The ChimeraX DAQplugin computes DAQ scores showing the agreement between atomic models and cryoEM maps. Available from ChimeraX menu Tools / More Tools. cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu/apps/chimera...

I've reviewed about 150 CVs in the past few days. A few observations: (1) I am sooo impressed by the talent pool out there; (2) do not try to make your CV fit onto one page if it makes things difficult to read - just go multipage, keeping the key messages upfront;

Happy to finally share the amazing results of our long-term collaboration with Karin Reinisch’s lab on how bridge lipid-transfer proteins (BLTPs) cooperate with partner proteins to orchestrate lipid delivery. A quick thread (1/7) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This figure captures how challenging the #cryoEM analysis was, but it doesn't capture the challenges we had to solve in molecular biology, biochemistry, purification, and functional testing. Every step was hard! So glad to see it available.

NEW article by me! We can now visualize pathogens down to atoms; design vaccines in weeks; manufacture them in microbial factories; engineer them more precise than ever before. We're living through a golden age of vaccine development, but only if we continue to invest in them.

Structure and immunogenicity of an engineered soluble prefusion-stabilized EBV gB antigen pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41484092/ #cryoem

🌟 New Tool Alert! 
We present MemPrO – a toolkit for orienting and building membrane protein systems: 
✅ Membrane protein orientation 
✅ Mixed membrane building 
✅ Double membranes & curvature 
✅ Peptidoglycan cell wall support 🔗 github.com/pstansfeld/mempro 
📖 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Tired of drawing cilia or centrioles for slides and papers? I feel you. Check out CiliaBuilder for ChimeraX → cxtoolshed.rbvi.ucsf.edu/apps/chimera... Build custom 3D cilia & centriole models (tips + primary cilia included).

Final version is out! Our large-scale cryo-ET dataset 🔬 of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii 🦠 is now published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social Huge collaborative effort! So glad to see the community already using it to develop new resources & tools. Check it out here: shorturl.at/z4i4c #CryoEM #CryoET

Capsid flexibility during Ty1 virus-like particle assembly www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.694965v1 #cryoem

Congratulations, Julia Mahamid! Julia Mahamid receives the @dfg.de Leibniz Prize for her work on structural cell biology! #LeibnizPreis

This week, check out a new #Primer on #cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET) used for visualizing 3D structures of cells with sub-nanometer resolution. 🔬🧫 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

IsoNet2 determines cellular structures at submolecular resolution without averaging https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.09.693325v1

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Calling all postdocs! Applications are open for Dept. of Molecular Biosciences 3rd Trailblazers Postdoctoral Symposium @utaustin.bsky.social. Come to Austin, meet your peers, showcase your work. Application is easy and all expenses are paid! Spread the word! tinyurl.com/yw7ffjn9

Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.

Prohibitins aren’t hanging out just anywhere in the membrane — they prefer the 💁‍♀️💎✨VIP section💅🪩🥂 Lab all-star @mmedina300kv.bsky.social maps these microdomains using cryo-ET + surface morphometrics. s/o to #teamtomo #cryoET co-authors @hamid13r.bsky.social @attychang.bsky.social @baradlab.com

IFL Science: “Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How” "We think it applies to 100% of lupus” cases." www.iflscience.com/lupus-linked...

MPI–Weizmann Postdoc (4-year, co-mentored) Together with Ori Avinoam (Weizmann), we’re recruiting a postdoc to uncover membrane remodelling mechanisms in muscle development using cryo-EM of recombinant proteins, and cell imaging/CLEM. Apply here by 21.11.25 forms.gle/ZtDWUjcTBu4d...

Excited for Adam Klivans and my other colleagues at UT working in the AI space!

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Glad to see our antibody design paper finally out in @nature.com (and congrats to lead authors and everyone involved )! At Xaira we are excited about pushing antibody design further to bind harder targets and make drugs for unmet medical needs. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️ Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Glushkova, Böhm, & Beck @maxplanck.de develop a publicly available computational method to measure the thickness of biological membranes in cryo-electron tomograms. Analysis of algae & human cells reveals systematic membrane thickness variations within & across organelles rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Systematic membrane thickness variation across cellular organelles revealed by cryo-ET pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41186573/ #cryoem

Lessons learned from a Kaggle challenge for particle picking in cryo-electron tomography [new] Kaggle cryo-ET picking: Over-pick tol, aug, & annot key.

Just completed 100 miles at Austin rolling through Texas Hill Country. The event is 2025 LiveStrong Challenge to support cancer research. Feeling blessed!

We are looking for a computational postdoc to work with us on new optimisation algorithms to make #RELION even better. Join our bubbly team at the @mrclmb.bsky.social in Cambridge, UK. 🤗 RTs appreciated. mrc.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

Ever seen a pumpkin under a microscope? 🎃🔬 This Halloween, Raymond Wightman & Daniel Sparrow used @slcuplants.bsky.social’s powerful imaging tools to reveal: 🔬 Skin detail with the #Keyence microscope 💡 Beta-carotene via #Raman spectroscopy ❄️ Flash-frozen oval cells via cryo-SEM #HappyHalloween

New lab preprint! @zestytoast.bsky.social tagged a scarce mycobacterial protein in M. smegmatis with TwinStep but got… something? @kjamali.bsky.social's ModelAngelo built models & @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's FoldSeek IDed them as the biotin-containing MCC & LCC complexes 🧵 tinyurl.com/ukny4ptz

The biophysics class I taught recently did kinesin walks hand-over-hand model (2004, Science), with reference to the inchworm model (2002,Science). Students discussed danced to mimic the two models, super fun! Thanks to the shortage of giant squid due to meteorological disturbance El Niño in 1983!

