It's finally out! Molecular architecture of mammalian AP3:ARF1 carriers - a mechanism for lysosomal membrane protein trafficking - from a combination of #biochemistry, #cryoET and #cellbiology 📝 Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 Thread: subsequently #teamtomo #membranetrafficking

The architecture of carriers formed by AP3:ARF1 for lysosomal membrane protein transport: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Work from @jggkaufman.bsky.social, in collaboration with @dgershlick.bsky.social and David Owen. @mpibiochem.bsky.social @thecimr.bsky.social

Wouldn't it be wonderful if this was the picture across all ARC grant schemes, all the time?! My guess: Having curtailed many schemes while expecting to implement a whole new grant system, the ARC now have more money to spend per scheme while that new system is delayed pending Ministerial approval.

That's a whopping $100M invested in grants! Wow. Despite huge number of applications – presumably 'coz this is the last advertised round of Linkage Projects – there's enough money to give a success rate of 44%! Normally only ~175 grants are *submitted* in round 2, but here 178 have been funded.

Absolutely extraordinary work from Hui Gao, John Briggs and co @mpibiochem.bsky.social on the structure of the influenza matrix protein in situ, particularly in filamentous virions. It's beautiful, and answers questions I've been wondering about for twenty years www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀? If so, I recommend diving into this FREE microscopy course 👉 www.ibiology.org/online-biology-courses/microscopy-series/

ARC says they'll announce Linkage Projects outcomes tomorrow, for 2025 round 2 👇 The selection meeting for these grants was held in NOVEMBER last year – 5 months ago 🤯

Australia: 13 Australian Research Council grants vetoed by minister on security grounds (subscriber content): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...

Here is Steve's slightly remorseful 'I have done shenanigans' face....

#Lightsheet imaging of early #zebrafish development. Credit to @loicaroyer.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Our latest study of the scavenger receptor CD163, led by Richard Zhou. This follows our previous study of how CD163 uses its remarkable molecular architecture to bind haptoglobin-haemoglobin. We now show how its flexible arms allow haemoglobin binding, revealing how ligand promiscuity works.

🎤Welcoming @hendersonlab.bsky.social to @bactivac.bsky.social ANM26! 📅 10–12 Nov 2026, Rio, Brazil 💉 Agnostic approaches to vaccine design: developing a pan serovar #Salmonella #vaccine 👉 bit.ly/ANM26 #BactiVacEvents #AMR @wellcometrust.bsky.social @britsocimm.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org

I feel I should alert Bluesky to the baby foxes in our yard

It's out! 🥳 In situ architecture of #plasmodesmata - plant cytoplasmic bridges - by #cryoET. 📝 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵 Thread: bsky.app/profile/madi... #teamtomo #proteomics #AlphaFold

Minister @jasonclaremp.bsky.social has vetoed funding for 13 ARC grants based on security grounds. “Security” is the only way they can veto individual grants anymore* (not just a whim like under the previous legislation). From ARC's “Update on Research Security” 👇 www.arc.gov.au/news-and-pub...

#LinkageProjects #LP25r2 Given the Minster has vetoed 3 LP25r2 grants, I guess we should expect the outcomes to be announced shortly? ARC said increased security checking was why they increased processing time-frames and blew out announcement windows from 2 weeks to 3 months, right? Right? 🤔

Here is a very important video of an otter having his head stroked.

The kind of paper that makes you love this job. Amazing and very complete study! Galvanin, a direct electric-field sensor during cell migration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Wow - this is just amazing. Hui Guo and colleagues from John Briggs’ lab use cryoEM helical reconstruction to discover how filamentous influenza virion assembly is directed by multiple conformations of M1 - explaining how NA is concentrated at the proximal pole. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Whenever a big discourse comes up about Bluesky I maintain my long standing view that this is the only perspective to have on posting here

This is Teo. He is conducting a very thorough sniff inspection. Not saying that giving him a treat will help you pass, but it wouldn’t hurt either. 12/10 (IG: itagure_teo_kobe)

Extremely excited about the results of @adaptyv.bio RBX1 binder design competition! 𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒅𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕2 performed very well, with 3 out of 7 designs binding to the disordered tail. Overall, only 9 binders worked out of 322 tested, 2.8% hit rate! Proud of the BC2 team ♥️ (Erik, Liza, Leo)

#ARCSenateOrder Apr26: The ARC made no grant recommendations in April. See https://www.arc.gov.au/about/our-organisation/reporting/senate-requirements/agency-grants-pratt-motion /bot

#ARCschedule May26 More than half way through 3-month (!) outcomes window for Linkage Projects (LP25r2). Other events: 🔹Rejoinders open: Linkage Projects and DECRAs Data ▶️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

In my lab we always assumed that reported protein-protein interactions based on cellular observations were wrong. Empirically we could reproduce less than half with purified proteins. In lots of cases there was probably an intervening component the authors just hadn’t considered.

