My dear ribosome: you’ve betrayed us. #readinglist

Excited to share insights on Synthetic Mechanobiology! @currentbiology.bsky.social This field reframes force sensing as a design problem in which mechanical signaling is rewired to achieve useful outcomes & in which rewiring itself is a powerful investigative strategy. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Today I'd like to honor the memory of my mentor and friend, Roger Tsien, born 1952 February 1. Today would have been Roger's 74th birthday. Most know Roger for his 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize with Shimomura and Chalfie. Roger made GFP into the versatile imaging method it is now.

I'm excited to be hiring an intern to develop new fluorescence-based assays for alpha synuclein aggregation at Calico during summer 2026 😃 🔬 If you're a current PhD student who loves microscopy, unnatural amino acids, and/or synuclein biophysics, please apply! www.calicolabs.com/careers/?gh_...

Computrs usd a rstrictd alphabt to dsign protins that fold & “mak sns.”

@natbiomedeng.nature.com had a 🔥🔥 week this week! Why don't we have any followers on this site 😆😭

“Force”-ing this back into your feeds since I forgot to add the ReadCube link! rdcu.be/eKLv5

Pleased to share our review on “Synthetic Mechanotransduction” — now live at Nature Reviews Bioengineering. May the force be with you! www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Synthetic mechanotransduction

After a long journey and much hard work from many talented scientists, our paper is finally out. Take a look if you are interested in proteases and host microbe interactions in the gut. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Engineered bispecific Notch agonists “pull” on and mechanically activate Notch receptors in the presence of desired biomarkers www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited to share new work out today in @natchembio.nature.com on a new approach - FACES - for selectively imaging of phospholipids and other biomolecules at spatial resolutions down to individual membrane leaflets (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚀 Our new paper is out @natmethods.nature.com! Kuffer & Marzilli engineered conditionally stable MS2 & PP7 coat proteins (dMCP & dPCP) that degrade unless bound to RNA, enabling ultra–low-background, single-mRNA imaging in live cells. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬 www.addgene.org/John_Ngo/

Do what you love and love what you do, and if you can, leave the world a better, more open, and more understanding place.

My lab at BU is looking to hire a post-doc with experience in biophysics, protein engineering, and chemical (or synthetic) biology. The anticipated start date is Jan 2026. Please send a resume, cover letter, and names/emails for 3 references. We are looking to interview people during Sept/Oct 2025.

Please RT 🙏 If you’re an early career researcher working in the fields of structural or synthetic biology wishing to start your lab then come join us at Imperial. We’re looking to support outstanding individuals for external Career Development Awards/Fellowships. www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperi...

For those who can, and while you are in it, give science, knowledge, possibility, and hope your full effort. We’re counting on you. It’ll be worth it… trust me.

For those who can, and while you are in it, give science, knowledge, possibility, and hope your full effort. We’re counting on you. It’ll be worth it… trust me.

Everybody be you and keep going. Do your best. We are so proud of you!

This group photo from the 1999 Bioorganic GRC is everything… and more!

Greetings from the 2025 Bioorganic GRC, where this gem is on display in the meeting history books. So many familiar faces—who do you see? Check out right side row 3 for RYT. @michaelzlin.bsky.social

To my fellow young scientists---I have one key message to share with you right now: do what you love and love what you do. That is exactly science needs right now.

Quan Le engineered intracellular nanobodies that can be stabilized and activated by NS3 protease inhibitors. By inserting NS3 at key sites, he created drug-sensitive nanobodies targeting GFP, mCherry, ALFA tag, and the β2-adrenergic receptor. Check it out here:

Thank you for a great semester, BE 209!!

In partnership with @pubs.acs.org , #ACSBIOL is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Hammes Awards: Prof. Karen Allen of @bostonu.bsky.social and Dr. Jianjun Cao of @monashuniversity.bsky.social !

Honored to be the 2025 recipient of the ACS Synthetic Biology Young Innovator Award. Hope to see you in Houston for #SEED2025!

