Pauline Lascaux, postdoc in the Dikic group, has been awarded a highly competitive MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF 2025) for the project „MIND – MINDing the brain“. In her project, Pauline will investigate how the autophagy receptor IRGQ functions as a molecular switch between degradative and secretory autophagy in membrane quality control and neuroinflammation. In particular, she will analyse how IRGQ determines vesicle fate decisions in the brain. By addressing fundamental mechanisms at the intersection of autophagy, membrane biology, and brain inflammation, MIND seeks to generate new insights into the cellular processes that precede neurodegenerative disease.

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call was exceptionally competitive, underscoring the prestige of this award and highlighting the outstanding scientific quality, innovation, and timeliness of the funded project. Out of 17,066 applications submitted, only1,610 proposals were selected for funding by the European Commission.