Finding one mutation that improves a protein is hard. Finding five that work together is exponentially harder. Today in @science.org, Hsu and Konermann labs present MULTI-evolve, a lab-in-the-loop framework that does it in just one machine learning-guided round.

Cryogenic electron tomography by the numbers: Charting underexplored lineages in structural cell biology pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41706896/ #cryoem

New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social

Long in the making, but happy to present the Chlamydomonas chlororibosome! Cryo-ET🔬reveals a large new domain on the small subunit, built from multiple extensions in conserved ribosomal proteins. bioRxiv 📖: shorturl.at/q44tG This suggests greater chlororibosome diversity than expected! 1/n 🧵

Very happy to contribute a short section to this Methods in Molecular Biology regarding Eugleozoa. We describe large-scale Paradiplonema papillatum cultivation using carboys. Great work by postdoc Dong Woo Shin and a game changer for biochemical and structural work! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Thank you @mollyherring.bsky.social for the stunning showcase 😍 Like what you see? Come ExM with us! Let’s flood the internet with microbial marvels 🦠 #ProtistsOnSky #MicroEvoSky 🧪🔬🌍 @dudinlab.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @embl.org @erc.europa.eu @embo.org

Zombosomes, large vesicles with cell-like qualities, can spread alpha-synuclein protein clumps from astrocytes to other astrocytes, neurons, and lab-grown brain tissues. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4qSd1vP

Expansion microscopy may be the hi-res hero that many biologists have been craving.

LAST CALL! Come join me at Glasgow University for evolutionary structural biology! We have fully positions. Computational Postdoc: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research... Structural Postdoc: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research... Technician: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/technici...

Check out our new preprint! We uncover the full molecular mechanism of rotavirus membrane penetration and cytosolic escape using cryo-ET, live-cell imaging, and single-molecule assays. (1/3) 🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚀 CryoSPARC v5.0 BETA is here! We’re excited to deploy another major #CryoSPARC release to help enable and accelerate #cryoEM data analysis. v5 has a redesigned underlying software system and many new features - highlights in thread! Full changelog: cryosparc.com/updates/v5.0.0

Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae #Symbiosis #Protists #GiantViruses

👀 👀 Atomic-resolution #cryoEM at 200 keV. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Isadonna Tengganu and Ke Hu develop transfection and ExM protocols for Chromera velia, enabling direct comparisons with its parasitic apicomplexan relative, Toxoplasma gondi. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

For decades, scientists have designed drugs to slow down or block enzymes, but Tarun Kapoor wondered if tackling some diseases requires the opposite approach. We spoke with Kapoor about why speeding up an enzyme is so difficult, and how his team is cracking this problem. See the full Q&A here:

It is so exciting to see our LEA proteins playing a role in solving this insane structure. Amazing work to the authors!

The #ChlamyDataset is on the cover of @cp-molcell.bsky.social 🖼️🥰! Read @lifeonthewedge.bsky.social's great thread🧵 for the inside scoop🍨 on all the #TeamTomo developments already made possible since these 1829 tomos hit EMPIAR 🧪 🧶🧬 For more, here's the old preprint thread: bsky.app/profile/cell...

This was a really fun and interesting Molecule of the Month to do! Check out the article to see even more elaborate RNA-only structures.

Medina, Chang et al. of the @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social lab introduce a new method based on the Surface Morphometrics pipeline to measure global and local thicknesses of organellar #membranes from cellular cryo-electron tomography data. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #CryoET

New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga). 🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

It’s out! Using cryo-ET in Dicty cells, we take a fresh in situ look at vaults. Surprisingly, we uncover vaults associated with ER and NE membranes, and find that many vaults enclose ribosomes in defined orientations, opening new avenues to their cellular function! www.biorxiv.org/lookup/conte...