Another undergraduate paper discussion today! This time we are doing Ron Vale's 1985 kinesin trifecta. Focusing on [1] & [3]. 🧪🔬 [1] www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... [2] www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... [3] www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... [4] www.ibiology.org/cell-biology...

Our colleagues Vinith Kishore and Valentin Debarnot from the @ivandokmanic.bsky.social lab have come up with an amazing deep learning tool for denoising and filling the missing wedge in #cryoET data. I'm pleased to introduce Icecream🍧

“Kiss-shrink-run” unifies mechanisms for synaptic vesicle exocytosis and hyperfast recycling | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share a new chapter of my scientific journey in Chris Russo's group — developing a way to freeze proteins faster than they diffuse, paving the way for cryo-EM without air–water interface damage.

During these uncertain times, I’m very happy to see that my institution, @scripps.edu has an open tenure-track Assistant Professor position. Any field in Chemistry or Biology is welcome. I’d especially love to see fellow neuroscientists apply. Please repost! apply.interfolio.com/174756

Our home department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at UC Irvine is looking to hire a new tenure-track assistant professor in the broad area of structural biology. Come be our colleague! recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09887 Please apply and/or share this post.

Hey folks! I got a tattoo of my beloved PIEZO ion channel on my arm! Now I can show how they activate (flatten) under pressure by flexing—Will add a bit of performance art to my science talks 🧪🧠.

🚀 Introducing fully automated data processing for repeat-target #cryoEM. Using new tools in #CryoSPARC, it is now possible to obtain resolutions & map quality equal to or better than manual processing, with zero user intervention. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yikes! In this paper the AlphaFold model of human plasminogen (PDB-8uq6) has been refined into noise (EMD-42462) using Phenix & ISOLDE. For some reason the authors even interpret side-chain interactions: #cryoEM

possibly stupid question - does anyone in #teamtomo or #cryoem recognize these little stacks (from EMPIAR-12549, U2OS cell lamellae)? The green circle is 300Å, and the spacing between the layers is ~50Å. The fourth, bell-shaped thing is something else, also not sure of that one..

It was wonderful to have Bijun with us @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social & @incavirus.bsky.social to finally "use our microscope to its full potential" as our core-facility put it! 🔬 Congrats to all, esp. @bijuntang.bsky.social and @xanderjones.bsky.social ! Super happy to be a part of this great story!

I was tremendously lucky to be in @xanderjones.bsky.social's lab to watch @bijuntang.bsky.social move from technician to PhD to Postdoc and produce this magnum opus. #SalicS1 is the just reward for years of brilliance and hard work.Well done Bijun, Xander, Jing, and everyone involved! #SalicylicAcid

Really cool story on a FRET biosensor by Bijun Tang @bijuntang.bsky.social and an amazing team, now published @science.org I’m so proud of your PhD work at @slcuplants.bsky.social Below is the lockdown time in 2020 when you spent long hours screening your FRET biosensor, now known as SalicS1!

I'm honored to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. As always, I extend my sincerest thanks to all my wonderful mentors, colleagues, collaborators, admins, and trainees who make this work possible. #MacFellow

The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation. From Rebecca Taylor, @katciazynska.bsky.social, @jggkaufman.bsky.social & @grigorytagiltsev.bsky.social at @mpibiochem.bsky.social with David Owen and Sean Munro's group @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social | www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very excited to announce that my first, first author paper, is now on BioRxiv! In this paper we unambiguously show #COPII coated vesicles in unperturbed human cells for the very first time!! Make my day and check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Cryo-ET #TeamTomo #Cryo-CLEM ❄️🔬❄️🔬❄️🔬❄️🔬

We’re hosting the @embo.org Practical Course on In-situ structural biology by CryoFIB and CryoET in April 2026! 🧬❄️ You can expect hands-on training, cutting-edge methods, and a chance to work alongside leading experts in structural biology. 🔗 Apply by Dec 8, 2025: meetings.embo.org/event/26-in-...

Helical Reconstruction of Amyloids in cryoSPARC? We present guidelines, limitations & future perspectives for processing amyloids in cryoSPARC @structurabio.bsky.social. Great collaboration of the Kelly Lab and @landerlab.bsky.social #cryoEM #amyloid www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Initial attempt at replicating in relion (parameters in next post). This is for Aca2-RNA, using a 100k subset of the 2D-classified particles (no prior 3D cleanup). A 1-class ab initio in relion, then local refinement in relion (1.8deg searches+blush) gives a nominally 3.3Å map; 3.5 Å w/out blush.