Excited to share our paper about copick, a dataset API and toolkit for collaborative annotation and analysis of #cryoET data! Whether you're picking particles or curating segmentations, copick reduces friction and brings #OME-Zarr to cryoET without breaking pipelines.
π§΅π
doi.org/10.1002/pro.70578
π¨ New paper alert π§¬
Our work from the @michellepeckham.bsky.social lab is now out in #ScienceAdvances.
We present the #cryoEM structure of shutdown human non-muscle myosin 2A, showing how ionic interactions stabilise auto-inhibition and how mutations disrupt this state.
π tinyurl.com/4de8teyh
I am excited to share our most recent work collaborating with @centriolelab.bsky.social and @stearnslab.bsky.social to look at the ciliary base of mammalian multiciliated cells w/ cryo-ET, XL/MS, and U-ExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Please check out the preprint for lots of other cool findings, and congrats to first author and joint Liu / Alushin lab graduate student John Watters!
We find that deformation of the DNA template at the roadblock-polymerase interface coordinates swiveling rearrangements in the polymerase.
This mechanical coupling facilitates transcriptional pausing regardless of roadblock molecular identity.
Pleased to present the lab's first foray into mechanical regulation beyond the cytoskeleton.
In collaboration with Shixin Liu's lab at @rockefeller.edu, we explored the structural response of bacterial (E. Coli) RNA polymerase when it collides with roadblocks.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Since #durotaxis was described >25 years ago, most studies report cells migrating from soft β stiff
New work from my team at @ub.edu (in collaboration with D. Odde's lab) suggests we may have been missing the point all along...
π₯ Check out our new preprint here π
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1) The Herzik lab is excited to announce our newest preprint in collaboration with the Grotjahn lab! We have developed a surfactant cocktail that seeks to overcome one of the more nefarious problems in #cryoEM, Air-water interface (AWI)-induced damage and preferred orientation (PO).
Optical tweezers combined with FRET tension sensor reveal force-dependent vinculin dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We're excited to announce the beta-release of #RELION-5.1! π₯³ This release has important updates on our #amyloid processing pipeline, as described in this preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202... There are also some tweaks for #teamtomo.
#OpenSoftwareAcceleratesScience
π’ Weβre launching Proteina-Complexa β and after the Jensen keynote mention, we definitely had to post this thread now ;)
Atomistic binder design with generative pretraining + test-time compute, plus large-scale wet-lab validation.
Project page: research.nvidia.com/labs/genair/...
𧡠1/n
started using --π¬π’π π¦π_ππ§π π in RELION5 Refine3D and all of a sudden every subtomogram average goes to high resolution π€―
#TeamTomo
Membrane-tethered cadherin substrates reveal dynamic and local shifts in actin network architecture during adherens junction formation
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Motor activity of nonmuscle myosin 2A is a key component of bipolar filament turnover in cells
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Actin-membrane interface stress regulates Arp2/3-branched actin density during lamellipodial protrusion
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Images of the protein Ξ±-actinin-4 binding actin filaments in weak and strong modes, derived from cryo-electron microscopy data. Force promotes a transition from the weak mode to the strong mode, strengthening the interaction.
Very excited to share our latest preprint, where we visualize the impact of force on the catch bonding actin crosslinker Ξ±-actinin-4. Led by @tri-i.bsky.social MD-PhD student Alfred Chin, a great collaboration with Glen Hocky's lab.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Size-Dependent Mechanoadaptation Enables Migration with Oversized Parasitic Cargo
"....we discover that parasitic cargoes exceed the size and stiffness of host nuclei, and therefore constitute a primary bottleneck for migration."
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cytoskeleton enthusiasts: join us for the Cytoskeletal Motors GRC, July 12-17, 2026, in Portland Maine. Abstracts submitted by April 5 will be considered for short talks. Please apply!
bit.ly/4cWxvzj
Class-I myosin responds to changes in membrane tension during clathrin-mediated endocytosis in human induced pluripotent stem cells | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Excited to share our work on epithelial multilayering - identifying why stem cell stay in the basal layer and how and why differentiating cells move up. Great collab with @manningresearch.bsky.social and Niessen labs! Check out preprint and great summary below www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#InMemoriam: Dr. Robert Bruce Nicklas, who spent over 50 years unraveling the mysteries of how #chromosomes move during #CellDivision, died on February 19, 2025, at the age of 92. Leocadia Paliulis commemorates his life and work. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Myosin II regulates cellular thermo-adaptability and the efficiency of immune responses
www.cell.com/developmenta...
Proud and excited to share our work with the community! Helen @helenfoster.bsky.social Foster et al. study how #cilia axonemes are built. π Don't miss the gorgeous and insightful movies by @margotriggi.bsky.social, they really show our discoveries in full action!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Introducing The Structural History of Eukarya (SHE): The first proteome-scale phylogeny constructed entirely from 3D structure.
We computed 300 trillion alignments across 1,542 species to map the tree of life. π§΅π (1/5)
Weβre excited to share our latest preprint! We identify SKT, a mechanosensitive adhesion protein that recruits mTORC2 to cellβmatrix adhesions, linking metabolic demand to matrix stiffness. Disrupting this axis strongly inhibits PDAC tumor growth. shorturl.at/V0tpK
@mathildemathieu.bsky.social @ivaskalab.bsky.social New discovery from us! Leupaxin, a paxillin family member typically expressed in immune cells, negatively regulates durotaxis and mechanoresponsiveness in metastatic breast cancer cell variants and in cells cultured on soft ECM lnkd.in/diEk8DSR
Our paper on how calcium controls lamellipodial actin assembly is out in Current Biology! Huge congrats to Ernest Iu, Alex Bogatch, and all the authors - fantastic collaboration!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Calcium directs actin assembly via allosteric activation of formin INF2
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A FAST plant myosin (Chara MyoXI) drives formation of actin chiral rings
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
