Sascha Martens

Rearrangement of amphipathic helices enables lipid uptake at ATG2A N-terminus.

📢 New #preprint from CRN Team Hurley!

The team uncovers the mechanism of ATG2A-mediated lipid transport 🧪

Structural modeling and simulations show that N-terminal helices gate lipid transfer, and a designed mutant transfers lipids three times faster in vitro.

🔗 bit.ly/3ZVAxw6

Really happy to see this one out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Alibek's drive & great coll w/ friends @gekaragoz.bsky.social & E. Hallacli resulted in a cool story that starts with our beloved #Marchantia and ends with iPSC-derived neurons 🤩🤪 A short 🧵

Why do pathological protein aggregates persist in cells and how can we overcome this?
In our new preprint, we show that Tau aggregates fail to initiate selective autophagy and that their autophagic degradation can be restored.
#Autophagy #Tau #Proteostasis

Out now 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

More: www.imp.ac.at/news/article...

LLOMe has long been used to study lysosomal damage, yet how it works has remained a mystery.
Using cryo-electron tomography, we show it forms amyloid structures inside lysosomes that mechanically rupture membranes – revealing a new paradigm for lysosomal failure.

🔗 doi.org/10.64898/202...

#CryoET

We are excited to share our new preprint which is now available to read on biorXiv: doi.org/10.64898/202... 🎉🎉🎉

If you are interested in #ubiquitin related topics (Who isn’t???) & looking for a friendly and collegial meeting where you can talk to anyone & everyone, this is your meeting!

Join us for the #Ubiquitin & Friends Symposium 2026, April 29-30, in Vienna!
Fantastic guest speakers👇 & many slots for talks from abstracts, flash-talks & posters. Lots of opportunities to network. Register now to save your spot!
➡️ www.protein-degradation.org/symposium/
#ubfriends2026

The compositional analysis of membranes in bulk cellular volumes via AIVE. (A–D)

CRN Team Hurley developed AI-directed voxel extraction (AIVE), a segmentation strategy that refines AI-based organelle boundary predictions. Using AIVE, they identified a previously unknown mitochondrial contact termed the mitochondrial intrusion 🧪

🔗 Read the #publication: bit.ly/4qeZiOY

The ATG8 E3-like ligases sense lysosomal damage and initiate ESCRT-mediated membrane repair - The EMBO Journal After damage from pathogenic, chemical or physical stress, endolysosomal membranes are repaired and resealed by the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery, but how this mem...

The ATG8 E3-like ligases sense lysosomal damage and initiate ESCRT-mediated membrane repair
Dale Corkery, Yao-Wen Wu et al
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Self-renewal of neuronal mitochondria through asymmetric division Mitochondrial ATP production is essential for life. Mitochondrial function depends on the spatio-temporal coordination of nuclear and mitochondrial genome expression, yet how this coordination occurs ...

⚡️Mitochondria make ATP, the energy that powers life. But in neurons, with axons up to a meter long, how do these tiny power plants stay functional in the right places? We went looking. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Glad to have this finally published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... lots of new data since the #preprint. If you are into selective #autophagy, #evolution, #proteostasis Please have a look!

There are a couple of empty chairs at our table — want to sit with us?
Reach out to me or any lab member www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/research... We’ll be hiring two postdocs in 2026.
We’re excited about ambitious and creative ideas and are committed to supporting future group leaders 1/2

✨ Passionate about cell biology or biochemistry? Join the Martens Lab as a postdoc to uncover why autophagy stalls at disease-linked protein aggregates - and how to restart it 🧠 Apply here ➡️ tinyurl.com/24dcrcke

Join us later today 👇

🌍Open call: Junior Group Leader positions!

Join a world-class biomedical research institute at the heart of the Vienna BioCenter, where curiosity drives discovery.

Lead your own lab, pursue bold ideas, and shape the future of science at the IMP: www.imp.ac.at/career/open-...

Reconstitution of multistep recruitment of ULK1 to membranes in autophagy The ULK1 complex (ULK1C) and the class III phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase complex I (PI3KC3-C1) act together to initiate autophagy. Human ULK1C consists of ULK1 itself, FIP200, and the HORMA domain het...

