Spindle squad #SpindleCroatia2026 #Dubrovnik www.phy.pmf.unizg.hr/~mitosis/

The conference “Mitotic spindle: From living and synthetic systems to theory” is open! www.phy.pmf.unizg.hr/~mitosis/ Follow us #SpindleCroatia2026!

New preprint from the lab! Our awesome @lillianwu.bsky.social drove this project with contributions from @kezlane.bsky.social @alison-harrod.bsky.social and collaborators @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social @chromatinlab.bsky.social and @claudioalfieri.bsky.social #CENP-B www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Quite a few seemingly improbable hypotheses when Verena ‪@vcmentowski.bsky.social‬ started the project Single-handedly, she dissected the kinetochore corona assembly mechanism. Congratulations!

Big congrats to our SFB alumna @vcmentowski.bsky.social on receiving the Bayer Pharmaceuticals PhD Award! Her work (previously also conducted in @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social's lab) reveals how CENP-E orchestrates kinetochore corona assembly and links it to mitotic checkpoint signaling. 🎉

The Bayer Pharmaceuticals #PhDAward of the #GBM is presented to Verena Cmentowski for her PhD thesis on the „Assembly principles of the kinetochore corona and their relevance for mitotic checkpoint signaling“. Congratulations, Verena! #MK2026

We are excited to be recruiting into 3 Associate Professorship's in @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. Come join us as a colleague and benefit from our vibrant and multidisciplinary environment. Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! (tinyurl.com/48deybuu) (tinyurl.com/4pdvjaft).

Opportunities! Four PhD positions focusing on "Synthetic cells (SynCells) as a smart-responsive healthcare technology" at Imperial College London

Do you work on DNA or RNA protein complexes? 🧬 Come to Machines on Genes this June in Crete! ☀️ Super early discount is ending this Sunday so register now! 😃

My answer: xtallization in vitro can't predict xtallization in cells as: 1) The crystallising object is different in cells (binding, PTMs, etc.) 2) Cytosol and crystallisation buffer are distinct solvents For precisely the same reasons, LLPS in this assay does not predict LLPS in vivo

If I claimed this liquid-to-solid phase transition assay on a pure protein in vitro predicts the same transition to happen in cells, what counterarguments would you raise? Would the same counterarguments apply to a liquid-to-liquid phase transition assay on the same pure protein in vitro?

@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"

Our paper is now out in Nature: “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres. 1/14

1/ This is a nice and thorough study that "does not strongly support a homotypic phase-separation-based model" and supports sequence and "chemically specific interactions" for IDRs. On the conceptual level, the title suggests general mechanistic conclusions can be inferred...

We're launching a research lab at SMART. Shenzhen Medical Academy for Research and Translation is a newly established institute with long-term funding mechanisms for internal and external investigators. At full capacity SMART aims to support up to 400 labs. www.scmp.com/news/china/s...

Two new papers from the lab published in The EMBO Journal! link.springer.com/article/10.1... By Kai Walstein, @louisa-hill.bsky.social and others – On role of M18BP1 in CENP-A loading link.springer.com/article/10.1... By Arianna Esposito Verza and others – On mechanism of activation of PLK1

See also the great News&Views comment by Monica Gobran and @plenart.bsky.social - highlighting all three papers! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Additional complementary evidence by Arianna Esposito Verza, @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social et al link.springer.com/article/10.1... and by Anais Pillan, Lionel Pintard @ccdlab.bsky.social et al link.springer.com/article/10.1... in our sister journal @embojournal.org

Arianna Esposito Verza, @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social et al describe the long-sought-after mechanism of Bora dependency of PLK1 activation by Aurora A kinase during mitotic entry Another #RefereedPreprint ℅ @reviewcommons.org link.springer.com/article/10.1...

AlphaFold protein interaction modeling tutorial and workshop thenode.biologists.com/https-www-yo...

Alessandro Costa @costalaboratory.bsky.social, Dana Branzei and myself are co-organising the 2026 Machines on Genes meeting in beautiful Crete as the 94th Harden Conference hosted by @biochemsoc.bsky.social Register now - lots of opportunities for selected talks www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f...

He is neither an aide nor a diplomat, yet Giuliano da Empoli's books have in recent years become some of the most fashionable reading for those in Europe’s halls of power. 🔗 politi.co/4pREopi (This story was first published in September.)

The discovery of the first kinetochore proteins (CENP-A, CENP-B, CENP-C) was reported by Bill Earnshaw and Naomi Rothfield in 1985 in Chromosoma. Forty years later, Chromosoma/Chromosome Research has published a special issue (most articles are open access) link.springer.com/collections/...

