Julius Brennecke

Julius Brennecke (born 1975) is a German molecular biologist and geneticist. He is a Senior Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology.[1] (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

Education and career

Julius Brennecke studied biology at Heidelberg University.[2] During his diploma thesis (supervised by Dirk Bohmann) he focused on the tandem affinity purification of protein complexes in Drosophila. In his PhD-thesis (with Steve Cohen), he specialized on microRNAs and their regulatory targets in Drosophila.

He obtained his PhD degree in 2005 (summa cum laude) from Heidelberg University jointly with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). After a short postdoctoral stay at EMBL, he carried out his postdoctoral training with Gregory Hannon at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York (2006 to 2008).[3] In 2009 he became group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, part of the Vienna BioCenter, where he was appointed Senior Group Leader in 2014. Brennecke is a permanent EMBO member[4] and editorial board member of the Journal of Cell Biology.[5]

In 2020, Brennecke and his team significantly contributed to improving the RT-LAMP technique to support testing and detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Austria.[6] In October 2020, the AGES (Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety) explicitly recommended this technique for application in hospitals and diagnostic laboratories.[7][8] This successful project was a collaboration between Brennecke and scientists from the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.

Research

In his research Brennecke[9][10] focuses on small regulatory RNA pathways (foremost the piRNA/Piwi pathway) and their role in suppressing transposable elements and inducing heterochromatin formation in animals. His research group focuses on the model organism Drosophila melanogaster and applies diverse approaches, such as genetics, genomics, biochemistry, imaging technologies, and computational biology.   

Selected publications

Hayashi, R., Schnabl, J., Handler, D., Mohn, F., Ameres, SL., Brennecke, J.: Genetic and mechanistic diversity of piRNA 3‘-end formation. Nature (2016) DOI: 10.1038/nature20162

Andersen, PR., Tirian, L., Vunjak, M., Brennecke, J.: A heterochromatin-dependent transcription machinery drives piRNA expression. Nature (2017) DOI: 10.1038/nature23482

Mohn, F., Handler, D., Brennecke, J.: Noncoding RNA. piRNA- guided slicing specifies transcripts for Zucchini-dependent, phased piRNA biogenesis. Science (2015) DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa1039

Awards and honours

  • 2009 John Kendrew Award[11] (EMBL Heidelberg)
  • 2010 Premio Leonardo Prize of ten European Rotary Clubs (Vienna)[12]
  • 2010 START Prize (FWF Austria)
  • 2010 Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC)[13]
  • 2012 Förderpreis City of Vienna
  • 2014 Elected as EMBO-member[14]
  • 2016 Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC)[15] 
  • 2024 Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC)[16] 

References

  1. ^ "Julius Brennecke - Team". IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology. Retrieved 2019-07-15.
  2. ^ "Brennecke CV" (PDF).
  3. ^ "One experiment: When genome defense against transposons fails". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 2009-05-29. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  4. ^ "Find people in the EMBO Communities". people.embo.org. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  5. ^ Press, Rockefeller University (2015-11-23). "New editorial board members". The Journal of Cell Biology. 211 (4): 723–727. doi:10.1083/jcb.201511023. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 4657179. PMID 26598609.
  6. ^ "PCR alternative: RT-LAMP, a new SARS-CoV-2 test "Made in Vienna"". Vienna BioCenter. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  7. ^ "Coronavirus - Schneller "LAMP"-Nachweis vor breiter Anwendung". plus.oe24.at. 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  8. ^ "Coronavirus - Schneller LAMP-Nachweis vor breiter Anwendung". science.apa.at (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  9. ^ "Julius Brennecke - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  10. ^ "58 research works produced by Julius Brennecke | IMBA Institute Of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna and other places". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  11. ^ "Alumni Awards - The John Kendrew Award - EMBL". www.embl.de. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  12. ^ "Brennecke Premio Leonardo" (PDF).
  13. ^ "ERC-Starting Grant an Julius Brennecke - derStandard.at". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  14. ^ "Find people in the EMBO Communities". people.embo.org. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  15. ^ "ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANT FOR JULIUS BRENNECKE". www.oeaw.ac.at. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  16. ^ "ERC ADVANCED GRANT FOR JULIUS BRENNECKE". www.oeaw.ac.at. Retrieved 2024-04-11.