As part of the Vienna BioCenter Climate initiative Climate@MaxPerutzLabs seeks to share knowledge, create awareness, motivate and inspire action among researchers and students to become more energy efficient, reduce waste and cut transport emissions in their day-to-day work.
It started as a small note of self-reflection on a poster at a conference, triggered a lively discussion about what "I as an individual" can do in terms of climate sustainability and led to a guest commentary invited by EMBO. In this article Climate@MaxPerutzLabs discusses what is known about the negative impact of research on climate and how we can become part of a solution.
The Climate@MaxPerutzLabs initiative has received the Sustainability Award 2022 by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology for their work.
The prize is awarded every two years and recognizes innovative and sustainable projects at Austrian Universities and Higher Education institutions.
More information about the award (in German)
In order to share knowledge as well as learn from other universities, research institutes and companies, Climate@MaxPerutzLabs has kick-started the Vienna BioCenter Climate Lecture Series. Lecture topics covered by international speakers range from exchanging best practices on energy reduction, waste avoidance and other aspects of sustainability in the lab, covering all aspects of climate change.
The Climate@MaxPerutzLabs team has initiated various projects, ranging from analyzing plastic waste to reducing freezer energy consumption. Projects are generally part of a broader collaboration with the Vienna BioCenter Climate group and climate initiatives at other Austrian universities.
Teaching students of life sciences at all levels how to make lab work more sustainable, Climate@MaxPerutzLabs designs and leads practical lab courses. The course curriculum includes plastic analysis of the lab courses to show participants first-hand how to avoid, reuse, and recycle lab plastics. In cooperation with the Vienna BioCenter Scientific Training programme, Climate@MaxPerutzLabs also hosts the Climate Café for students, providing room for discussion on how labs can become more sustainable.
Identifying and exploiting cell-state dependent metabolic programs
Chromatin as a gatekeeper of chromosome replication
Mind matters. VBC mental health awareness
The multiple facets of Hop1 during meiotic prophase
Chromosomes as Mechanical Objects: from E.coli to Meiosis to Mammalian cells
Convergent evolution of CO2-fixing liquid-liquid phase separation
Viral envelope engineering for cell type specific delivery
New ways of leading: inclusive leadership and revising academic hierarchies
How an opportunistic human pathogen colonizes surfaces - From pathogen behavior to new drugs
Title to be announced
Decoding Molecular Plasticity in the Dark Proteome of the Nuclear Pore Complex
Probing the 3D genome architectural basis of neurodevelopment and aging in vivo
How to tango with four - the evolution of meiotic chromosome segregation after genome duplication
Multidimensional approach to decoding the mysteries of animal development
Membrane remodeling proteins at the junction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
Connecting mitotic chromosomes to dynamic microtubules - insight from biochemical reconstitution
Neurodiversity in academia: strengths and challenges of neurodivergence
Gene expression dynamics during the awakening of the zygotic genome
When all is lost? Measuring historical signals
Suckers and segments of the octopus arm
Using the house mouse radiation to study the rapid evolution of genes and genetic processes
CRISPR jumps ahead: mechanistic insights into CRISPR-associated transposons
Title to be announced
Enigmatic evolutionary origin and multipotency of the neural crest cells - major drivers of vertebrate evolution
Visualising mitotic chromosomes and nuclear dynamics by correlative light and electron microscopy
Bacterial cell envelope homeostasis at the (post)transcriptional level
Polyploidy and rediploidisation in stressful times
Prdm9 control of meiotic synapsis of homologs in intersubspecific hybrids
RNA virus from museum specimens
Programmed DNA double-strand breaks during meiosis: Mechanism and evolution
Title to be announced