Position available! Team @mito911.bsky.social needs a new scientific program manager to take over from legendary super-PM @doroteaartscience.bsky.social, who is moving on to bigger things. This is a Berkeley-based position. Apply at aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05103.

Finally in @nature.com 🎉 We uncovered step-wise mTORC1 activation on membrane: RAG–Ragulator recruits, RHEB pushes closer, and direct membrane contacts by RAPTOR + mTOR trigger full kinase activity.👉 The membrane is not just a platform — it’s part of the mechanism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RFK Jr. rolled out that old chestnut again about how healthy Americans were in the 60’s, so here’s a fact check. In 1965: -42% of American adults smoked; it’s 11% now. -The infant morality rate was 24.7/1000; it’s 5.6/1000 now. -Overall life expectancy was 70 years; it's about 77 years now.

📣 Don't miss out on the upcoming @mito911.bsky.social webinar featuring Katie Drerup, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin. 👇 Reserve your spot using the link below. 📅 September 8 ⏰ 11:00 AM EST RSVP: bit.ly/4mUJeAc

🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget! House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion. To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle. YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!

BREAKING: Big moment as CDC staff stage a mass walkout. They have lined the street outside its HQ to greet and salute the four top officials who have resigned in protest at RFK Jr’s attack on the agency’s science base. (🎥 AP)

BIG NEWS!! We will be hiring a new professor with 25 years of endowed funding at the @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch, focused on using biophysics and structural biology to explore climate-related fundamental science topics. Come start an innovative research cluster with us! 🧪🔬🧶🧬🌾🌍

Spread the word - we at @stanford-chemh.bsky.social are searching to fill a new junior faculty at the interface of molecular and computational science. See link below!

We're Hiring! Assistant Professor of Molecular Therapeutics in MCB. Learn more and apply online: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05098

So happy to see @doroteaartscience.bsky.social 's art on the cover!

New research reports the identification of a Mitophagic Stress Response ("MitoSR" - mmm, catchy!) activated by mitochondrial damage in neurons & operating in parallel to canonical Pink1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Animal cell biology per gpt5:

Want to share your work at the premiere meeting of the minds between basic membrane biology and therapeutics? Short talk deadline is coming up Oct. 8, 2025. www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

New Online! Lysosomal membrane homeostasis and its importance in physiology and disease

Director at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.

The National Institutes of Health’s budget, and structure, would be preserved under a Senate bill for the 2026 fiscal year.

Congratulations @kev-in-situ-et.bsky.social and the whole team on in situ cryo-ET images of OA-induced mitochondria damage and Parkin-dependent mitophagy out now tinyurl.com/25b82cp4. We couldn't have done it without in situ guru @wilflinglab.bsky.social and mito guru @samlewis.bsky.social .‬

First highlight... Senator Capito started of the discussion saying that the bill contains AN INCREASE for NIH. The details are not available, but the bill will be released ofter the hearing. This is not a done-deal, but it does show where the Senate is on a bipartisan basis.

Shout out to the WSJ journalists who reported on Vought’s impoundment by footnote, causing the White House to walk it back. Impact journalism!!

Aiee. We have also heard lots of rumors about this “multi-year funding” issue, and @baldwin.senate.gov, @drugmonkey.bsky.social, and @jeremymberg.bsky.social have all talked about it. This is very bad. “One weird budget trick” that will cut the number of grants this year in half! 🧪

Structural and cell biology NPG publication two-fer today: lysosome signaling structural biology tinyurl.com/mt3uc96k with @robzonculab.bsky.social and mitophagy initiation tinyurl.com/3rpjyfjt with @martenslab.bsky.social @lazaroulab.bsky.social and @hummerlab.bsky.social

And it's out! I'm thrilled to share our new paper (Adriaenssens et al., Nat Cell Biol 2025). This paper describes a new mechanism for the initiation of autophagosome biogenesis. We found that this WIPI-ATG13-driven pathway is preferentially used by a group of transmembrane autophagy receptors.

The ESCRT complexes are a fascinating membrane cutting machine with roles in countless cell pathways, but they are also ubiquitous in disease and offer new opportunities as drug targets. See our new review with Alyssa Coyne, Marta Miączyńska, and Harald Stenmark at tinyurl.com/yex3trem

We have a preprint for you EHD2 forms rings on caveolae necks, in contrast to most EHDs forming helices. We determined its structure on membranes and show that N-term acts as a spacer By Elena, Vasya @vasiliimikirtumov.bsky.social, Jeff &Oli Daumke www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

ICYMI: New online: Structure and activation of the human autophagy-initiating ULK1C:PI3KC3-C1 supercomplex

Fascinating.

