The effect of PEGylation on surface tethering of liposomes via DNA nanotechnology. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is widely used in liposome formulation due to its blocking properties and ability to prolong circulation in vivo, to create biomimetic liposomes and drug delivery devices. Si...

Our work led by PhD student James Gaston is out online at Journal of Lipid Research.

We looked at how % PEG3000 affected the size and stickiness of liposomes, to work out best conditions for combining DNA and lipid nanotechnology.

@unswbabs.bsky.social

www.jlr.org/article/S002...

Transcriptome mining reveals diversity and evolution of circulating and endogenous amphibian retroviruses - Retrovirology Background The evolutionary history of retroviruses and their impact on vertebrate evolution remains poorly understood, particularly in non-mammalian hosts. In this study, we explore retroviruses asso...

Happy to share our new paper on retroviruses in amphibians - a labour of love for our team @unswbabs.bsky.social with Prof. Peter White.

We explore 102 amphibian species to understand what type of retroviruses infect them and their evolution, highlights below 🧵

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Slide saying future directions

Picture of speaker James Gaston

Sounds like 🔝 #ASB2025 talk by James Gaston, finishing up his PhD on #lipids #DNAnano this year.

Well done James! @unswbabs.bsky.social

Congrats to flash talkers and all the amazing presenters that I unfortunately missed today. I will 🚲 ✈️ 6am tomorrow.

Belated congratulations to 2025 Honours students Ziggi Zikmann & Ishara Maharjan for submitting their theses last week! I am very proud of your achievements. And thank you to the team for finding a way to make the process of pressing "submit" on a computer a celebration! @unswbabs.bsky.social

Thank you to the @anzscdb.bsky.social NSW Branch Committee for an excellent symposium today! I was grateful for the invitation to share our work & am delighted for Sonia Goozee who won the best ECR talk award! #anzscdbnsw2025 @biologists.bsky.social @unswbabs.bsky.social @merlincrossley.bsky.social

Well done @laurenceluu.bsky.social on ASMR Award tonight! Nice talk on pelvic inflammatory disease and great to celebrate @unswbabs.bsky.social colleagues' success at NSW Parliament. #asmr

Today at the ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 meeting (www.esa-srb-anzos.org.au) all three of our lab contingent gave oral presentations! I was so impressed with Tia Valentini and Emmaline Lonergan, for giving their first talks at a scientific conference with such poise! Now we relax! #ANZOS @unswbabs.bsky.social

Well done to Jamiema for your ECR Plenary #AES2025 yesterday @unswbabs.bsky.social

A clear talk sharing our enthusiasm for flagellar diversity

Uncle Billy welcome to country also awesome.

AU has so much biodiversity but also raw human talent in ecology and evolution!

Join us on November 20th for the 2nd Annual BABS Industry Networking Event! Connect with industry experts, innovators, and researchers - spark new ideas, collaborations, and opportunities.
Register using the QR code.

I’m back at @asbmbaus.bsky.social at UQ this morning & delighted to have the opportunity to present the 2025 ASBMB Boomerang Award to @unswbabs.bsky.social alumni @ajknights7.bsky.social. What a deserving recipient of this award! It was great to hear about your latest research, Alex! #ASBMB2025

It’s great to be at UQ for the #asbmb2025 conference! Convenor Michael Landsberg opened the conference this morning & I’ve already been lucky enough to present research from our team to this great audience. Looking forward to the rest of the conference! @asbmbaus.bsky.social @unswbabs.bsky.social

Si les interesa saber de la Antártida 🇦🇶🐧, y el trabajo que realizamos en el #RegRNALab @unswbabs.bsky.social @unswrna.bsky.social, los invito a escuchar Mutante 🧬 en Radio UAEM 📻

📅 Lunes 29 de Sept, 4 pm 🇲🇽, martes 30 de Sept, 8 am, AEST 🇦🇺

Gracias @elagusdekomodo.bsky.social!

radio.uaem.mx/en-vivo

Prof Jan Löwe presenting his work on Structural maintenance of chromosome complexes

So lovely to see this story yesterday on SMC complexes presented by Prof Jan Löwe ( MRC LMB). It’s been a long journey and is still evolving but is a structural biology tour de force. @mrclmb.bsky.social @unswbabs.bsky.social

Insertion of Fluorescent Proteins Near the Plug Domain of MotB Generates Functional Stator Complexes We inserted small light-interacting domains at various locations in the stator complex to see what sites were amenable for labeling and how these affected flagellar rotation and switching. We observe...

We hoped to control bacteria with light, using LOV domains. Our stators were functional but light didn't impact motility.

We then checked if our periplasmic tags could be useful as fluorophores.

👐 Jyoti Gurung for tenacity to get it done 🕒✈️🇦🇺➡️🇬🇧!

doi.org/10.1002/mbo3...

