Fascinating discussion / interview about NIH funding, recommend reading

What's larger, a protein or its templating mRNA ?

> The mRNA is much larger.

⬛ 𝐀 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 -- 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 -- 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡.

The figure shows myoglobin protein drawn to scale next to its mRNA template. The coding sequence of an mRNA ...

I'm honored to have received the 2025 HUPO Distinguished Service Award (hupo.org/HUPO-Awards-...) with @mlaval6.bsky.social for building a dynamic early career researcher (ECR) community within @hupo-org.bsky.social. Empowering and amplifying ECRs has been deeply meaningful to me—thank you, HUPO.

Big shout out to co-first authors @kareem_alb and Declan Winters! Also to our stellar collaborators, couldn’t do it without you. Collaboration makes the dream work!

In sum, our findings suggest the possibility that viruses evolved as biosensors of the host signaling state, unveiling new antiviral opportunities aimed at disrupting virus decision-making.

We then inhibited these kinases during infection to assess whether they impinged on viral protein phosphorylation. We found ERK and JNK motifs on Sindbis virus proteins to decrease in response to kinase inhibition, suggesting they are directly phosphorylated during infection.

We then performed phosphoproteomics of Sindbis-infected HEK293T cells to catalog changes in viral protein phosphorylation and human kinase activities over time. We found ERK, JNK, and p38 to drop at 16h and increase at 20h post- infection. Their inhibition was also antiviral.

Thanks to @harmitmalik.bsky.social’s suggestion, we found human kinase motifs in viral proteins to be under positive selection, suggesting phosphorylation may regulate viral fitness in different contexts.

We then mapped kinase motifs onto 21,606 viral protein structures and integrated them with phosphoproteomics of infected cells. We found surface-accessible residues were preferentially phosphorylated and showed greater kinase specificity for MAPK pathways than buried sites.

Kinases with motifs in viral proteomes were in stress, inflammation, and cell cycle pathways. Viruses in the Retroviridae and Hepadnaviridae families were particularly enriched for cell cycle-related kinases, consistent with their known replication in the nucleus.

We annotated human kinase motifs in 1,505 viral proteomes and discovered an enrichment for stress, inflammation, and cell-cycle kinases.

Global Landscape of Human Kinase Motifs in Viral Proteomes Viruses are classically viewed as targets of host sensing, yet whether they also sense and respond to host cues remains largely unexplored. We propose that host-driven post-translational modification ...

Thrilled to share the first major preprint from the lab. Viruses are classically viewed as targets of host sensing. Do viruses also sense and respond to the host? We propose viruses may act as “biosensors” of the host signaling state. A thread👇🏾 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy holidays from the Bouhaddou Lab!

🔬New Preprint Alert 🔬 How is AMPK regulated by oxidative stress? We use functional imaging to uncover spatial regulation of AMPK activity during oxidative stress by LKB1 & CaMKK2. Combining imaging with proteomics & metabolomics, we find AMPK works to promote the cellular redox response.

Here's the letter that NSF sent UCLA last week about cutting its research funding

NSF says UCLA is doing affirmative action by asking applicants' their zip codes, family income and what HS they went to, and that they can discuss race in personal statements

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Firefighters have a higher risk of cancer – but why? UCLA researchers are working with the Los Angeles County fire department to test firefighting gear as a possible source of risk.

If you are interested to learn about our work studying firefighter health in LA! We study how exposure to toxic chemicals alters phosphorylation signaling in lung cells to drive cancer. www.uclahealth.org/news/article...