Problem cryo-ET structure alert. A recent paper by Lange et al. in @natcellbio.nature.com (tinyurl.com/38s6a4dn) reported an unusual-looking model of the prohibitin complex in situ. We asked: how was this structure generated? Our reanalysis offers an explanation: tinyurl.com/mszdtwxx 🧵

Never been more proud to be at Berkeley: tinyurl.com/86dpm27d

As one who skips breakfast everyday, this is interesting: Intermittent fasting reduces alpha-synuclein pathology & functional decline in a mouse model of #Parkinsons Please speak to your clinician before making any changes to your treatment regime www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is what can be achieved today due to longstanding federal support of academic basic science alongside close partnership of universities, private industry and NIH intramural initiatives. An ecosystem worth not just saving but doubling down on! innovativegenomics.org/news/first-p...

mTORC1 is activated when cells are fed with amino acids. New preprint with @robzonculab.bsky.social led by Rachel Jansen shows how the massive "CastiGATOR" complex is formed when arginine-free CASTOR1 binds to the GATOR2 complex to antagonize mTORC1 starved cells. tinyurl.com/yr6en6f4

Super happy to share that our work on the specific inhibition of USP30 - a clinical stage Parkinson's drug target - is now online at NSMB www.nature.com/articles/s41... Have a read if you fancy chimeric protein engineering or a framework for DUB ligandability. Huge congratulations to Nafizul & team!

🚨New preprint!🚨 #teamtomo We expanded Surface Morphometrics to quantify membrane thickness from cryo-ET—revealing local variation across organelles. Led by the lab’s first grad student, @mmedina300kv.bsky.social (defending Monday! 🍾) w/ @attychang.bsky.social @hamid13r.bsky.social & @tomo.science

Check out the latest version of MemBrain, spearheaded by computation superstar @lorenzlamm.bsky.social ! It can segment, pick particles and give you metrics on everything!

"Our LPD-3 complex structural data reveal protein–lipid interactions that suggest a model for how the native LPD-3 complex mediates bulk lipid transport and provides a foundation for mechanistic studies of bridge-like lipid transport proteins (BLTPs)." 🤯🤯😍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AKAP11 recruits PKA holoenzymes to #autophagosomes in a bidirectional functional association, both promoting downstream PKA signaling and increasing AKAP11-PKA complex degradation @robzonculab.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

I'm thrilled to share that our story is now out in Science Advances! 🎉 We use quantitative imaging to map the mito central dogma, define translation hubs in the mitochondrial matrix, and show that they're replaced by Mitochondrial Stress Bodies (MSB) when mtRNA processing is perturbed 1/4

Harvard redid its whole homepage to push back against the administration’s demands. I mean, this is just a website but I think it’s kind of a great PR move: www.harvard.edu

Our lab at the NIH (Bethesda, MD) is looking for postdoctoral fellows to join our team studying the molecular mechanisms of protein trafficking and their links to neurodevelopmental disorders starting on or after 10-1-2025. Send your application to [email protected]. Please share and repost!

New preprint on 3D heterochromatin architecture in human cells! Great collab with @sergiocruzleon.bsky.social & @johannesbetz.bsky.social from @hummerlab.bsky.social, @marinalusic.bsky.social & the Turoňová lab. Many thanks to my supervisor @becklab.bsky.social. bioRxiv: tinyurl.com/3a74uanv 🧵👇

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.” A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world. www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

The NINDS scientists fired in the RIF are back at work - for now - after a "coding error" led to their accidental termination. HHS blames "broken systems left to us by the Biden administration." My story @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

This is sad, Richard has done so much for science and spent his entire career at the NIH

NEW: The doctor behind breakthrough Parkinson’s research was among the scientists purged from the National Institutes of Health, the US’s leading medical research agency. www.wired.com/story/doctor...

People/organizations with means and a vision for the future of biomedical science - we need an “Arc Institute” equivalent in the DMV area to sponge up all the incredible talent, opportunity of a lifetime for a visionary entrepreneur, I will help! @mcuban.bsky.social

SO excited to share that a major part of the postdoctoral work in @robzonculab.bsky.social lab is now published: “Leucine aminopeptidase LyLAP enables lysosomal degradation of membrane proteins” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Exclusive: An ambitious California Democrat wants the state to create its own National Institutes of Health and vaccine program, saying California can’t rely on the Trump administration to support research and science.

Submit your abstracts/scholarship applications by 3/27 (11:59pm MST) to present at the Autophagosomes and Endolysosomes meeting. Join Christina Towers & other leading experts! Dive in: keysym.us/KSAutophagy25. #KSAutophagy25 #autophagosome #endolysosomes youtu.be/zTfeKZSGF9Y @bealelab.bsky.social

New preprint alert! In this study, we show that ATG2A engages Rab1 membranes, which are essential to autophagy. These membranes are recruited to the PAS at an early stage during autophagosome biogenesis. Tutorial to come! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...