EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

Please re-post:

Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

Abstract deadline: 30 September

PhD student @lainahall.bsky.social will be giving a talk about our measurements of FIB-milling damage in cryo-lamellae (with new data!) at M&M on Tuesday next week.

Awesome structural biology with a unique Cas interference-adaptation supercomplex to understand how these systems adapt to phage infection!

News from the world of pAgos:
We explored a distinct clade of short pAgos associated with HNH nuclease partners, which we named SPARHA, and discovered that they protect bacteria from phages and plasmids via abortive infection. Upon activation, SPARHA oligomerizes, forming filaments.
A long 🧵

New cryo-EM ❄️🔬 structures shine light on key steps in CRISPR-based adaptive immunity!
Viral DNA binding to the Cas1-2/3 integrase induces a conformational change needed to recruit the integrase to the CRISPR.
We capture how CRISPR repeat is unwound to allow complete integration. Congrats Will + co!

Protein-primed DNA homopolymer synthesis by an antiviral reverse transcriptase Bacteria defend themselves from viral predation using diverse immune systems, many of which sense and target foreign DNA for degradation. Defense-associated reverse transcriptase (DRT) systems provide...

Hello BlueSky! Inaugural post here from the Sternberg Lab. We're excited to share our latest work, in which we teamed up with the @WiedenheftLab to study how DRT9 reverse transcriptases provide antiviral immunity. Here’s what we found: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How an ancient virus spread the ability to remember Do you remember your oldest memory? Jason Shepherd clearly recalls a childhood filled with questioning the world around him, which naturally lead to a life of scientific discovery. As a Neurobiologist...

Scientists, now more than ever, need to explain their work to the public. Many years ago now, I gave a TEDMED talk about my lab’s research. 🧠 🧪 www.tedmed.com/talks/show?i...

Published on my birthday 🎉

Another paper in collaboration with @themaxwelllab.bsky.social

Phage reprogramming of Pseudomonas aeruginosa amino acid metabolism drives efficient phage replication
doi.org/10.1128/mbio...
🦠🧫🧪🧬

As my first on Bluesky post, I'm glad to announce my work on PFOA has been published! Please check it out! During our work we have uncovered a new mechanism which implicates PFOA in hyperandrogenism, as has been speculated in the past!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Just because it's a homo-oligomer, don't assume it's symmetric! @benjabsnt.bsky.social & collaborators used cryo-EM to study the transthyretin (TTR) tetramer (55 kDa), shedding light on its misfolding pathways linked to amyloid disease. Now in peer-reviewed form: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@mjafreeman.bsky.social's BlueSky starter packs for 'mechanistic' biologists

Here’s my spreadsheet of starter packs (>80!) related to broadly ‘mechanistic biology’ plus some intriguing extras

Complete with collective nouns

I’ve been tracking these but now can’t keep up

Hope it’s helpful

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docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

If you work on bacterial immune systems, this founding paper by Burroughs and Aravind is a must-read (and must-cite). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32868406/

I started a list of MOSAIC scholars to help find and support each other. I'm sure I've missed many people, lmk if you want to be added!
go.bsky.app/9Ui711k

Large scale capsid-mediated mobilisation of bacterial genomic DNA in the gut microbiome Here, we present a novel approach to study packaging and mobilisation of bacterial DNA in complex microbial communities, such as the human gut microbiome, by viral or virus-like capsids. Transducing b...

Bacterial DNA encapsidation by viruses and virus-like particles appears to be widespread in the microbiome with up to 5.4% of capsid-packaged DNA in the gut virome being of bacterial (non-prophage) origin.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Hello 👋🏼—I’m a first-gen college student from Puerto Rico & currently serve as an Associate Dean at a major medical center. I’ve dedicated my career to developing programs focused on recruiting/training STEM leaders. I’m passionate about mentoring & providing opportunities for all to thrive.

Excited to be going to ABRCMS this year! Looking forward to meeting new (and old) friends and sharing work! :D

I'll also be at the BPS and ASBMB meetings this year if anyone wants to chat or learn more in person! 🤓

📢I'm hiring a Postdoc to join me at Dept. of Biology at UPenn! We'll use bioinformatics 🖥️, biochem 🧪, and cryo-EM ❄️🔬, to study how CRISPR systems work & applications. Work on cool science with a supportive mentor!
I'm still building up my Bluesky profile, so Reposts are appreciated!!!

😁😁😁

Thank you so much Edwin!! :)

The Santiago-Frangos lab is open and ready to do some exciting research on CRISPR biology and CRISPR applications! Ecstatic to be on UPenn's campus amongst such a supportive group of excellent scientists! 🤓