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With his new research group, “Mechanisms of Genome Stability,” Nagaraja Chappidi joined the research faculty at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in January. He and his group will address key questions of DNA replication and repair.

“For cells to properly function and organisms to survive, it's essential that their genetic information is copied accurately. This involves DNA replication and damage repair. Over the past decades, many of the molecular factors involved have been identified, their functions characterized, and their interactions mapped with high structural resolution,” explains Chappidi and continues, “Some key questions remained though: How do these factors self-organize into mesoscale structures? What new properties emerge from these structures? And how do these properties enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and regulation of DNA replication and repair? These questions, I want to address with my group here at MPI-CBG.”

Nagaraja Chappidi studied life sciences and biotechnology at Osmania University, Hyderabad, and the Vellore Institute of Technology, both located in India. He continued his studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, for a master's degree in molecular and cell biology. For his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, Nagaraja stayed at the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research at the University of Zurich. Afterwards, he came to the Biotechnology Center at the TUD Dresden University of Technology and joined the research group of Simon Alberti. In 2019, he received an SNSF Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship; in 2020, an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship; and in 2024, a DFG-spp2191 Independence Accelerator Award. As of January 2026, Nagaraja is a research group leader at MPI-CBG.