⛓️ August’s most-read Structural Biology paper is a ‘landmark’ study, describing the structural mechanism of strand exchange by the RAD51 filament: buff.ly/CvSkF34

Have a paper people should see? See what our Editors look for: buff.ly/rr68suW

Cryogenic electron microscopy has been used to determine the detailed structure of an intermediate state called a “D-loop” that forms when strands of DNA are exchanged during homologous recombination.
buff.ly/ofD02RD

digital illustration of a dissolving DNA helix

Researchers have revealed the structural mechanisms of a major #DNA repair pathway, homologous recombination, in human cells.
buff.ly/Pz8MI7W

PaCIFiC Facility launch marks a milestone in Cryo-Imaging at Cambridge

➡️ www.path.cam.ac.uk/news/pacific...

CryoEM structure of a RAD51 synaptic filament. Glass ribbons of RAD51 protein bind to three fluorescent DNA strands

Our latest paper describing the #cryoEM structure of the human RAD51 synaptic complex is now out with accompanying peer review in eLife - a landmark study according to the editors!

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

RAD51 D-loop

🧬 Thrilled to share that our latest work, A landmark study uncovering intricate molecular details of the human DNA repair process.
📰 Press release: elifesciences.org/for-the-pres...
📄 Full article: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Proud of the team #DNADamage #CryoEM #CambridgeUniversity

Structural and functional insights into the interaction between Ku70/80 and Pol X family polymerases in NHEJ - Nature Communications The molecular basis for the enrollment of X family DNA polymerases in non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is unclear. Here the authors elucidate the structure of Pol λ within the DNA-PK long-range compl...

Structural and functional insights into the interaction between Ku70/80 and Pol X family polymerases in NHEJ @natcomms.nature.com BRCT domain in recruitment and activity of two Pol X members in NHEJ: a unified model for the interaction of Pol X with Ku70/80.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's time 🚀 Very happy to launch our CL2 cryo-imaging facility PaCIFiC @cambridgebiosci.bsky.social We're excited to welcome both local and external users (academic and industry) for plunge freezing and cryo confocal imaging infected (or uninfected) samples. ❄️🔬🦠
www.path.cam.ac.uk/research/fac...

Great talks by Colin @campathology.bsky.social , Dima @cambiochem.bsky.social and the facility manager Luay

You want to start tomography? Solve structures inside cells? Reach Nyquist 😳 ? @phaips.vd.st and I have a website for you! tomoguide.github.io
You'll find a tutorial on how to reconstruct tomograms, pick particles and do subtomogram averaging, using different software!
Hope it will be useful !

Excited to share our preprint on the molecular architecture of heterochromatin in human cells 🧬🔬w/ @jpkreysing.bsky.social, @johannesbetz.bsky.social,
@marinalusic.bsky.social, Turoňová lab, @hummerlab.bsky.social @becklab.bsky.social @mpibp.bsky.social

🔗 Preprint here tinyurl.com/3a74uanv

Structural mechanism of strand exchange by the RAD51 filament. Homologous Recombination (HR) preserves genomic stability by repairing double-strand DNA breaks and ensuring efficient DNA replication. Central to HR is the strand-exchange reaction taking place within the three-stranded synapsis wherein a RAD51 nucleoprotein filament binds to a donor DNA. Here we present the cryoEM structure of a displacement loop of human RAD51 that captures the synaptic state when the filament has become tightly bound to the donor DNA. The structure elucidates the mechanism of strand exchange by RAD51, including the filament engagement with the donor DNA, the strand invasion and pairing with the complementary sequence of the donor DNA, the capture of the non-complementary strand and the polarity of the strand-exchange reaction. Our findings provide fundamental mechanistic insights into the biochemical reaction of eukaryotic HR. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Over five years of work has gone into our new preprint! The #cryoEM structure of a human RAD51 filament caught at the point of strand exchange 🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is an important preprint from the Pelligrini group for the HR field with some super clever experimental design! Bravo! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...