Gregor Mendel Institute

The Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) was founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2000 to promote research excellence in the area of molecular plant biology. It is one of the few institutes worldwide that focuses on basic research using plants. Research at the GMI is curiosity driven and covers many aspects of molecular genetics, including basic mechanisms of epigenetics, population genetics, chromosome biology, developmental biology, stress signal transduction and plant pathogens. Arabidopsis thaliana is the primary model organism used although other organisms are also studied. The GMI is located in the Vienna Biocenter Campus within the purpose-built Austrian Academy of Sciences Life Sciences Center. The institute is named after Gregor Mendel, the ‘father of genetics’, who studied at the University of Vienna in the middle of the 19th century.

The making of an institute

The Gregor Mendel Institute was founded on the initiative of the Presidency of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Dr Dieter Schweizer. The location was planned for the Vienna Biocenter, with a focus on basic research in molecular plant biology, as complement to the research of the neighboring campus institutes (Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and the biomedical Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), also of the Austrian Academy of Sciences). Establishing an institute in molecular plant biology in an environment where public opinion was against plant research due to the negative influence of the ongoing GM-food debate was an uphill task. However, following the recommendation of an ad-hoc International Scientific Advisory Committee set up by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, it became official: The new institute was to be a plant research centre, the first of its kind in Austria.

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