News
© Leo Otsuki
© ÖAW/APA/Hörmandinger
Elly Tanaka receives Wittgenstein Award
Elly Tanaka, Scientific Director of IMBA, receives the Wittgenstein Award from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for her pioneering research in regeneration biology.
The award is Austria’s most prestigious research prize and highest research honor, recognizing outstanding lifetime achievement.
Congratulations, Elly!
25th June 2025
How Axolotls Know What to Regrow: Scientists Decode Limb Regeneration Signal
Elly Tanaka and her team at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have uncovered a crucial piece of the puzzle: a gene called Hand2 that helps cells “remember” their position and guides the regeneration process. Published today in Nature, the study shows that Hand2 acts as a positional code, telling cells whether they belong on the thumb or pinky side of the arm.When an axolotl loses a limb, this gene helps activate a signal that instructs cells to rebuild the correct structure in the right place.
The work was led by Leo Otsuki in the lab of Elly Tanaka, with contributions from Francisco Falcon, Yuka Sugiura and Sarah Plattner. This breakthrough sheds new light on the biological principles of regeneration and could pave the way for future innovations in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Check it out!
20th May 2025
© Helena Okulski
Axolotls at the Science Fair "Wiener Forschungsfest" 2025
Curiosity, interaction, and fascination were at the heart of our IMBA station at this year’s Wiener Forschungsfest! Visitors of all ages explored the wonders of regeneration through hands-on activities and learned about our research on the remarkable axolotl.
From solving a limb regeneration puzzle to observing axolotl development under the microscope – from egg to larva – our station offered an interactive and scientific glimpse into the world of molecular regeneration research.
We were thrilled to share our passion for science and spark curiosity across generations!
23rd March 2025
Visit us at the Science Fair "Wiener Forschungsfest" 2025!
Mark your calendars! From March 21–23, 2025, the Wiener Forschungsfest will take place at Vienna’s City Hall, showcasing the latest research from local universities, businesses, and institutions. This interactive, free event makes science exciting and offers hands-on experiences for all ages.
The Tanaka Lab will give exciting insights into axolotl research. Visit us at the IMBA station!
© Helena Okulski
March 2025
© IMBA
Unlocking the Axolotl’s Neural Secrets
Katharina Lust and Elly Tanaka at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have pioneered a method to visualize and manipulate neuronal circuits in the axolotl. By using viral gene delivery, they illuminated neural connections and provided new insights into brain regeneration. Published in PNAS, this breakthrough enhances the axolotl’s role as a key model for studying vertebrate brain repair.
Check it out!
5th March 2025
Tanaka Lab Retreat 2024
This years Tanaka lab retreat brought us to Lake Balaton in Hungary. We spent two days of inspiration, discovery and connection. Our team enjoyed a memorable retreat blending science with relaxation.
From local wine tasting and historical sightseeing to engaging science activities, it was a retreat full of learning, laughter and bonding.
Oktober 2024
EMBO|FEBS Lecture Course - Molecular mechanisms of ageing and regeneration: From hydra to humans
Two PhD students from the Tanaka Lab, Elena Costantini and Andre Fischer, were selected for the EMBO|FEBS Lecture course on Molecular mechanisms of aging and regeneration: From hydra to Hydra, in Spetses, Greece. They presented their exciting work on fibroblast reprogramming and the plasticity and adaptability of the nervous system in the axolotl. Here is how Elena and Andre experienced the EMBO workshop:
“The EMBO lecture course was a very inspiring and stimulating experience and exceeded my expectations. Being a rather small event with a selected number of participants encouraged and favored discussions and engagement. I am happy I was given the opportunity to participate and meet really great people. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, also at an early career stage.” (Elena Costantini, PhD student, Tanaka Lab)
“The EMBO workshop perfectly aligned with my project, which is at the intersection of regeneration and aging. What fascinated me most about this event was the casual and intimate atmosphere. It was easy to engage in conversations with PIs about science and their career trajectories—all while enjoying the sun at the beach.” (Andre Fischer PhD student, Tanaka Lab)
Find out more about the EMBO|FEBS Lecture course here.
September 2024
Elly Tanaka on the BBC CrowdScience podcast
If you want to find out if our bodies can regenerate and what we can learn from the regeneration in the axolotl, listen to the interview with Elly Tanaka on the BBC News podcast CrowdScience.
September 2024
Congratulations Dr.Krammer!
Teresa Krammer, PhD student at the Tanaka Lab, successfully defended her thesis “Building Human Spinal Cord Organoids: Biomodels to Study Neural Tube Defects”. Congratulations Teresa!