New pre-print out on the stepwise recruitment to membrane of the #autophagy ULK1 complex from the @mito911.bsky.social from @martenslab.bsky.social Ian Ganley @hummerlab.bsky.social @jimhurley.bsky.social labs
with the generous support of @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

ERC Synergy Grant for Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft CIBSS speaker Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft is part of a team receiving an ERC Synergy Grant of ten million euros for her research on how autophagy degrades large protein aggregates in health and disease.

Congratulations! Claudine Kraft @kraftlabfr.bsky.social receives a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant – to find out why some protein #aggregates can be cleared by #autophagy and others not. She and her partners will harness this knowledge to improve autophagy in #ageing & #disease.
🔗  kurzlinks.de/50j8

Thrilled to join you and Claudine to study the cell's own version of Banksy's self-shredding artwork!

Fantastic teamwork with @kraftlabfr.bsky.social and @jimhurley.bsky.social! Looking forward to exciting discoveries ahead. Many thanks to @erc.europa.eu for funding our proposal. @univie.ac.at @maxperutzlabs.ac.at @viennabiocenter.bsky.social

Tenure-Track Professorship in Genome Biology - Vienna BioCenter, Austria job with Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna | 12848567 Launch your lab at the Max Perutz Labs and join us in our mission to analyze and reconstitute complex biological systems across scales.

Another opportunity to join @maxperutzlabs.ac.at !
If you're looking to start your own lab in a collaborative and supportive environment, I highly recommend it!

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Full Professorship in Integrative Structure Biology with a focus on in situ structural biology using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and related methods. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/brswbymu

Mechanism of autophagy initiation by transmembrane selective autophagy receptors | The EMBO Journal EMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.

Our latest review is now online! 👇

@martenslab.bsky.social

Mechanism of autophagy initiation by transmembrane selective autophagy receptors | The EMBO Journal www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Position available! Team @mito911.bsky.social needs a new scientific program manager to take over from legendary super-PM @doroteaartscience.bsky.social, who is moving on to bigger things. This is a Berkeley-based position. Apply at aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05103.

Structural basis for mTORC1 activation on the lysosomal membrane - Nature Cryo-electron microscopy was used to study human mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) activation on lysosomal membranes, showing progressive recruitment by RAG–Ragulator, RHEB and R...

Finally in @nature.com 🎉
We uncovered step-wise mTORC1 activation on membrane: RAG–Ragulator recruits, RHEB pushes closer, and direct membrane contacts by RAPTOR + mTOR trigger full kinase activity.👉 The membrane is not just a platform — it’s part of the mechanism.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Just one more week left to get an application in! Starting my lab at the Perutz and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social has been a fantastic opportunity that shaped me as a scientist!

📣 Don't miss out on the upcoming @mito911.bsky.social webinar featuring Katie Drerup, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin.

👇 Reserve your spot using the link below.

📅 September 8
⏰ 11:00 AM EST
RSVP: bit.ly/4mUJeAc

Master Thesis Position – Loose Research Group Our Group The Loose lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is looking for a highly motivated Master student to join our research on the in vitro reconstitution of signaling n...

We are looking for a Master’s student to join a project on in vitro reconstitution of signaling networks in pathogen–host interactions: combine protein biochemistry, fluorescence microscopy & image analysis. Deadline: September 15.
Find out more and apply here: ist.ac.at/en/job/maste...

Glad to share the final version of our story about the UBR4 complex, an E4 ligase protein quality control hub @science.org. Now with more cryo-EM structures and a deeper dive into substrate recognition, especially escaped mitochondrial proteins @clausenlab.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A split-site E3 ligase mechanism enables ZNFX1 to ubiquitinate and cluster single-stranded RNA into ubiquitin-coated nucleoprotein particles Grabarczyk et al. show the structure and mechanism of a non-canonical ubiquitin ligase, which is activated through nucleic-acid-induced oligomerization and is critical for cell survival during immune ...

Happy to share our work on the structure and function of the unusual E3 ligase ZNFX1 @cp-cell.bsky.social. It uses a nucleic acid-activated transthiolation mechanism, ubiquitinating and clustering RNA to protect cells in an immune response. @clausenlab.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...