Led by Investigator Scientist @hongmiaohu.bsky.social, @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division have produced the first ever structure of telomerase from yeast.
Read more here: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
#LMBResearch #cryoEM 🧪
Microscopic view of a glowing, irregularly shaped primordial germ cell with long protrusions with purple and green fluorescence against a dark blue background.
How do primordial germ cells (PGCs) migrate across a developing embryo?
#LMBResearch from Katharine Goodwin and Kate McDole (@cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social) uncovers the mechanisms PGCs use in mouse embryos to navigate this long and surprisingly risky journey.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
Person on ladder adjusting clock hands against a sky transitioning from day to night.
New #LMBResearch led by @drbatmo.bsky.social in John O’Neill’s group (@cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social) has identified the molecular switch decides day or night.
Click here to read how the mTOR pathway controls when mammals are active and the role it’s played in evolution: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
How did life arise from simple chemical building blocks?
New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
Structure with different colours marking the tethered agonist of ADGLR4, its connection to Gq and the lack of connection to other G units.
Revealing the hidden switch behind aggressive cancers.
ADGRL4 in its active state by David Favara in Chris Tate’s group, reveals how a G-protein couples & highlights activation method, paving the way for new cancer therapies.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/revealing-th...
#LMBResearch #CryoEM
A multidisciplinary study from @igreger.bsky.social’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division details the rich diversity of GluA4 AMPA receptors in the cerebellum.
Read more here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/distinct-amp...
#LMBResearch
SynHG logo, with letters Syn coloured orange, H represented by an image of a paired chromosome, followed by capital G in black.
New pipeline to implant human chromosomes into mouse cells and back again signals first step in mammoth undertaking to synthesise the human genome.
Read more about the achievement from LMB’s PNAC Division as part of the SynHG project: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/transplant-o...
#LMBResearch
Chris Russo and Anastasiia Gusach have developed a new method to prepare #cryoEM samples that avoids protein damage during freezing
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/a-new-method...
#LMBResearch
Providing order amongst constant traffic: #LMBResearch from Sean Munro (@cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social) with John Briggs (@mpibiochem.bsky.social) reveals how GOLPH3 allows COPI vesicles to distinguish between Golgi residents & ER-bound proteins.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/protein-sort...
Structure of telomerase dimer with key catalytic codes and H/ACA RNPs highlighted with schematic illustrating how dimer disruption leads to shortened telomeres and disease mutations of the dimers causes premature ageing diseases
Sebastian Balch, Zala Sekne & Elsa Franco-Echevarría in @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social's group have confirmed the existence of dimeric telomerase and illustrated how it is key to telomere maintenance:
www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/first-struct...
#LMBResearch @yiliangding.bsky.social @rdaslab.bsky.social 🧪
A car labelled ‘Pol II’ drives down a road. In front of the car, clouds labelled ‘TCR complex’ and ‘RECQL5’ each respectively hold up a ‘keep going’ sign and a ‘slow’ sign.
Spearheaded by PhD student Luojia Zhang, @suyangzhang.bsky.social’s group have identified a model mechanism for regulating transcription elongation speed, balancing efficient gene expression and genome stability.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/how-recql5-a...
#LMBResearch #cryoEM 🧪
Cryo-EM maps of GluA2/TARP-γ2 (red) and GluA3/TARP-γ2 (green)
New research from @igreger.bsky.social group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, show that GluA3 adopts a structural organization that substantially diverges from all the other AMPA receptors.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/architecture...
#LMBResearch
Mary Catchpole has become the first person to be treated for APDS, a rare inherited disorder identified by a collaborative Cambridge team, including Roger Williams’ group in the LMB’s PNAC Division.
Read more: www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...
#LMBResearch 🧪
How did life on Earth begin? 🌍🧬
New #LMBResearch from Phil Holliger’s group, including James Attwater (now @uclchemistry.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social) shows how pH-freeze-thaw cycles enables RNA self-replication, overcoming a key evolutionary hurdle.
Read more: www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...
