FMI science

📣 Applications are now open for the FMI PhD and MD-PhD Programs! Train in a collaborative, international environment with cutting-edge technology, courses, scientific retreats and career-development opportunities — in Basel, a leading European life sciences hub. Apply at www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

How can light help us understand the brain? This year's #NobelPrize in Medicine recognized #optogenetics, a technique that FMI scientists use to investigate movement, fear and memory. Discover how: www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

We're glad to be supporting Science Slam 2026 as a sponsor! Looking forward to an evening of fascinating science and inspiring performances in Basel this Friday 🎤

Great science thrives on exchange. Group leaders and platform heads from @fmiscience.bsky.social and @biozentrum.unibas.ch met yesterday to share ideas, explore synergies and strengthen connections. Two leading players in Basel's life sciences community, one shared passion for discovery!

‼️Register now: Zebrafish Neural Circuits & Behavior 2026 This event brings together the zebrafish research community to share scientific ideas and present discoveries. 📅 09.-12.2026 📍MPI for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried ➡️ Register here: plan.events.mpg.de/event/726/re...

Exciting science at today's Friedrich Miescher Lecture! We welcomed Antonio Giraldez (@yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social), who shared insights from his team's research into how chromatin is organized as the embryo begins to activate its own genome, combining advanced imaging and genomic approaches.

We're hiring! Join the Lüthi lab as a research technician and help uncover how specific neuronal populations in the amygdala shape emotional evaluation and behavior. Work with cutting-edge electrophysiology, imaging and behavioral techniques. Find out more and apply at www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

In our latest Spotlight on FMIers, Chiara Ceriotti, the new Head of Student and Postdoc Affairs at the FMI, talks about mentoring, professional development, community, and supporting early-career researchers. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Congrats to @anupamahl.bsky.social & Selma Dahmane on their @snsf.ch grants, totalling nearly CHF 2 million! Hemalatha's team will explore how metabolism shapes the fate of cancer-causing mutations in skin. Dahmane's group will investigate how immune cells detect Zika virus and trigger inflammation.

The #WeAreEULIFE series spotlights the shared priorities of EU-LIFE, a consortium of leading life science institutes across Europe—including the FMI. This month’s focus is #Internationality. Meet FMI group leader @anupamahl.bsky.social and discover why she sees mentoring as a key part of science.

🧭As co-sponsor of the ERA Action on Research Management, EU-LIFE works to help strengthen research management capacity across EU EU-LIFE Strategy Group members David Smith @institutrb.bsky.social & Natalia Dave Coll @crg.eu will bring the perspective of research institutes to this event ⬇️ Join us!

Last week at the FMI, the board game night was all about strategy, friendly competition, and good company. Thanks to everyone who joined for a fun evening of games!

⏳ About one month left to apply for the FMI PhD and MD-PhD Programs. Join our international research community in Basel and take the next step in your scientific career!

🧬 🧬 Call for Applications| Researcher Grade B/C IMBB @forth-ite.bsky.social Join our international research community and lead your own research programme in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology. 📍 Heraklion, Crete #IMBB #FORTH #ResearchJobs

1/ Why does predicting in latent space (JEPA, CPC, SimCLR...) work so well on messy data, with changing lighting, camera angles, and busy backgrounds? The usual answer: it can ignore nuisance. But that answer holds a conundrum.

ℹ️The SNSF’s new Postdoc Grant will replace Ambizione and Postdoc.Mobility starting in 2028. Its key characteristics (eligibility, duration, funding amounts) are now available. The detailed regulations will be published by early 2027. For more info: sohub.io/i400

Congratulations to the 2026 Nobel laureates! Optogenetics has become a powerful tool for neurobiologists at the FMI to explore neural circuits and understand how the brain works.🧠

1/9 New paper led by Michael Hauri & Peter Buttaroni: “Learning Commute-Time-Preserving World Models for Planning.” We show how to shape a world model's latent space so its distances mean something for planning.🧵 📄 arxiv.org/abs/2610.01373 💻 github.com/fmi-basel/co... 🌐 ctwm-website.github.io

Join us for the next 📢 #CIBSS Seminar! 🗓 8 Oct 2026 | 12:00–13:00 👉 Dr. Vladyslav Bondarenko @vladbndk.bsky.social (Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research @fmiscience.bsky.social) 📍 Lecture Hall, Institute of Biology I, Hauptstr. 1, Freiburg 🔗More info: kurzlinks.de/kfrc

📣 #NewCall: SNSF Starting Grants 2027 For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland. SNSF Starting Grants are open to all disciplines and topics. 🗓️ Call opening: 1 February 2027 Submission deadline: 4 May 2027 Read more: sohub.io/hj2m

Congratulations to Pius Galli from the FMI! 👏

Ubiquitin usually works by attaching to proteins, but it can also exist freely in cells. FMI researchers & collaborators developed a new tool to detect this elusive form, revealing that free ubiquitin accumulates around protein aggregates and in influenza virus particles. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Precise structural and functional organization of the olfactory bulb neuropil early in development, revealed by volume EM, dense reconstruction and 2P calcium imaging in zebrafish. Great work by Ruth and others in collaboration with @michalwj.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Looking forward to the #BernsteinConference next week! Our lab is present with multiple workshop talks and posters. Come, check them out! zenkelab.org/2026/09/the-...