Check out this awesome handheld sarcomere, crafted by a BE209 student as a last-day-of-classes gift! #calcium

Makino, Tomishige et al. @utokyoofficial.bsky.social demonstrate that, when #kinesin-1 walks along #microtubules, the detached head cannot rebind to the rear binding site because of an intolerable increase in tension, thus ensuring forward stepping after ATP binding. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

CryoEM and motor proteins: such a hot combo right now!

To my fellow young scientists---I have one key message to share with you right now: do what you love and love what you do. That is exactly science needs right now.

Our #CellLineOfTheWeek is alpha tubulin - illuminating the microtubules! 🧫 Our high quality cell lines & plasmids are available for just the cost of shipping to reduce the barriers to scientific discovery. 📦 Distributed by @coriellinstitute.bsky.social and @addgene.bsky.social

How can an individual protein show adaptation? The light- and temp-sensitive BcLOV4 gives a pulse of translocation during a step input of light. Answer in our preprint: *intra-molecular* feed-forward regulation. bit.ly/3Rg9veD A @bugajlab.bsky.social collab with @nmrkaygee.bsky.social 🧵

Meanwhile, CryoEM continues to make strides: here, the swinging lever mechanism of the actinomysin power stroke is resolved in atomic- and time-resolved detail, via a myosin-5 mutant with slow hyrdolysis product release. Some very awesome single molecule biophysics! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

👇👇👇

Just putting some positivity out there: this week made me feel like maybe ‘Reviewer 2’ is not so bad. Here’s to you Reviewer 2 — you make us better! (but let’s not get crazy). Keep goin’ everybody… 🤓

Congrats to @jeremybaskin.bsky.social for receiving the ACS Chemical Biology young investigator award…plus organizing a fantastic session capped off with a tour de force talk on phosphatidic acid dynamics

This is quite impressive! Single vesicle sensitivity in synaptic glutamate release…

Just in time for the Boston Marathon & our BE209 lecture on signaling & glycogen storage! Today, we did action potentials: one of science’s most fantastic, impactful & amazing delineations! The human brain: a machine so powerful that it can invent AI, decipher its own existence, & cure disease!

It’s an honor to receive the ACS Chem Biol Young Investigator Award! I’m most grateful for the contributions from all past & present lab members — it is an award for all of you as much as for me. (& also grateful to still be considered young 😅) axial.acs.org/chemical-bio... @acsbiol.bsky.social 1/2

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 👩‍🎨

It’s our 5 year “learned about Zoom” anniversary, everybody!! We made it!!!! Keep goin’…

Excellent new review on Notch signaling by Sarah Bray and Anna Bigas: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really cool work from friend and colleague Katie Galloway @mitcheme.bsky.social!

🤯 This is amazing! Stabilized PINK1 proteins 'caught in the act,’ trapped mid-translocation, cloggin’ up those TOM complexes, and preserved on depolarized mitochondria in detail (3.1-Å resolution). Mutations of PINK1 can cause Parkinson’s Disease.

Protease-Containing Nanobodies for Detecting and Manipulating Intracellular Antigens Using Antiviral Drugs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.09.642226v1

Plasmids for our destabilized MCP (dMCP) & PCP (dPCP) coat proteins are now on @addgene.bsky.social here: www.addgene.org/browse/article/28252367/ These proteins are degraded by cells except when bound to their RNA hairpin targets (MS2 & PP7): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.21.624393v1

This paper identifies FAM171A2 as a facilitator of α-synuclein uptake in neurons (with a >1000-fold selectivity for fibrils over the monomeric protein). They also found that the drug bemcentinib can block FAM171A2/α-synuclein interactions in vitro, suggesting it could be used to treat Parkinson’s.

In transitioning from student to post-doc to junior to senior faculty, I learned a good lesson: figure out how to make the most of 10 mins. A few moments between meetings with a collaborator, mentor, or chair? Plan & prioritize what your ?s are. Seek key guiding & “make-it-or-break-it” principles.

Happy #FluorescenceFriday! Our #CellLineOfTheWeek is RPB1 - illuminating RNA polymerase II. Our cell lines & plasmids are available for just the cost of shipping to support discovery: www.allencell.org/cell-catalog... 📦 Distributed by @coriellinstitute.bsky.social & @addgene.bsky.social