How do Endosomes dance? Looks like a waltz? Or maybe the more of a cèilidh? Cells expressing the PI(3)P probe imaged every 5s for ~15min. Currently preparing a really exciting paper about the regulation of endosomal PI(3)P homeostasis. Stay tuned!

This isn’t the ARC, but I can easily imagine it happening to an ARC scheme: The Government cancelled the Australia’s Economic Accelerator scheme, **including the round of submitted proposals currently under review**. Absolutely gutting for researchers involved. Enraging, and outrageous!

Bingo! Do I win a prize now?

TIR-like NADases act in bacterial immunity and the RNA vault https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.01.722283v1

Nice paper by Ji Sun and Dario Alessi labs describing multiple distinct Rab GTPase binding sites in the LRRK2 kinase involved in Parkinson Disease.

Too real.

Thrilled to see this work published. Thanks to helpful reviewer suggestions, there are some exciting new insights that were not in the preprint (particularly in Figure 4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is Gemini. She's at the vet because she keeps flying away. Luckily it's just a harmless case of airplane ears. 12/10 (IG: apolloandgem)

Our story on RNA recognition by Egl-BicD is now published! Also delighted to share the accompanying News & Views article by Florence Besse and Andres Ramos, which beautifully highlights the work. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... News & Views: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Someone out there decided it would be a good idea to put a German Shepherd in charge of babysitting a bunch of Doberman puppies and they were 100% correct

We’re just innocent men

'Look, it's going to be an easy paper. Trust me. Six months. Tops'

We're super excited to share MissAlignment: a new ML-based approach to reference-free tilt series alignment, spearheaded by @martenchaillet.bsky.social. We think it's going to make your cryo-ET life a lot better. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Code: github.com/warpem/miss-... 🧶 Thread:

I don’t know how to feel about grant rejections anymore. When you get a score that would have been funded at any other point in history, except right now, how bad can you feel? I see scores from friends and colleagues (and my own) and it just breaks my heart more than anything.

James Vines, Jason King @jasonkinglab.bsky.social and colleagues find that PIKfyve facilitates phagocyte fusion with macropinosomes during maturation. Highlight: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... Article: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

#microtubules in orange hot, #F-actin greyscale, Fibroblast, spinning disc. @marcoenriquez18.bsky.social @aibnatuq.bsky.social #fluorescenceFriday

I've been fortunate to have @marcoenriquez18.bsky.social a #materialsChemist in my team. Cytoskeletal elements are often studied on their own but in reality, the #cytoskeleton is biopolymer network that is intricately intertwined. (#Award winning movie Light Microscopy Aus). @aibnatuq.bsky.social

oooh #cytoskeleton! New paper in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social using cryo-expansion microscopy (cryo-ExM) to visualize the 3D architecture of human T cell synapses and cytotoxic organelles. 😍https://lnkd.in/eU9u8vN

Can we use #proteindesign to develop countermeasures before viruses cause pandemics? We describe the computational design of an ultrapotent and broadly neutralizing deltacoronavirus miniprotein in our latest work led by Nathan Avery @hhmi-science.bsky.social 1/12 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New preprint from the lab, looking at how multiple different adaptors interact with dynein! Work led by @amicoennio.bsky.social. Available now on BioRxiv: doi.org/10.64898/202...

It's an important occasion today, but Steve and Brad are having trouble getting dressed. They're trying their best.

The project focuses on combining state-of-the-art #ProteinDesign methods and #MolecularDynamics techniques to engineer and optimize Immunoglobulin G–degrading enzymes (Ide). More details here: www.tigem.it/newsroom/car...

The high-speed logistics of a lung cancer cell. Watch GFP-Rab25 (Gold) move cargo through the internal recycling pathway of A549 cells. Static maps are great, but time-lapse shows the real traffic. Want your science/tech to be highlighted? DM me at Viroscope!

I do this all the time. With recent grants, sometimes old grants. With papers. With talks that I think went well. I don't think it's time wasted. It's about learning what good looks like, and reminding yourself that sometimes you can be good. 2 of the most important things for an academic.