@unswbabs.bsky.social

Yesterday our two honours students gave their @unswbabs.bsky.social final seminars. Congratulations, Ziggi & Ishara on your excellent presentations & on reaching this milestone. I am very proud of all you’ve learned & achieved this year! Now you can relax & enjoy the rest of the honours talks!

Evolution and structural diversity of the MotAB stator: insights into the origins of bacterial flagellar motility | mBio Flagellar motility allows bacteria to propel themselves and direct movement according to environmental conditions. It plays a key role in bacterial pathogenicity and survival. We investigated the molecular and structural diversity of the stator motor proteins that provide the ion motive force to power flagellar rotation. This study uses a comparative approach that integrates phylogenetics, 3D protein structure, motility assays, and ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) to provide insights into the structural mechanisms that first powered the flagellar motor. We provide the first phylogenetic and structural characterization and classification of MotAB and relatives.

Our motAB work out now in mBio! We examined the origins of the bacterial flagellar stator ⚙️ by combining phylogenetics, ancestral reconstructions, structural predictions and motility assays.

Thanks to all authors 🇳🇿🇦🇺🇺🇸 @hfspo.bsky.social
@unswbabs.bsky.social

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

I’m very happy to be on campus today for #unsw Open Day! It’s a beautiful day for it & there is an amazing atmosphere. So pleased to be having conversations with potential new students & their families about the great student experience we offer here in @unswbabs.bsky.social & across the University!

Our lncRNA-in-brain review is out in @natrevneuro.nature.com

✨ The emerging roles of long noncoding RNAs in the brain

We discuss 🧬 lncRNA roles in brain development, synaptic function, learning, & behavior
💡 Therapeutic potential and future directions.
@unswrna.bsky.social @unswbabs.bsky.social

Picture of agar dish with two rows of plant seedlings held by a gloved hand

Things are happening 🌱 #RegRNALab

@unswbabs.bsky.social

This work was led by Vanda Gaonac'h-Lovejoy, a PhD student co-supervised with @martinsauvageau.bsky.social at @ircm.bsky.social in collaboration with Prof John Mattick.

Research conducted at: @cra-chusj.bsky.social, @umontreal.ca, @unswbabs.bsky.social, and supported by #FRQS, #NSERC and #UNSW.

Listening to Stephanie Nobbs (@snobsi.bsky.social) telling us about the fascinating Asgard archaea isolated from Shark Bay's microbial mats. They isolated a new archaea and assembled its genome and in silico proteome. Found lots of eukaryote-like tubulins + new protein folds

@unswbabs.bsky.social

Rescue of bacterial motility using two- and three-species FliC chimeras | Journal of Bacteriology Flagellin is a key protein forming the filament of the bacterial flagellar motor which powers most bacterial swimming. Flagellin can have hypervariable domains which can alter motility in different en...

🚨New Paper Alert🚨Our latest paper is published now in the Journal of Bacteriology @asm.org!🦠🔬🏃

A huge thanks to all the co-authors (Matthew Baker, Divyangi Pandit, Pietro Ridone and Yoshiyuki Sowa) for all their hard work! @unswbabs.bsky.social
#flagella #chimera

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Thanks @unswbabs.bsky.social for the great visit! An inspiring group of scientists!

Adrian Liston presenting acknowledgement slide, thanking lab and funding sources

Such a therapy could also reduce the pathology not only of trauma brain injury, but also stroke and multiple sclerosis - rather remarkable.

Data is available online in purple QR code in the picture if you want to have a 👀

Amazing talk!

@unswbabs.bsky.social

Second talk today by @labliston.bsky.social, now telling us about how to harness tissue #TRegs in the 🧠

Being a total trooper as he only landed yesterday - jetlag when coming from the antipodes tends to hit hard

@unswbabs.bsky.social

Overall a great talk on topics that are unfortunately, often neglected. If you want to know more, please check out the link below 👇🏽

@unswbabs.bsky.social #AcademicSky

Prof Adrian Liston presenting his definition of a positive research environment

Listening to @labliston.bsky.social on creating a positive research culture. He defines it as one where team members are empowered, recognised, have a clear career 🛣️ & can contribute to impactful & reproducible research

@unswbabs.bsky.social

From humble beginnings @unswbabs.bsky.social this research has passed along multiple hands to bring together two of my greatest loves…archaea and stromatolites. Fantastic team spearheaded with fellow PIs of the ‘Asgard Dream Team' @iduggin.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social @debnathghosal.bsky.social

Proud of #RegRNALab 's student Xingyu Yan, who presented preliminary results on her PhD project. Well done Xingyu! 🌱

Also, she's been an incredible host, helping me an others sort out paying issues and providing Beijing recommendations 谢谢

#SMBE2025 @unswbabs.bsky.social

One of my favourite parts of the #IES2025 Congresses are the Roundtable Discussions, where we collectively debate major issues in the field, with audience members tagging in to provide their ideas. Later we also have the pro/con debates (also great fun)! (+ some trip photos) @unswbabs.bsky.social