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...

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

MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony. Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins. Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.

Just gonna put this here for now www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... bsky.app/profile/jlst...

Very cool structures, congrats to all! #microsky Link seemed broken though so here's a working one: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Design stable, folded proteins using only the 10 "ancient" amino acids. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How does the well tolerated anti-hyperglycemic drug #metformin inhibit mitochondrial complex I? In our new paper, we use structures, MD and kinetics to show that metformin inhibits by a distinct mechanism that more hydrophobic, less well tolerated, biguanides. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Getting Rosalind Franklin’s story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New work from Tahirov x Lim collaboration! @qixianghe.bsky.social from my lab contributed the cryo-EM structures for this work. We are excited to help explain how anti-HSV drugs work and to guide their future development. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @unmc.bsky.social @uwbiochem.bsky.social

How does the well tolerated anti-hyperglycemic drug #metformin inhibit mitochondrial complex I? In our new paper, we use structures, MD and kinetics to show that metformin inhibits by a distinct mechanism that more hydrophobic, less well tolerated, biguanides. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CryoSift is now out @actacrystf.iucr.org doi.org/10.1107/S205... Thanks to all involved. Happy processing!

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...

Excited to share our latest @nature.com: How does naloxone (Narcan) stop an opioid overdose? We determined the first GDP-bound μ-opioid receptor–G protein structures and found naloxone traps a novel "latent” state, preventing GDP release and G protein activation.💊🧪 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧬 Registration is open for the Phylogenomics Workshop in Český Krumlov! Fantastic training opportunity for anyone working with genomic data and evolutionary questions. Highly recommended - amazing course, great community, and a fantastic setting!

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

In @nature.com: Using AI and other cutting-edge techniques, the Klinge lab has captured the first near-continuous "molecular movie" of ribosome formation—revealing, frame by frame, how cells build the protein factories that make life possible. More here: https://bit.ly/3LbHTaF

Please RT. Post-doc opportunity alert! 💥 closing 10th December.. Come join our team (www.thelowlab.org) at Imperial, London, working on the structure and mechanism of bacterial secretion systems. For more details and to apply please see www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Nature research paper: Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites go.nature.com/47qdigV

Thrilled to see Leyre’s PhD work finally out! We reported the #cryoEM structures of an extracellular contractile injection system from P. luminescens in extended and contracted states, providing structural insight into its architecture and contraction mechanism 🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Chris Russo and Anastasiia Gusach have developed a new method to prepare #cryoEM samples that avoids protein damage during freezing Read more: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/a-new-method... #LMBResearch