Self-citations are not elegant, yet I feel that much of what we need to know about the robustness of "LLPS scaffolds" is summarized in this figure doi.org/10.1016/j.mo...

Give the laurels to the one who earned them. A thread that aims to attribute credits to the originators of important ‘firsts’ This is on the making. Please contribute to accurate historical records with comments and reading recommendations 🧵👇

If interactions were “fuzzy”, AlphaFold would not be here

Hi everybody, I quickly rebuilt the site (yeah!), and I have also added a few new posts. This thread contains pointers 🧵👇

Is the LLPS paradigm incompatible with how molecular biologists view compartment assembly? 🧵👇 A thread

My public critiques of LLPS models have not been addressed At his plenary at FEBS2025, @hymanlab.bsky.social showed a slide with a page of my EMBO Commentary. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but he accompanied it with an assurance that even stringent critiques of LLPS had been addressed.

ChatGTP on the Scaffold-Client dichotomy If you test this on other language models or other instantiations of the initial question, what answer do you get?

- Workforce cuts reported at Dewpoint Therapeutics, a company with Hyman, Young, and Sharp as scientific co-founders (dewpointx.com/about-us/), with reported overall financing of ~290 M US$. european-biotechnology.com/latest-news/... www.statnews.com/2025/08/07/d...

Several people, close and distant, have reached out to me to express their concern that my critique of the LLPS field and more specifically of the role of @hymanlab.bsky.social is personally motivated. I thank them for expressing their concerns.

Dont think liquidity is anything that can be inferred. I used to FRAP clathrin coated pits a lot during my PhD. They are very ordered lattices and recover in seconds. Wonderful dynamic structures but very much not liquid

Nothing! I note that in Table 1 of doi.org/10.1101/gad.... LLPS papers (collectively) conclude that a blob is a condensate whether or not it recovers, fast or slow. To be fair, FRAP data is very difficult to interpret. But it cannot be a diagnostic test if any outcome is taken to mean the same.

Little test: This is a FRAP experiment on a protein localized to a condensate (an object that concentrates biological macromolecules). Fluorescence in one of the brightest dots is bleached. Recovery half time is a few seconds. What does this say about the internal liquidity of the object?

Any protein crystallographer will tell you that almost any concentrated pure protein in isolation in a simple buffer can be made to phase separate in vitro. It’s an artefact.

How does messenger RNA (mRNA) get out of the nucleus to become a protein? Eukaryotic mRNA is packaged, exported, and then translated in the cytoplasm. But how do these steps work? And what are open questions? Check out our new review for our take: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (1/3)

Join us in Lunteren, the Netherlands on March 5 & 6, 2026 for the 32nd Dutch Cancer Biology meeting. We have two fantastic keynote speakers: @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social and @colindascheele.bsky.social and the rest of the program will be by early-career scientists. Info: www.dutchcancerbiology.nl

Cliff’s eloquent counter arguments…

Why IDPs Are Poor Candidates for Homotypic LLPS 🧵👇A thread

Why LLPS Scaffolds Cannot Exist – A Thermodynamic Thread If you consider arguments logical, please share. Else please expose logical faults 🧵👇

The review by Banani, Lee, Hyman & Rosen (NRMCB 2017) www.nature.com/articles/nrm... on biomolecular condensates has >6000 citations. It… 1. Introduced a broad definition of “biomolecular condensates,” promoting acceptance that a unifying mechanism may underlie all membrane-less compartments.

Sono spesso critico con quanto leggo sul Corriere, ma qui la direzione ha fatto la scelta secondo me giusta -- esponendo inoltre quell'insulso propagandista per il ridicolo pagliaccio che è, ovvero un censore che si lagna per la censura 🤡

Our latest research in collaboration with @nilssonlab.bsky.social, @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social and Mathieu Bollen reveals a new regulatory strategy employed by cells to control PP1 in mitosis. Check it out in @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Il Quirinale non ha niente da ridire su una presidente del Consiglio che definisce le opposizioni peggiori di un gruppo terroristico responsabile di violenze su civili inermi? Nessuno ha da ridire, tra i tanti che la definiscono una moderata statista?

If you are interesting in developing new algorithms for #cryoEM as a #PhD student or as a #postdoc, then do email or DM me. We have exciting opportunities coming up.

Below (by @landerlab.bsky.social) is the 2nd #cryosparc recipe on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social in a month. I remain worried about closed-source software affecting progress in #cryoEM. We should develop new algorithms instead! #OpenSoftwareAcceleratesScience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Integrated MSc/PhD Graduate Program applications are now open! mattertolife.maxplanckschools.org/application Get an impression about our program and science: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ni1.... Apply now and become part of our vibrant student body. Spread the word!

The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle