On this day in 2021, I landed in a snowy, lockdown-silenced Heidelberg to start my lab. 5 years later we are a force to reckon with in our field, and the first generation are striking out on their own. I couldn’t be more proud, & grateful to them and our wonderful collaborators around the world 🌍 🧪

Another #notTHECover unfortunately. But this gorgeous, Tron-like vibe, drawn by the amazing @munafomarzia.bsky.social for our recent #ExM work with @gautamdey.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social will still be printed out in the lab. Read here: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

We hope that integrating models with data will unlock new predictive capacity for mixotrophs--and beyond. Huge thanks to Ginger for scouting us, and to collaborators @suleles.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social, @fmikus.bsky.social, Julian Jacobs, and Kevin Archibald for building skills & ideas!

We’re excited to announce the opening of the Geneva Expansion Microscopy Facility (GenExM)! GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging. Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations. 👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/

Preprint alert 🔔 Organosulfur compounds support carbon and energy metabolism in chemosynthetic symbiosis. Happy to see this cool collaboration with @organosulfur.bsky.social and others out 🥳

So proud to watch Jana turn a side quest into an entire research programme. Couldn’t imagine a more well-deserved outcome. 😍 The mighty yeast reveals what we believe are general principles of centromere evolution! Behind the curtain: communities.springernature.com/posts/counti... #MEvoSky 🧪🌎

Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter doi.org/10.32942/X2M... We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process! #MicroEvoSky #ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏

How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery? Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore. 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

I’m very happy that our paper is now published in Angewandte Chemie! 👏 A Photoswitchable HaloTag for Spatiotemporal Control of Fluorescence in Living Cells. ↪️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Big thanks again to all co-authors (especially Bego) and collaborators for their contributions! 👏

New preprint 🥳! We made photoclickable HaloTag ligands to precisely control protein labeling on living cells. With it, we can do some cool multicolor stuff. Huge congrats to Franzi and all co-authors! Check it out 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It is a collaboration between my lab (Uppsala U) and the labs of @dudinlab.bsky.social (Geneva U) and @filiphusnik.bsky.social (OIST). More info and how to apply here: uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/.... (The use of AI for writing the motivation letter is discouraged and will be regarded unfavourably) 2/2

This is a glimpse of the cytoskeletal structures we found doing U-ExM in more than 200 species, now in Cell🤩: shorturl.at/6oHvi Amazing collaboration between @centriolelab.bsky.social , @dudinlab.bsky.social and @gautamdey.bsky.social labs. I believe last one is a 🕷️ #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy

(1/2) A new study from EMBL researchers and their collaborators provides unprecedented insights into the cellular architecture of over 200 species of plankton – tiny but ecologically critical marine organisms – using ultrastructure expansion microscopy. Learn more: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble! www.embl.org/groups/wollw... Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success! With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇

Excited to share my first PhD student’s @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Tracking 5 dyes simultaneously Kavan Gor @embl.org tracks nascent #RNA folding during #ribosome assembly to correlate structural with functional information on single RNA molecules! Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n #ProtistsOnSky tinyurl.com/2zxaund7

Our new #ExÂME effort with the @moorefound.bsky.social, is scaling up with T. Richards & @gautamdey.bsky.social : antibody screens, optimized protocols, open-access imaging, and community training--> all toward a shared atlas. 👉 Join us: www.dudinlab.com #ProtistsOnSky #CellBiology #Evolution

And it’s a double feature, as shown by @gautamdey.bsky.social ial & @floravincent.bsky.social for the sturdy #Diatoms! Also out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🌊 www.cell.com/current-biol...

🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny. #ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Great to see this finally published! Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples now out in @narjournal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Trip 3 and past the 100 species count! Thank you for hosting us in České Budějovice Julius and Galina (and everyone providing samples!), for the prime support, and a fantastic selection of cultures! #expandthemall @moorefound.bsky.social @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social & T. Richards

Trouble imaging actin in ExM? Meet HAK-Actin, a probe for U-ExM, cryo-ExM & iU-ExM. Enables post-expansion labeling for max signal. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Soon at @spirochrome.com Led by O.Mercey and @lreymond.bsky.social, in collab with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @marinelap.bsky.social

New paper is out! We have studied the cute tiny Discocelia plataet sp. n. to obtain the first molecular data of the order Discocelida and clarify its cell structure. All this for a better understanding of the evolution of Cercozoa. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

What could be more exciting than watching Euplotes scurry around under the microscope? How about adding some raptorial predation by supergiant cannibal cells? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Video by Vittorio Boscaro. 1/n

Want to help us image and understand those incredible samples Felix just collected at UBC - and many more? 2 more days to apply! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j... #ExM #PlanetaryCellBiology 🧪🧬🔬🌍🌱🦠

Two weeks at @ubcbotany.bsky.social are coming to an end, marking the 2nd trip for our @moorefound.bsky.social project @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social & T. Richards. Thanks for hosting @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social, @fburki.bsky.social and most importantly Denis Tikhonenkov & Vittorio!

Join our crazy beautiful project of ExM Atlas ! One more position to fill, this time for a Research Technician at @embl.org in @gautamdey.bsky.social lab. Come have fun with us !.