It was a pleasure to host the monthly apéro of the Basel Pride Together community at the FMI yesterday. Nearly 80 people from companies and institutions across Basel joined us – not only to connect and network, but also to learn more about the FMI and get a glimpse into cutting-edge science.🔬🥂

Researchers @biozentrum.unibas.ch & @fmiscience.bsky.social have created the most detailed map yet of the mouse motor cortex. The map reveals 16 distinct subregions and sheds new light on the brain circuits that control movement.

A new study by Silvia Arber’s team at FMI & @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch, with collaborators at @alleninstitute.org, delivers the most detailed map yet of the mouse motor cortex—offering new insight into the brain circuits that link intention, sensation and movement. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

We’re very proud of our alumna Zuzanna Kozicka, who has been shortlisted by Nature Portfolio for the 2026 Nature Awards Inspiring Women in Science in the Scientific Achievement category. A wonderful recognition of her achievements! @zkozicka.bsky.social

...and the swiss microscope facility has begun! Welcome to the @fmiscience.bsky.social

Congratulations to Devico Haojun Shi, who successfully defended his PhD this week! Devico studied how DNA is packaged in mouse and human sperm, mapping where it remains wrapped around the protein structures that help organize the genome. 🧬🎓

We are looking forward to hosting the Swiss Microscopy Facility Day tomorrow at @fmiscience.bsky.social. today is a practice day, tomorrow we will be ready! 😊

Congratulations to Roman Doronin on successfully defending his PhD thesis this month! His work explored how psychedelics affect the mouse cortex, contributing to our understanding of how these compounds act on the brain 🧠

Congratulations👏to Botond Roska, a former FMI group leader and now Director of Science at @iobswiss.bsky.social for receiving the 2026 António Champalimaud Vision Award, the world’s largest award in vision research and ophthalmology. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

The #WeAreEULIFE series highlights shared priorities across EU-LIFE — a consortium of leading European life science institutes, including the FMI. This month’s focus is #EngagingSociety. Stay tuned for the FMI’s story in the coming weeks 💡

We’re hiring! The FMI Computational Biology Facility is seeking a Computational Biologist with experience in proteomics data analysis. Join a collaborative team working with scientists across the FMI to turn complex datasets into biological insight. Apply by Oct 25: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

we have an opening in our group at @fmiscience.bsky.social - contact @mbstadler.bsky.social or me to get more details: www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

Now in @natneuro.nature.com: work from @rainerfriedrichlab.bsky.social shows that, in zebrafish, learning to tell smells apart reshapes activity across groups of neurons, making key odors easier to distinguish and offering clues to how the brain may organize memories. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

Just out in Nat Neurosci: disentangling of neural odor manifolds in "olfactory cortex" of adult zebrafish after learning. Great work by Bo, Nesibe et al and wonderful collaboration with @sueyeonchung.bsky.social that fundamentally changed my view of olfactory cortex. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A strong showing from the FMI football team at this year’s Novartis Cup ⚽️ Our players came away with a win and just one defeat — against the eventual champions. Thanks to everyone who represented the FMI!

Pleased to have joined this year's Doctoral Insights Symposium, connecting nearly 500 prospective PhD students with 19 doctoral programs across Europe. Thanks to the organizers and to everyone who made the conversations so valuable!

Last talk! Enes Ugur from @priscaliberali.bsky.social @fmiscience.bsky.social Single-cell transcriptomics and MS-based proteomics in the same cells: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Now extending this to the spatial dimension in the aging intestine!

I am looking for a lab manager for my group that I will be starting at the @fmiscience.bsky.social in February! We will use in situ structural biology to investigate dynamic ciliary processes. More info here —> bsky.app/profile/comp... #cilia #teamtomo #proteomics #protistsky

Very proud of Jana 👇 for receiving the 2026 Ed Fischer Prize recognizing the best dissertation at FMI in 2025! And her presentation at the award ceremony at the FMI's Annual Meeting would have merited a separate award for most entertaining/dry-humored talk - wonderful! @fmiscience.bsky.social