Viktória Lázár, a senior research fellow at the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre in Szeged (HUN-REN BRC) and Gergely Róna, research fellow at the HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences are among the ten life scientists who have won the European Molecular Biology Organisation’s (EMBO) Installation Grant in the 2023 call, receiving an annual support of 50,000 euros for five years. The goal of Viktória Lázár's winning project is to develop a highly specific and versatile treatment strategy against harmful genotoxin-producing intestinal bacteria. Additionally, the research may aid the uncovering of previously unknown risk factors related to inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal carcinoma. The aim of Gergely Róna's project is to understand the molecular mechanisms of neural DNA repair underlying neurodegenerative diseases to provide the foundation for innovative, novel therapeutic approaches.
Viktória Lázár previously worked at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for five years before moving to Hungary and founding the MTA-BRC "Lendület" Momentum Systems Biology of Antibiotic Action Research Group in 2022. Her winning project in the 2023 EMBO Installation Grants call entitled "Exploring new strategies against genotoxin-producing gut pathogens' aims to target harmful, toxin-producing intestinal bacteria.
The broad and previously underappreciated impact of the intestinal microbiome on human health has come to light in recent years. In particular, a clear relationship has been found between diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal carcinoma and specific constituents of the microbiome that produce harmful, even genotoxic (DNA damaging) metabolites. Therefore, the Lázár lab proposes a multifaceted, high-throughput approach to uncover new, effective treatment strategies that specifically target genotoxin-producing pathogens while minimising the impact on beneficial gut bacteria.
During the winning EMBO project, the research group is looking for chemical molecules and synthetic gut microbial communities that selectively inhibit genotoxin-producing bacteria while at the same time reducing their pathogenicity. Together, this unique research has the potential to result in highly specific treatment options for harmful, genotoxin-producing pathogens and to identify previously unknown risk factors linked to inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal carcinoma.
Gergely Róna has worked for eight years in New York at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) before moving back to Budapest at the end of 2023 to establish the Momentum DNA Repair Research Group at the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences of HUN-REN TTK. By using genetic, biochemical, and proteomic approaches, he unravels molecular mechanisms to gain a better understanding of diseases.
The project carried out within the framework of the EMBO grant aims to understand the molecular mechanisms of neural DNA repair. The nervous system is highly susceptible to all forms of stress, including DNA damage, due to its large energy requirements, high transcriptional activity, and the long lifespan of these cells. Data suggests that mutations in DNA repair genes are associated with several neurological abnormalities, which plays a critical role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease (HD), or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). What remains in question, however, are the underlying molecular mechanisms behind these repair processes and how these non-renewable cells maintain their genomic integrity over many decades of life. A profile interview of Gergely Róna is available on the EMBO website.
The EMBO Installation Grants support group leaders who will move or have recently moved to countries participating in the scheme. In the four years prior to their application, they have spent at least two consecutive years outside the country where they are now setting up their laboratory. The annual grant of 50,000 euros for three to five years (after a successful year-end settlement in the third year, it is automatically extended for two years) is provided jointly by the country's ministry or funding agency (in case of Hungary the NRDI Office, 35,000 euros) and by EMBC, the intergovernmental organisation of 31 member states that funds the major EMBO Programmes and activities (15,000 euros). The recipients also have access to additional grants of up to 10,000 euros per year as well as travel grants. They can participate in training activities, expand their research network, and gain access to the core facilities at EMBL Heidelberg.
The ten funded applications from seven countries, including the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Turkey span a broad range of biological processes including aging, tumour biology, gut-brain axis communication, microbiota, and gene editing tools.
EMBO Director Fiona Watt also expressed her delight at the support of these exceptional researchers, whose work will strengthen their country's life science research and enrich the wider scientific community.
Congratulations to Viktória Lázár and Gergely Róna for winning the EMBO Installation Grant!