Want to acquire #ExM images like this and help us understand the true extent of cytoskeletal diversity across the tree of life? This position might be for you! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j... With @dudinlab.bsky.social @embl.org @biology-unige.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social

Happy to share that I defended my PhD this week! ✨✨It has been an amazing adventure full of learning, great science and incredible people here at @embl.org!✨✨ Looking forward to the next steps in my scientific journey 🔬🐟💛 If you haven't yet, check the preprint of my PhD research: bit.ly/45eBxOg

Such a pleasure to be co-organising the #Latsis Symposium this year with Guillermina ! Thanks to all the speakers & sponsors. And all our teams members who helped make this a reality. It just felt right. #Science #WildCells #ProtistsOnSky #Cell #Biology #Biophysics #Behaviour

After 5 amazing years @pilhoferlab.bsky.social I'm starting my lab @embl.org Grenoble this November embl.org/wollweber We'll image Asgard archaea and many other strange microbes ( #archaeasky, #protistsonsky..) to understand eukaryogenesis First job ad: #teamtomo scientist!🔬❄️ tinyurl.com/2rdu2ze6

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬 www.science.org/doi/full/10....

🧵 🧪 1/ Hi! I’m excited to share our latest work, now on arXiv: Repulsive particle interactions at cellular interfaces enable selective information processing (arxiv.org/abs/2506.14739) Where we explore how the physical properties of living systems can help cells process spatial information.

Excited to share the lab's 1rst preprint! Rapid high-res immunofluorescence is now possible in cultured & environmental diatoms thanks to 4-fold expansion microscopy. A step-change for comparative cell biology in one of the most important phytoplankton groups on the planet 🥳 tinyurl.com/m9s5su7s 1/2

First stop of our @moorefound.bsky.social endeavour - @bic-wur.bsky.social. Sjoerd is keeping me busy with a bunch of species and we are busy fixing and plunge freezing them for the best possible #UExM results #makeitbigger #50shadesofgreen @dudinlab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @Tom Richards

In the context of our @reviewcommons.org revision process, I'm happy to announce Microscopy Nodes v2.2.0! This packs lots of new fun features, including new color management 🌈, clearer transparency handling 🫥, custom default settings 🔧 and more! Preprint at doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The new issue is out! 👉 cell.com/cell/current On the cover, Beckwith and Brunner et al. uncover that chromosomes self-organize into their characteristic mitotic rod shape through the formation of large and extensively overlapping DNA loops 📷credit: Andreas Brunner.

Very excited to get started! 🔬🕵🏻‍♂️ If you’ve got some cool bugs, shoot us a mail! #UExM

A dream come true: the first expansion microscopy images of C. flexa 🤩 Generated by Mylan & Uzuki who learned from the best (@hiralshah.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @dudinlab.bsky.social). We will learn so much from these!

First study from the lab is out! We describe ApuRs, a new family of microbial rhodopsins unique from apusomonads. ApuRs represent the first anion-conducting rhodopsin channels that can be controlled by UV light, offering potential as new optogenetic tools. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1101/2025... 👇

In a collaboration between the @hennig-lab.bsky.social and @olivierduss.bsky.social labs we revealed how proteins work together to control gene expression through mRNA translation repression! Using single-molecule microscopy, we watched individual molecules in action. doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧵

With Guillermina Ramirez-SanJuan we are very happy to announce the upcoming Latsis Symposium " Shaping microbial life in a changing environment" over July 8-10 at #EPFL Registrations are open til May 23rd. LINK: www.epfl-latsis-2025.org

🔗 You can read the full story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #DevBio #Mechanobiology #Biophysics

🎉 Excited to share our new work: “Adhesion-driven tissue rigidification triggers epithelial cell polarity”, now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ! A huge thank you to @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social, Bernat, @crisp-c.bsky.social, Adrián, and everyone involved! 🙌 🧵⤵️

I'm super happy that our story is now published! 📖 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... But what changed compared to the original preprint? Also, I feel i should post Movie 1 🎥, that inspired the cover. Back when I did the original bluesky thread, movies were not available.

The final version of our work on the in-cell architecture of the mitochondrial respiratory chain is now online in @science.org 🎉 You can find the full story here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @verenaresch.bsky.social did a wonderful job on the cover and animation, she really brought it to life 👩‍🎨

Asgard archaea have actin - but what about microtubules? Where do they come from? 🧐 Our new paper www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... by @xujwet.bsky.social & @florianwollweber.bsky.social, in collaboration with the Schleper & Wieczorek labs, describes tiny Asgard microtubules! #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky 1/6

PhD position available in Ceske Budejovice (Czechia), funded by ERC KLEPTOS, to study plastid endosymbiosis in kleptoplastidic protists. Are you curious about this process and do you like sampling/cultivation of protists? Join our team by applying here: jobs.bc.cas.cz/en/detail/243 #protistsonsky

One of the chapters of my PhD thesis made it into a preprint last night. We found a widespread association of placozoans with Rickettsiales symbionts across host species and environments. Happy to hear your thoughts on it 🧬