August 11, 2026

FMI researcher awarded prestigious Ambizione grant

Postdoctoral fellow Agata Misiaszek has received an Ambizione grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to study how neurons control protein production and how faults in this process may contribute to fragile X syndrome and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

The four-year SNSF Ambizione grant will allow Misiaszek, a postdoctoral researcher currently in the lab of Jeff Chao, to establish an independent research project in collaboration with the Dahmane lab at the FMI. By combining complementary imaging approaches, she aims to follow molecular events in living neurons and connect them with the cellular structures involved in regulating protein production.

Originally from Poland, Misiaszek studied molecular biology at the University of Edinburgh and then completed her PhD at EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, where she trained as a structural biologist and studied human enzymes involved in copying genetic information.

She joined the FMI three years ago to move beyond static molecular structures and observe biological processes in living cells. During her postdoctoral work with Chao, Misiaszek developed a method to label and track individual proteins in real time, revealing how they bind to and detach from RNA and whether that RNA is being translated.

Her Ambizione project will apply these tools to neurons and focus on FMRP, a protein lacking in fragile X syndrome, which is characterized by learning difficulties, developmental delays and behavioral challenges. Because FMRP’s precise role inside cells remains unclear, Misiaszek will examine which RNAs it binds, where these interactions occur in neurons, and how they affect translation.

To study how these interactions come together in larger cellular structures such as neuronal granules, she will combine live single-molecule imaging with cellular tomography—a technique that creates detailed three-dimensional views of structures inside cells by combining images taken from multiple angles.

The work could help explain how disruptions to protein production affect the brain. “The Ambizione grant gives me the opportunity to pursue an ambitious project that brings together different methods and has clear medical relevance,” Misiaszek says. “I hope it will allow me to push the limits of what we can observe in living cells and build an independent research direction that I can carry forward in my academic career.”