Happy to share a new preprint exploring the unusual biochemistry of a "weirdly" diverged cytochrome c in malaria parasites that exemplifies a lineage common to many apicomplexan parasites. @uofubiochem.bsky.social @uuhsresearch.bsky.social @uofutahcihd.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Finally, we’ve solved a long-standing mystery: what tintinnid shells are actually made of: A new class of biomaterial formed by remarkable structural proteins unique to tintinnids. A major milestone after 3 years of work! Read about it in our preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202... #ProtistsOnSky

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

New @jgp.org study from Lopez-Mateos, Narang, & @vyy-sf.bsky.social @ucd-physiology.bsky.social reveals potential of #DeepLearning methods to model multiple states of human voltage-gated sodium channels and their interactions with β-subunits and calmodulin. rupress.org/jgp/article/... #IonChannels

Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

very unusual - a tRNA regulated anion channel

Our latest paper on the molecular mechanisms of XPF-ERCC1 recruitment to SLX4-dependent DNA repair pathways has been published! Congratulations to first author Junjie Feng, and a heartfelt thank you to all our collaborators for their contributions to this study! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cryo-EM structures of plant Augmin reveal coiled-coil assembly, antiparallel dimerization, and NEDD1 binding pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41387433/ #cryoem

Love the caption of Fig. 3 in this impressive preprint: "A Goodsell-esque 3D orthogonal rendering of an IsoNet2-processed FIB-milled tomogram of C. reinhardtii" doi.org/10.64898/202... Since I am no expert, what does the cryoET community think of IsoNet? @cellarchlab.com doi.org/10.1038/s414...

This week in @science.org Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #cyanobacteria #plantscience

Happy to share our fun team-up with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @stearnslab.bsky.social to reveal the architecture of the mammalian centriole’s Distal Ring 🛟. Very cool multiscale integration of #UExM 📏🔬with #CryoET ❄️🔬. Congrats to @ebertiaux.bsky.social & @computingcaitie.bsky.social #TeamTomo 🧪

New online: Atomic models of the Toxoplasma cell invasion machinery

Two researchers at UC Davis have been awarded a VinFuture Prize in recognition of their work developing self-cloning crops, a breakthrough for sustainable agriculture. Read more: ucdav.is/4oJ41Hx

Had a great time interviewing Dr. Lilach Sheiner (@sheinerlab.bsky.social) for the latest edition of ISOP’s Protistology Newsletter. Check it out here! #ProtistsOnSky #Toxoplasma #Science

📝 Online now - the Review "Structural transport and inhibition mechanism of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier" from Edmund Kunji (@mrc-mbu.bsky.social) and co. #SLC54 #MPC #EnergyMetabolism #MembraneProteinStructure #StructureBasedDrugDesign Read it here 👉 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Our latest work : Statins are used to lower plasma cholesterol but often come with muscle-related side effects. Using cryo-EM, we show how multiple statin molecules cooperate to bind RyR1, a calcium release channel mainly found in skeletal muscle. nature.com/articles/s41...

Like a kangaroo, the dinoflagellate 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘶𝘴 has a pouch. The pouch is called a phaeosome chamber, which houses symbiotic cyanobacteria (the orange cells). These cells have a free-loading roommate: an archaeal parasite.

⚡ How conserved is respiratory complex I (CI) across #eukaryotes — and where does #evolution leave its mark? This review by @lettsscience.bsky.social compares CI across seven lineages, revealing variation in core subunits and lineage-specific accessory proteins. ➡️ doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.70181

Genome sequencing technology is introducing biologists to a world of quasi-life forms that they’ve never met before. @jakebuehler.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/a-cell-so-mi...

Discovery of rare #protist reveals previously unknown branch of eukaryotic tree of life phys.org/news/2025-11... Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Eukaryotes #TreeOfLife

Each such discovery is a game changer for our understanding of eukaryote evolution, and this paper is no exception. Meet Solarion, which displays yet again novel types of subcellular structures. Congrats to all authors on a fascinating story. #protistsonsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our latest T7SS study is now out in Science Advances! We solved the cryoEM structure of the T7SSb core unit (T7bCU) composed of YukB, YukC, and YukD from Bacillus subtilis, revealing how these components assemble within the secretion machinery. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Using an integrative phylogenomic approach, new research in Science reveals unprecedented phylogenomic support for sponges as the sister lineage to all other animals. Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/4r7SLqm

✨ A study in nature.com from our Faculty at @unikarlova.cuni.cz reveals Solarion arienae, a rare #protist forming a newly identified eukaryotic supersroup Disparia. A unique window into early #eukaryotic cell #evolution. 🌍🔬👏 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with Ahmet Yildiz's lab. Check out how our team uncovers a novel binding footprint and motor regulation mechanism for MAP9 Congrats to Burak Cetin and @aryantaheri.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#NewResearch A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated C. difficile infection in mice. #MicroSky 🦠💊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now in the journal issue! Molecular mechanism of activation of kainate receptor GluK2 in complex with auxiliary subunit Neto2. www.nature.com/articles/s41...