Check out her recent pubilcation in Developmental Cell !
August 2024
Axolotls at the Long Night of Research 2024
This year, the Tanaka Lab is giving unique insights into exciting axolotl research at the Long Night of Research on the 24th of May 2024 in Vienna.
Come visit us at our interactive axolotl research station and find out more about regeneration!
© IMP/IMBA Graphics department, ÖAW
22 April 2024
Elly Tanaka: New Scientific Director of IMBA
Elly Tanaka will become the new scientific director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) on April 1st, 2024.
14 March 2024
Elly Tanaka elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
Elly Tanaka was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) together with 120 newly elected members and 23 international members in recognition of “their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”.
03 May 2023
An atlas of the axolotl brain
Axolotls are experts when it comes down to regeneration. Even after brain injury they are able to regenerate damaged tissue. Nevertheless, until now the salamander brain was largely unexplored.
In a study published in Science, an international research team with scientists from the labs of Elly Tanaka at the IMP and Barbara Treutlein at ETH Zurich constructed in a tremendous effort a unique atlas of the axolotl forebrain. For the first time, the researchers characterised and analysed the different cell types of the salamander forebrain in a developmental and regenerative context using single-nucleus and single-cell genomic profiling.
Healing of broken bones - What can we learn from the axolotl?
The axolotl is known for its highly regenerative capacity. But how does the master of regeneration copes with bone fractions?
Anastasia Polikarpova, a Postdoc from Elly Tanakas lab, in collaboration with researchers from the labs of Katharina Schmidt-Bleek at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin have developed a fracture model in the axolotl. The model allows the scientists to compare bone fracture healing to the process of bone regeneration after an amputation.
Read here what we can learn from the axolotl when it brakes a bone.
Unravelling the regeneration puzzle - one step closer
Giacomo Glotzer, an undergraduate student from Yale University and Pietro Tardivo, a PhD student from Elly Tanakas lab, report new insights into the regulation of the Fibroblast Growth factor (Fgf) 8 during axolotl limb development and regeneration in their study recently published in eLife.
Giacomo spent a year in Elly Tanakas lab, supervised by Pietro, to investigate the upstream regulators of Fgf8 with its unique mesenchymal expression in the axolotl. If you want to find out more about the project read the interview with Giacomo here.
Ready, set, go: stem cells synchronise to repair the axolotl spinal cord
Leo Otsuki in Elly Tanakas lab teamed up with Emanuel Cura Costa in Osvaldo Charas lab (Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET)) to create a mathematical model recapitulating early axolotl spinal cord regeneration and to test its predictions using new transgenic and imaging technologies. Their findings, published in eLife, show that neural stem cells accelerate their cell cycles in a highly synchronised manner, with the activation spreading along the spinal cord.
Limb regeneration - What do axolotls have that frogs don't?
An international team of scientists led by the labs of Elly Tanaka at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology and Barbara Treutlein at ETH Zurich zoomed in on the regeneration abilities of axolotls. The study, published in Developmental Cell gives away the cellular and molecular bases that lead to the incomplete limb regeneration in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). The researchers compared the regeneration process in frogs and axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) using genetic fate-mapping and state-of-the-art single cell RNA-seq technologies. Their findings show that frog cells have cell intrinsic barriers to become fully de-differentiated to a limb bud-like progenitor state, which correlates with the regeneration outcome. This work opens the door to further disentangling the (epi)genetic networks underlying the secret of limb regeneration.
Giant lungfish genome reveals how vertebrates conquered land
For the first time, a team of international researchers with Elly Tanaka sequenced and fully assembled the genome of the Australian lungfish. This study uncovers the largest animal genome known to date and gives away some of the secrets on how vertebrates conquered land.
Introducing www.axolotl-omics.org – an integrated -omics data portal for the axolotl research community
Sergej Nowoshilow & Elly M.Tanaka, Experimental Cell Research, Volume 394, Issue 1, 1 September 2020
MERTK-Dependent Ensheathment of Photoreceptor Outer Segments by Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelium
New study from Seba Almedawar published in Stem Cell Reports (March 2020).
Elly Tanaka receives the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award 2020
Elly receives the award for her pioneering work developing a molecular understanding of limb and spinal cord regeneration. She developed new methods to study the phenomenon, which had previously been considered too complex to understand at a cellular level. Through her work inside and outside the lab, Elly has galvanized regeneration research worldwide.
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