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Posts by Keri Backus

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DNA O-MAP uncovers the molecular neighborhoods associated with specific genomic loci DNA O-MAP enables proximity labeling at specific genomic loci in fixed cells using programmable oligonucleotides, revealing locus-proximal proteomes and chromatin interactions without genetic modifica...

The next iteration of O-MAP targeting genomic loci is now at eLife!!

DNA O-MAP enables proximity labeling at specific DNA loci took a ton of work from many lab members and collaborators, so it's really exciting to wrap up this paper with @oligopain.bsky.social!

elifesciences.org/articles/102...

1 week ago 31 12 1 2
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Photosensitizer proximity labeling captures the lipid and protein interactomes - Nature Chemical Biology Becker et. al developed a proteomic proximity labeling platform named POCA, which makes use of a photosensitizer for singlet oxygen production and protein capture in the presence of amine, enabling pr...

And a link, since the one above is broken www.nature.com/articles/s41...

2 months ago 1 0 0 0

And lastly, Andrew is on the job hunt for Bay area-adjacent positions. So, if anyone is looking to hire a stellar organic chemist turned chemical and systems biologist, look no further

2 months ago 3 1 2 1
Innovative proximity labeling platform illuminates how cholesterol interacts inside cells – UCLA Cholesterol plays a central role in cell health, influencing membrane fluidity, curvature, and signaling. To maintain proper cholesterol levels, cells rely on tightly regulated transport systems that move cholesterol between membranes and organelles. However, many of the proteins involved in sensing, binding, and trafficking cholesterol—and how they dynamically interact—remain poorly understood.

For a quick summary @uclacb.bsky.social al for the nice writeup of our paper www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/innovat...

2 months ago 0 2 1 0

And thanks to the reviewers and editors--this one was a journey and the final product really is light years from our preprint.

2 months ago 1 0 1 0

Also big shoutout to @rhodamine110.bsky.social for his amazing generosity in sharing dyes. JF570 is a very special molecule!

2 months ago 0 0 1 0

So many wonderful collaborators helped make this project happen, including Zander Nguyen, JP Kennelly, Julia Mack, @soongookhong.bsky.social, Rohith Nagari, LJ Cui, Xu Xiao, and especially Peter Tontonoz, who introduced me to the wild world of lipids.

2 months ago 0 0 1 0
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Excited to share our new paper and lipid- and protein-directed photocatalytic labeling method (POCA) just out in @natchembio.nature.com. tinyurl.com/2kcxuvvv. Big congrats to first author Andrew Becker and the whole team for launching our lab into the wild world of singlet oxygen interactomics.

2 months ago 49 20 1 0

New paper in @jcb.org! We found a new regulator of p62 phase separation, autophagy, and antioxidant signaling. It is an E3 ligase adaptor called SHKBP1, but the effect is via direct p62 binding, not ubiquitination. Congrats to Lin Luan & team! @weillinstitute.bsky.social

2 months ago 29 10 0 2
Graphical abstract on LipoID workflow

Graphical abstract on LipoID workflow

LipoID profiles lipid droplet interactions and identifies interorganelle regulators

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

3 months ago 15 4 0 0
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Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles - Nature Chemistry Covalent inhibitors are powerful entities in drug discovery. Now the amino acid selectivity and reactivity of a diverse electrophile library have been assessed proteome-wide using an unbiased workflow...

How can we study target engagement and selectivity of covalent inhibitors? Which electrophilic probes are best suited to study a certain amino acid?

Our study on "Profiling the proteome-wide selectivity of diverse electrophiles" is published in Nature Chemistry.(1/7)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

5 months ago 87 34 3 5
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Real-time API control of mass specs has been hard to get started (C#, VS, etc). Mike Hoopmann's recent work makes dev easier & more open!:

Nova - lightweight dev library
schweppelab.github.io/Nova/ pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Helios - a unified instrument API now @ JPR
github.com/SchweppeLab/...

7 months ago 22 5 2 1

Congratulations to my great friend and colleague @bradylabupenn.bsky.social for this well deserved award!
@pennmedcso.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social

7 months ago 7 3 0 0
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🚨 Save the date! 🚨
2nd LA Mass Spec Day:
Oct 17, 2025 @ UCLA South Bay 🎉
Talks, posters, networking + plenaries by Jennifer Van Eyk & Melissa Hoffman!

Register 👉 forms.gle/e6A9XWxiRF6K...

Submit abstracts 👉 forms.gle/RCf5v3Gab5V8...

More info to follow soon

8 months ago 3 3 0 0
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About 800 NIH, NSF research grants suspended following UCLA federal funding cuts - Daily Bruin About 800 research grants have been suspended at UCLA, according to a Friday email from Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities Roger Wakimoto. Wakimoto said in the email, which was sent ...

Daily Bruin article about the ~800 frozen grants at UCLA including some from my lab dailybruin.com/2025/08/02/a...

8 months ago 46 32 0 1
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Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...

Suspension of all grants to UCLA www.latimes.com/california/s...

8 months ago 157 112 22 44

Consider signing the letter to support NIH and the "Bethesda Declaration" (www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...) #ASMS2025 @asms.org

10 months ago 9 5 3 1
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Regulations.gov

ASSIGNMENT: COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F

1 week left to comment about Schedule F, potentially making NIH institute and center director essentially political appointees.

www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...

1/n

10 months ago 98 87 6 8
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Join @lindsaykpino.com, me, and our amazing panelists for the #ASMS2025 #Chemoproteomics workshop on Monday!

10 months ago 31 4 0 1

And after a brief interlude of recommending CSY1 and all the MIRA study sections, now ART recommendations are back to normal

10 months ago 0 0 0 0

Anyone else notice that ART is now giving different study section assignments compared to earlier in the week? Same title and abstract last night and today, different strong and possible matches...?

10 months ago 0 1 1 0

We will be hosting the 2025 ONO Pharma Foundation Annual Symposium on June 23 at the Royal Sonesta Boston. This event offers an opportunity to explore the latest breakthroughs presented by ONO INITIATIVE awardees and to discuss groundbreaking science in chemical biology. (1/2)

10 months ago 5 3 1 2

New paper from our lab joint with Val Arboleda @val-arboleda.bsky.social

10 months ago 9 2 0 0
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The 13th General Meeting of the International Proteolysis Society will be held in Búsios, Brazil Oct 26-30, 2025. Training workshops will be held at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Oct 23-23. Register now! Links below.

1/3

10 months ago 7 8 1 1

The fantastically successful NIGMS MIRA R35 "expired" on May 17, after the most recent deadline--these removals are the most aggressive attack on American science in the current series of devastating actions 🧪

11 months ago 76 44 17 6

Excited to see this out in @science.org today!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

11 months ago 135 52 6 5

Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

1 year ago 208 196 6 1
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Congrats to all the award winners and especially to Backus Lab PhD student Flowreen Shikwana and undergrad Joelle Darrouj!

1 year ago 10 1 0 0
University launches new research support program | The University Record

U of Michigan @umich.edu set aside funds from central to support researchers with unexpected disruption in federal funding for up to 6 months.

Are any other institutions doing this? Seems like a good move.

#Medsky #NIH #federalfunding #researchfunding 🧪

record.umich.edu/articles/uni...

1 year ago 275 85 10 8
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a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

Bluetorial: Women, courage, and leadership

What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.

1 year ago 472 146 5 31