Parhyale hawaiensis, a small translucent crustacean
New #LMBResearch from Michael Hastings’ group with David Wilcockson at @aberdlsagb.bsky.social (@aberuni.bsky.social) reveals that crustaceans have two distinct internal clock systems in parallel brain regions to keep track of changing daily & tidal rhythms.
Read more: tinyurl.com/fvazmhkk
🧪 🕙
Artistic representation of the complex dynamics exhibited by “clock proteins” within the brain.
Uncovering the hidden complexity behind the brain’s master clock.
New research led by @nsmyllie.bsky.social, in Michael Hastings’s group, reveals that body clock proteins PER2 & CRY1 act more independently than previously thought:
www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/uncovering-t...
#LMBResearch 🧪 🕙 🧠
The electron cryo-microscope adapted for use at liquid nitrogen temperatures within its custom-made black box.
A colder frontier in cryo-EM 🧪🔬
Chris Russo’s group, inc. Joshua Dickerson, adapted #cryoEM to work at liquid helium temperatures (13 kelvins), where every frame captured contains more information than the equivalent using liquid nitrogen (81 kelvins).
Read more: tinyurl.com/mwwcunkc
#LMBResearch
Schematic illustrating the structural changes undergone by MukBEF SMC complex during DNA capture and ingestion.
How do SMC complexes capture DNA? 🧪
Led by Frank Bürmann, Jan Löwe’s & Mark Dillingham’s groups have identified the directional loading mechanism the bacterial SMC complex MukBEF uses to capture & ingest DNA, & found a phage inhibitor to this pathway.
Read more: tinyurl.com/4s8nrrkk
#LMBResearch
A drawing of two figures standing behind a DNA double helix. The figure in the rear is reading a scroll titled ‘LINE-1’, whilst the figure in the foreground is pulling apart the DNA double helix to glue in a new, red strand labelled ‘LINE-1’. The foreground figure has ‘ORF2p’ written across the chest and a bottle of paste at its feet.
How does LINE-1 remodel human DNA to insert its sequence throughout the genome?
Led by @automnenine.bsky.social, @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social's group conducted a structural investigation into the molecular mechanisms behind retrotransposition of LINE-1.
Read more: tinyurl.com/4wunsj5e
#LMBResearch 🧪
Evolution, structure and membrane remodelling function of the ESCRT-III superfamily in eukaryotes and their closest relatives Asgard archaea. The two subfamilies, B-type and A-type, have distinct structural properties to perform sequential steps of the membrane remodelling pathway.
New research on ancient Asgard archaeal ESCRT-III proteins reveals evolutionary secrets of membrane remodelling.
Diorge Souza, Javier Espadas and Sami Chaaban, investigated the ESCRT-III proteins with Buzz Baum and Aurelien Roux.
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/asgard-archa...
#LMBResearch (1/2)
Cartoon showing two people working at a conveyer belt which is processing Pol II complexes. Aberrant Pol II complexes are being removed from the conveyer belt and placed in recycling or rubbish bins. This represents the checkpoint formed by CRL3ARMC5 ubiquitin ligase and Integrator phosphatase which controls the quality and quantity of transcription complexes on genes.
Mechanism of quality control of gene expression revealed by @anatv.bsky.social & @scottbscience.bsky.social’s groups in study of Pol II molecules.
Read more about the work, led by Roberta Cacioppo, Alexander Gillis, Iván Shlamovitz & Andrew Zeller: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/newly-identi...
#LMBResearch
Model depicting the early steps during production of a membrane protein
Huping Wang and Manu Hegde, in @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social have found a factor that accelerates protein deliveries to the endoplasmic reticulum
Click here to read more about it: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/discovery-of...
#LMBResearch
Cryo-Et image of a brain extracellular vesicle
Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon’s @brfalcon.bsky.social group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, with Karen Duff's group at the UK DRI, have discovered that tau filaments are tethered to the membranes of extracellular vesicles in #Alzheimers
Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/cryo-et-reve...
#LMBResearch
