…20 degrees sunshine (perfect for a ride on the alpine roller coaster), pouring rain and even a few centimeters of snow in September! And crazy fun playing werewolves at night.

With great pride I watched the first defense of my lab, starring Tabitha! As expected, she gave an excellent talk and had answers to all our questions, so no wonder she got awarded the best possible grade (summa cum laude). And on the side she (with a little help from her friends) also organized a fantastic all-day-long defense party with amazing food, games and a lovely group of people. What a great day for the lab!

The ER plays an active role in the biogenesis of the #Parkinson protein PINK1 in stabilizing its precursor on its way to #mitochondria in neurons. #mitophagy New preprint from my lab on BioRxiv!

Here Inma and Tabitha used the power of SunTag imaging to visualize where in a neuron PINK1 is being translated…and it turns out, that one organelle is not enough! PINK1 translation occurs at three-way contact sites between mitochondria, the ER and endolysosomes. And to find its way back to mitochondria, the PINK1 preprotein needs the help of ER-associated chaperones, as in the ER-SURF pathway described in yeast.

Three teams took on three different rooms in the EscapeGame Munich Westpark center and we conquered them all! Thankfully no jump scares in the room I was in (Zombie lab), but a technical glitch prevented us from seeing all the videos in our security feed, so I think we should have won because we were still super fast…but I may be biased here.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-024-01007-w

I could not be more proud to share the story one of my first PhD students in the lab. Shout out to Tabitha, and all the co-authors who made this dream become reality!

Tabitha identified a molecular switch that allows neurons to turn mitophagy on and off, by tethering the Pink1 mRNA to mitochondria. This protects mitochondria in neurons from being used as a simple nutrient source, because we all know they are much more important than that!

Molecularly, the Pink1 mRNA tethering complex is phosphorylated by AMPK to keep the amount of PINK1-mediated mitophagy low. Only upon untethering, e.g. upon inactivation of AMPK by insulin signaling, can mitophagy process and the neuron take care of damaged mitochondria.

This goes awry in neurons that have lost their ability to respond to insulin, e.g. upon treatment with the This goes awry in neurons that have lost their ability to respond to insulin, e.g. upon treatment with the Alzheimers disease (AD) risk factor ApoE4. This connects two phenomena commonly seen in AD, damaged mitochondria and insulin resistance

This time we went to Starnberg for our annual hiking day, and, unlike the year before, the weather was amazing! After a short hike from Starnberg to the Votivchapel in Berg, we enjoyed lunch in the Strandhotel Berg and took the boat back to Starnberg. We had enough time to spare before heading back to Munich for our Monday MitoClub, so we either enjoyed ice cream at the Starnberger Eiswerkstatt or took a dip into the lake.

Organizing a party is a lot of effort…and we gave it all for our institute summer party. it was the turn for us research groups to pull this together and in a great collaborative effort made it possible, including meatless BBQ, a plan(c)k challenge, games and a bouncy castle! I could not have done this without the great support of my group – you are heroes!