UMich Biophysics has an open search for a new faculty member. Application materials are due 5/15. Search is open rank (despite the title in the link). Would love to bring more structural biology colleagues to Biophysics. #NMR careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...
Lund University, Sweden, is recruiting an Assistant Professor in Biophysical Chemistry with a focus on NMR Spectroscopy lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... #NMRjobs #NMRchat #NMR #chemsky 🧲
We would love feedback on a new NCBI-BLAST service we are launching today: sky-blast.com
Under the hood it's the same BLAST executable and databases provided by NCBI, with a replica of the NIH's interface - providing an alternative to the US gov service that's less congested, faster & more reliable
The AAUP wholly condemns this punitive weaponization of federal grant funding. This attempt to discipline & control a university campus is a transparent hallmark of authoritarian rule & harshly violates the central mission of education to serve the public good.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...
Infographic showing twelve women in chemistry. Full alt-text at link!
For International Women's Day, here are twelve more women from chemistry history, with achievements ranging from developing antifungal medicines to creating milk substitutes for people with lactose intolerance 👩🏽🔬👩🏻🔬
www.compoundchem.com/2025/03/07/i...
#IWD2025 #ChemSky 🧪
Please share:
@delauro.house.gov is cochair of the US House Congressional Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group.
They are looking for instances where the impoundment and restriction of NIH/NSF funds is having a negative impact. Submit examples here delauro.house.gov/constituent-...
RNA xkcd.com/3056
Science IRL decisions went out today!
We were able to fund 13 of the 77 proposals that were submitted. They are communicating science in stage productions, boxes at bus stations, interactive frog statues, musical performances, farmers market tables, backs of cars, knitting clubs, and much more.
If you have an undergrad that will graduate this year but who needs a little more research experience before their next step, encourage them to apply to the UConn RAMP program.
genome-postbac.biology.clas.uconn.edu. The application deadline for the 2025 cohort is February 21st.
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Image showing cards depicting a number of contemporary women in chemistry
Image showing a selection of women in chemistry history graphics
Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 👩🔬🧑🏽🔬
The Women in Chemistry category on the Ci site has a range of graphics on women in chemistry, both historical and present-day! www.compoundchem.com/category/wom...
#ChemSky 🧪 #WomenInScience
It’s been a tough few weeks. My 10yo daughter was diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive cancer called interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma (IDCS). I’m reaching out to identify clinicians/patients who have encountered pediatric IDCS or other (non-LCH) dendritic or histiocytic sarcomas cases.
Special Bluetorial: The benefits of different life experiences
The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
In situ light-driven pH modulation for NMR studies
Preprint, In situ light-driven pH modulation for NMR studies, Aarav Barde, Ruixian Han, Martin A. Olson, Marco Tonelli, Chad M. Rienstra, Katherine Henzler-Wildman, Thirupathi Ravula www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #NMRchat #NMR
Let's make a thread of RNA-related conferences in 2025 🧵 (add missing!)
Let me give a concrete example of the importance of applications with high risk-high reward as well as the role of NIH staff in taking risks.
Decades ago, a physical chemist proposed ideas about doing mass spectrometry on proteins (when this was deemed probably impossible).
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Upcoming Magnetic Resonance Events, Workshops and Conferences (pinned) #NMRchat #NMRevents #NMR
Happy #TryptophanWednesday!
📣 Final version of our @elife.bsky.social article is now online! We show how the human tRNA methyltransferase TRMT1 is recognized, cleaved, and inactivated by the SARS-CoV-2 main protease to disrupt host tRNA modification!
elifesciences.org/articles/91168
A short bluetorial... 🧵 1/9
PUI chem profs, ACS Omega is doing a call for PUI papers! Also, the OA charges are covered for PUI's that participate in the ACS PUI OA program (there's a list of participating schools, I'll post that list as a comment to this post). axial.acs.org/cross-discip...
Cartoon representation of the human DND1 eRRM1 domain. The Next motif is colored gold and the RRM motif is colored orange. The domain is bound to a short RNA oligomer colored blue.
Our work suggests that the tryptophan cage motif plays a structural role, rather than in RNA recognition. An NMR structural ensemble of the hnRNPR-like protein DND1 eRRM1-RRM2 domains bound to RNA (PDB ID 7Q4L), solved by the Allain group, showed that this region does not contact RNA:
Finally, we compare to previously solved structures of hnRNPR-like proteins hnRNPRQ and DND1 to identify common features in the eRRM motif.
To see if these residues are biologically significant, we surveyed the COSMIC database and found several cancer-associated missense mutations in the tryptophan cage motif and residues in the Next-RRM interface:
Alanine substitution of residues in the Next-RRM interface or tryptophan cage reduce thermal stability and increase conformational dynamics, indicating an important role in protein folding:
Three panels showing the tryptophan cage motif. Left: hnRNPR eRRM1 with residues in the motif shown as sticks. Center: hnRNPR eRRM1 with residues in the motif shown as both surface representation and sticks showing W192 is surrounded by van der Waal contacts. Right: Superimposition of hnRNPR eRRM1 with the synthetic Trp-cage shows high similarity between the two.
The intervening loop is highly conserved and contains a tryptophan cage, previously reported in the synthetic tryptophan cage (Trp-cage) peptide. To our knowledge, this is the first time a tryptophan cage has been reported in a naturally occurring protein.
Surface view of individual RRM and Next domains, shown by electrostatic surface potential. A highly charged surface is seen where the RRM domain has a negatively charged surface, and the Next domain has a positively charged surface
Stick representation of residues at the Next-RRM interface shows stacking, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic interactions.
The Next and RRM are held together by a highly charged interface, hydrophobic contacts, and hydrogen bonds:
The X-ray crystal structure of the human hnRNPR extended RNA recognition motif, shown in cartoon representation. The N-terminal extended motif is colored in gold and the canonical RRM is colored in orange
Happy to share our latest work! Here, we solved the X-ray crystal structure of the hnRNPR RRM1 (our group’s first structure!). We identified an extended RRM (eRRM), where a 45-aa N-terminal extension (Next) motif docks to the RRM:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Registration for the the joint meeting of Asia Pacific NMR meeting and NMRS India meeting are on going. Register soon to avoid late registration charges. Look forward to seeing you in Pune in June 2025. #NMR #NMRChat tinyurl.com/apnmr-nmrs-2...
I've created a new plugin for #PyMOL (called PyMOLfold) that allows you to fold protein sequences right in the GUI. Simply select your model of choice (e.g., #ESM3, Boltz-1) and paste in your amino acid sequence.
github.com/colbyford/Py...
#ai #proteinfolding #alphafold