25.02.2026 Dr. Vineeta Kaushik, a Postdoctoral Researcher from Integrated Structural Biology Group, has been awarded a prestigious FEBS Short-Term Fellowship by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. The fellowship is granted following a competitive evaluation by the FEBS Excellence Awards and Fellowships Committee and supports outstanding early-career researchers across Europe.
The award will fund a several-month research stay at the CEITEC (Central European Institute of Technology) Cryo-EM Core Facility in Brno, Czech Republic, in the laboratory of Dr. Jiří Nováček. The facility is recognized for its advanced expertise in electron and cryo-electron microscopy.
Investigating PDE6 and light-induced changes in photoreceptors
Dr. Kaushik’s project focuses on the role of phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6) in light-induced structural and molecular changes in photoreceptor cells. PDE6 plays a central role in the phototransduction cascade, the biochemical process that converts light into electrical signals in the retina. Disruptions in this pathway are associated with inherited and degenerative retinal diseases.
The research will employ state-of-the-art imaging approaches, including block-face serial FIB-SEM milling and cryo-correlative light and electron microscopy (cryo-CLEM), enabling high-resolution analysis of cellular ultrastructure under near-native conditions. The expertise gained during the fellowship is expected to further strengthen ICTER’s capabilities in retinal biology and translational vision research.
“I am very pleased and honored to receive this FEBS Short-Term Fellowship. It is a strong recognition of my work and a valuable opportunity to advance my cryo-EM skills in an international research environment,” she said.
Dr Kaushik is also a former recipient of the PASIFIC Fellowship, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement and co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
