We got a new preprint just published. Here, we redesigned double-stranded RNA binding domains to inhibit the RNA helicase DHX9 through a highly specific interface. A proof of principle for inhibitor design based on autoregulatory domains. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Peer Bork - personal thoughts | Ewan Birney Personal thoughts on the passing of Peer Bork

I have been one of the many people across the world impacted by the sudden death of Peer Bork - a friend, colleague and remarkable scientist. I now have enough time this weekend to write some personal thoughts about Peer. www.linkedin.com/posts/ewan-b...

Mechanistic insights into recruitment and regulation of the RNA helicase UPF1 in replication-dependent histone mRNA decay - Nature Communications Replication-dependent histone mRNA decay involves the RNA helicase UPF1, the histone stem-loop binding protein SLBP and the exoribonuclease 3’hExo. Here, the authors present evidence for assembly of a...

Congratulations to Sutapa Chakrabarti on this exciting publication:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

TRIM2 E3 ligase substrate discovery reveals zinc-mediated regulation of TMEM106B in the endolysosomal pathway - EMBO Reports TRIM2 is a mammalian E3 ligase with particularly high expression in Purkinje neurons, where it contributes to neuronal development and homeostasis. The understanding of ubiquitin E3 ligase function hi...

Finally! Our work on TRIM2/TMEM106B is published: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
It was a long journey and hopefully more to come. Who would have thought that the IDR of TMEM106B is responsible for its dimerization via Zn binding. With implications on lysosome assembly.

The story of how multiple RBPs cooperate to repress translation is now out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social by @marcopayr.bsky.social and in a great collaboration with @hennig-lab.bsky.social!

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Congrats to the Grünewald, Topf groups & et. al @cssbhamburg.bsky.social on their Nature paper! 📃 🍾

Trapping and resolving the elusive prefusion form of HSV gB - neutralizing HSV-1 & HSV-2 with a single nanobody is no small feat!🦙

Glad that our SPC facility have contributed to this work!@embl.org

Happy to share my first publication, where we present our discovery of multi-chaperone condensates that orchestrate protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Hey Bob, just dock the AF3 prediction into density and deposit"

With Instagram-ready spike ball pictures (pay attention to the sun beam! 😇).

Instagram-ready group picture from our lab hike

Indeed!

The most expensive bike stand in the world! 😢

A direct interaction between the RNA-binding proteins Staufen and Tm1-I/C in the oskar mRNA transport complex Gaber et al. identify a direct protein-protein interaction between the oskar mRNA transport particle components Staufen and Tropomyosin1-I/C. They map the interaction surface at amino acid resolution ...

If you are interested in cellular RNA transport, check out Simone Heber's first corresponding author paper: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Very cool stuff about motor switching to get the transport direction right. Collaboration between the Ephrussi, Niessing. Hennig, Chao and Heber groups.

Happy to see @embl.org highlight our work on protein design at Korbel group with @typaslab.bsky.social and @hennig-lab.bsky.social !
Working with everyone was a blast and helping to bring our software to production at DenovAI was quite the exciting experience.

Happy to announce the first paper from my PhD at Korbel group at @embl.org has finally been published:
embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038…
Collaborating with @typaslab.bsky.social, @hennig-lab.bsky.social and the EMBL PEPCF, we designed de novo inhibitors to a bacterial phage defense system 1/🧵

Check it out if you are interested in designing your own protein binders to any protein target. It works (see example in the article).

AlphaDesign: a de novo protein design framework based on AlphaFold | Molecular Systems Biology imageimageAlphaDesign combines hallucination and sequence generation to design various classes of proteins, from monomers to oligomers and site-specific binders. AlphaDesign was applied to design in v...

New publication by the Korbel group @embl.org. Very cool new protein design pipeline. We just validated some of the designs for them by NMR . See below for more.
AlphaDesign: a de novo protein design framework based on AlphaFold | Molecular Systems Biology www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

We did it in 8:43 h! A great team and leaders. So much fun. Thanks to everyone who has donated 😍! If you still want to donate it is possible until this Friday (20th of June): egeninsamling.brostcancerforbundet.se/fundraisers/...

After Vätternrundan

Medal show-off ;-)

Splits at different time checks

Optimal conditions :-)

Last Saturday I rode the Vätternrundan with the charity organization "I move for cancer" to raise money for breast cancer research. The goal was to finish the ride of 315 km around beautiful lake Vättern faster than 9 h.

Think corporate elites should not control our rights and freedom? Sign - Greenpeace International Billionaires and corporations are tightening their grip on our democracies — and silencing dissent. They weaken protections for people and the planet, bankroll politicians who serve their interests, c...

Billionaires are attacking our rights, our media, and our freedom. It’s time to resist. I just signed this petition—add your name and be part of the movement: act.gp/3Rqfnlz #TimeToResist

Vätternrundan 315 km under 9:00 h with IMFC: 14th of June 2025 The goal is to finish one of the biggest bike events of the world in under 9:00 h (315 km, average riding speed 37 km/h, on the 14th of June 2025), while supporting cancer research (specifically breas...

If you are inclined to support cancer research, check this out and donate. You also keep me motivated 😁: egeninsamling.brostcancerforbundet.se/fundraisers/...

Single-molecule multimodal timing of in vivo mRNA synthesis mRNA synthesis requires extensive pre-mRNA maturation, the organisation of which remains unclear. Here, we directly sequence pre-mRNA without metabolic labelling or amplification to resolve transcript...

The timeline of co-transcriptional #mRNA processing and #modification may have to be revised: cleavage, termination, and #m6A deposition may occur earlier than most #splicing! Potential textbook changing study in bioRxiv by edueyras.bsky.social & Rippei Hayashi labs!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

“We've arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces.”

~ Carl Sagan

Genome-wide mapping of mesoscale neuronal RNA organization and condensation Subcellular RNA organization can affect critical cellular functions. However, our understanding of RNA microenvironments, particularly biomolecular condensates, remains limited, largely due to a lack ...

What drives cytoplasmic mRNA organization? We created unbiased, genome-wide maps of mesoscale RNA-RNA spatial proximity, revealing impact of encoded protein function. Fantastic work from @lindsayabecker.bsky.social @sofiquinodoz.bsky.social @davidaknowles.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Astronomers Detect a Signature of Life on a Distant Planet (Gift Article) Further studies are needed to determine whether K2-18b, which orbits a star 120 light-years away, is inhabited, or even habitable.

120 light years from Earth, there's a planet that may be covered in a living ocean. Here's my story on a tantalizing hint of life beyond the Solar System. Gift link: nyti.ms/3GbrEaZ 🧪

Looks like the evidence for this weird chemical abundance in an exoplanet atmosphere has gotten stronger with new JWST data: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/s...

Is it really a sign of life? That’s still not clear; lots of analysis left to do. But it’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out! 🧪 🔭

Ever wondered how several individual RBPs cooperate to repress translation?

Lead by @marcopayr.bsky.social and in great collaboration with @hennig-lab.bsky.social, we simultaneously tracked the binding of several proteins to single mRNA molecules in real-time!

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

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

🧵 8/8 Combining different methodologies (smFRET, NMR, reporter gene assays) we developed a framework that can now be used to study similar processes in other biological systems! 🧬 #single-molecule #FRET #RNA #translation #Biophysics

🧵 7/8 Why this matters: Understanding these molecular mechanisms helps us grasp how cells regulate their genes through different complex assembly mechanisms