Andrea Pauli (born 1977) is a

developmental biologist Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

and

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

studying how the

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

transitions into an

embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...

, and more specifically the molecular mechanisms underlying

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

fertilisation Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a zygote and initiate its development into a new individual organism or of ...

s, egg dormancy, and subsequent egg activation. Her lab uses

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Danionidae of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (an ...

as the main model organism. Andrea Pauli is a group leader at the

Research Institute of Molecular Pathology The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences. The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute empl ...

(IMP) at the Vienna Biocenter in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Early life and education

Andrea Pauli grew up in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. She studied biochemistry at

Regensburg University The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...

, followed by a master’s in molecular and

cellular biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the Anatomy, structure, Physiology, function, and behavior of cell (biology), cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life th ...

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. In 2004, she started her doctoral research under the joint supervision of Barry Dickson and

Kim Nasmyth Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathol ...

at the

(IMP) in Vienna, Austria. When Nasmyth transferred to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 2006, Pauli moved with him and obtained her PhD from Oxford in 2009. As a student, she competed twice in the Oxford-Cambridge Women’s Boat Race (2007 and 2008) for Oxford.

Career

Andrea Pauli became a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Alexander F. Schier at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2009. In 2015, she returned to the IMP to establish her own lab as a group leader. Since 2018, Pauli teaches zebrafish summer courses at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...

and in 2020, she became the dean of the Vienna Biocenter summer school.

Research

Andrea Pauli's doctoral research focused on

cohesin Cohesin is a protein complex that mediates Establishment of sister chromatid cohesion, sister chromatid cohesion, homologous recombination, and Topologically associating domain, DNA looping. Cohesin is formed of SMC3, SMC1A, SMC1, RAD21, SCC1 an ...

, a protein complex initially known for its essential role in holding sister

chromatid A chromatid (Greek ''khrōmat-'' 'color' + ''-id'') is one half of a duplicated chromosome. Before replication, one chromosome is composed of one DNA molecule. In replication, the DNA molecule is copied, and the two molecules are known as chrom ...

s together during

cell division Cell division is the process by which a parent cell (biology), cell divides into two daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle in which the cell grows and replicates its chromosome(s) before dividing. In eukar ...

. Using

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly" ...

as a model system, Pauli showed new cohesin functions in non-proliferating cells. Pauli later turned to

as model system and to characterising embryonic transcripts, through which she discovered the essential embryonic signal Toddler/Apela/ELABELA, a secreted

peptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty am ...

necessary for

mesoderm The mesoderm is the middle layer of the three germ layers that develops during gastrulation in the very early development of the embryo of most animals. The outer layer is the ectoderm, and the inner layer is the endoderm.Langman's Medical ...

migration during

gastrulation Gastrulation is the stage in the early embryonic development of most animals, during which the blastula (a single-layered hollow sphere of cells), or in mammals, the blastocyst, is reorganized into a two-layered or three-layered embryo known as ...

. This demonstrated that newly identified translated regions can encode previously missed yet functionally important small

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, re ...

. Research in Pauli’s lab links developmental biology with biochemistry, molecular and cell biology and genomics in order to uncover essential mechanisms underlying the egg-to-embryo transition. Pauli and her lab have discovered mechanisms underlying

morphogenesis, fertilisation and egg dormancy. This includes the discovery that Toddler acts as a guidance cue which steers the directional migration of mesodermal cells via a single-receptor-based self-generated Toddler gradient. Focusing on

, Pauli and her lab identified the egg protein Bouncer as an essential factor for sperm-egg recognition in fish: Bouncer is essential for sperm entry into the egg and sufficient to switch the species-specificity of fertilisation between zebrafish and

medaka The Japanese rice fish (''Oryzias latipes''), also known as the medaka, is a member of genus ''Oryzias'' ( ricefish), the only genus in the subfamily Oryziinae. This small (up to about ) native of Japan is a denizen of rice paddies, marshes, po ...

. Pauli’s lab characterized the functions of Bouncer’s homolog in

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

, SPACA4, and the zebrafish sperm factors Dcst1/2 and Spaca6, which are conserved in mammals and required for fertilisation in vertebrates. Studying the mechanistic basis of dormancy in the egg, Pauli’s lab discovered a developmentally programmed, conserved dormant

ribosome Ribosomes () are molecular machine, macromolecular machines, found within all cell (biology), cells, that perform Translation (biology), biological protein synthesis (messenger RNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order s ...

state important for ribosome storage and translational repression, which is conserved in zebrafish and

Xenopus laevis The African clawed frog (''Xenopus laevis''), also known as simply xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the ''platanna'') is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the short black ...

Awards and achievements

* ERC Consolidator Grant (2022) * Elected EMBO Member (2021) * HFSP Young Investigator Grant (2020)HFSP awards directory
/ref> * EMBO Young Investigator (2018) * Whitman Center Early Career Fellowship (2018) * Start Prize of the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund () is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a large variety of grant programmes, prizes and by funding infrastru ...

FWF (2017) * HFSP Career Development Award (2015) * Chi-Bin Chien Award (2014) * NIH K99 Grant for transitioning to independence (2013)

References

External links

*
Pauli Lab entry at the IMPPauli lab's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pauli, Andrea Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization 1977 births Living people German developmental biologists Heidelberg University alumni 21st-century German women scientists Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Regensburg alumni German expatriates in the United Kingdom 21st-century German biologists German expatriates in Austria German women biochemists German biochemists Scientists from Bavaria