Strong candidate for paper of the year in my opinion 👀

Check out this awesome paper from @neugmonicaelena.bsky.social on a new family of nickel pincer enzymes! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

✨ New preprint from C-GEM: Altering the ribosome exit tunnel to improve consecutive incorporation of challenging monomers Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This paper is a fantastic collaboration between the Cate and Schepartz labs catalyzed by C-GEM. #NSFfunded

Archaea are the hornets of the microbial world. Discuss. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... TLDR: Archaeon kills bacterium with secreted phospholipase. Pretty nifty way to kill bacteria for a microbe with a very different lipid make-up, I reckon. No need to worry about accidentally killing yourself.

Happy to share a new review: Functional Inclusion of RNA Biology in the Tethered Extracellular Matrix We discuss the emerging interface of RNA biology and the ECM. The way biology solved protein-HS interactions is very similar to RNA-protein! wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This is the big one! So proud to have played a part on this team. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Enlicitide is an exciting potential molecule for cardiovascular disease, but if we were going to make it on a commercial scale, existing chemical techniques just weren't going to cut it.

I’m thrilled to share an update to our work on bacterial NACHT domain containing proteins! In our last preprint, we reported that bNACHT11 is activated by multiple phage proteins. We’ve now expanded this work with structural insight and investigation of programmed cell death following activation.

1/ Excited to share our new paper in Science @science.org: “Toward life with a 19-amino acid alphabet through generative artificial intelligence design.” A great collab w/ Sergey's group @sokrypton.org at MIT @columbiasysbio.bsky.social science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦠🧬🛠️🖥️💥

Our lab is proud to present our latest work harnessing Bridge Recombinase for genome-scale editing in diverse bacteria, microbiome editing, and programmable horizontal gene transfer.

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

Excited to share the first study from the Morstein Lab on a new approach that enables selective editing, tagging, and visualization of mammalian lipids www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... #chembio #lipidtime @caltech.edu @caltechcce.bsky.social @harayamajrlab.bsky.social @logan-tenney.bsky.social

The best thing since *before* sliced bread... VIPRs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very proud of this work and all the efforts from my team and collaborators on this! You can now use DGRs for in vivo targeted hypermutagenesis in E. coli. We also included some early proof of concept in Yeast thanks to @seth-shipman.bsky.social !

Excited to share our new findings in @science.org on how the DRT3 bacterial defense system uses a reverse transcriptase that builds DNA repeats without a nucleic acid template. Microbes never cease to amaze! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Finally published. Many thanks to a wonderful collaborative team and scientific platforms!!! And thanks to editors and reviewers for enthusiasm and a great review. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🔈Paper out! We turned the most fascinating phage host-switch mechanism, diversity-generating retroelements, into a programmable mutagenesis tool, DGRec. You can perform targeted hypermutation of any 50-200bp sequence directly in vivo in E. coli www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I feel like this paper just changed my brain chemistry. Absolute game changer and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

We are delighted that our article "Munc13-4–STX7 inhibitors impair endosomal TLR activation and systemic inflammation" is now published online in Nature Chemical Biology. Please see our discovery of ENDOtollins here: rdcu.be/fbU78

Munc13-4–STX7 inhibitors impair endosomal TLR activation and systemic inflammation @natchembio.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... @scripps.edu

Bacteria have been fighting off viruses using a huge arsenal of molecular weaponry that scientists did not know about — until now. Researchers have identified proteins that could lead to virus-fighting drugs and technologies. go.nature.com/4dqQnXI

Excited to see our work out in Science today! Using machine learning to identify prokaryotic immune systems www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now online! Arbitrium phages can manipulate each other’s lysis/lysogeny decisions

And if you have not been accepted, understand that this is a VERY weird time for grad admissions. Lack of acceptance may not be due to YOU, but due to uncontrollable factors at the university. Keep trying in the future.

CBASS is a cyclic nucleotide-based antiviral system in bacteria that is related to cGAS-STING signaling in animals. One of the big questions is how CBASS is activated during phage infection? We made some progress on this during my final year in the Kranzusch lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Out now! In collaboration with Leifu Chang, we uncover the molecular and structural underpinnings of CRISPR-Cas12f-like RNA-guided transcription systems! Links to the published articles: tinyurl.com/55kpavet tinyurl.com/sk6djwx3 Previous thread for the preprint: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Science update from my postdoc Peiyuan Chai - his work “glycoRNA complexed with heparan sulfate regulates VEGF-A signaling” is now published @nature.com uncovering a new layer or glycoRNA-regulation of growth factor mediated control physiological processes rdcu.be/e1bBX

New #glycotime discovery from @raflynn5.bsky.social’s lab @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvard.edu, cell surface glycoRNA-RBP complexes organized by heparan sulfate PG nanoclusters that modulate VEGF signaling www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dreams really do come true 🎊 I'm extremely excited to be joining the University of Vermont this fall as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Chemistry!

A research team has found multiple lineages of archaea that have fully repurposed the TAG stop codon to encode the noncanonical amino acid pyrrolysine. cen.acs.org/biological-c... #chemsky 🧪

Today, I'm grateful that Alanna Schepartz is visiting Tufts. Alanna's leadership of @cgemcci.bsky.social has led to impressive advances in genetic code expansion, including recently published work pushing encoding beyond alpha-amino acids. #ChemSky #ChemChat www.nature.com/articles/s41...

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Well it’s chemistry of course. The reason why organic chemists historically make p-tosylates rather than the simpler benzenesulfonates is that p-tosyl chloride is a cheap byproduct from saccharin synthesis. The ortho isomer is used for saccharin. #chemsky 🧪

>1700 examples???

Finally out in Nature Chem Bio: SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thank you Steffi and Veselin.

How do you turn a carbonyl into sulfur? In this work, Zining from our lab developed a carbonyl-to-sulfur swap enabled by a rationally designed N′-alkyl-hydrazonamide (NAHA) reagent that promotes double C-C bond activation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Seems a good time to post the “Top types of med chem papers” #ChemSky

Never am I more convinced that I angered an eldritch god in a past life than when I’m trying to pipette a sample in dmso-d6 into a 3mm NMR tube #chemsky

I was having a hard time describing how a plate of cultured cells didn’t look healthy to a new undergrad in the lab. He looked at them and said, “oh yeah, the vibes are off.” Thank god for Gen Z.

Check out our latest preprint describing two structures of ribosomes complexed with the two enantiomers of a β2-hydroxy acid. Our structures show that despite stereochemical differences, both are ultimately well positioned for bond formation within the ribosome! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Ah we love a classic case of “is this unstable, toxic, and generally annoying reagent *actually* necessary to get this rxn to work or is it just how the first guy did it and no one bothered to change it in the last 30 years??” :))) #chemsky

If you're interested in a break from the doom-and-gloom, may I recommend our article, online today @nature.com A solution to the pyrazole alkylation problem, leveraging S-to-NR atom replacement. Skeletal editing has strategic value, outside of late-stage! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📰 Great "First Reactions" by @aprillukowski.bsky.social featuring C-GEM's recent thioribose work! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Fluorochemical synthesis directly from PFAS is insane. Beautiful beautiful work from the Gouverneur group #chemsky (Strategies to bypass HF? Now chemistry to enable a circular fluoride economy? When do the conversations about Nobels tend to begin…) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Stuck waiting for crystals to assign absolute stereochem. Any secret magic conditions for very polar compounds that are somehow also surprisingly greasy?

Woahhhh Talk about a game changer from the Baran lab #chemsky

Share with US students who had their offers of admission withdrawn for PhD programs: Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.

After Standing Up for Science most of the day today, my eyes are telling me that it is time to lay down from Science for a bit. #StandUpForScience