#cryoet #teamtomo

In a series of 3 papers and preprints, we’re thrilled to share with you the working laser phase plate. In collaboration with research led by Holger Müller at UC Berkeley, this is a huge innovation in imaging to make small and faint objects inside cells visible. bit.ly/4vK9LVn

ps. Interested in alternative ways to use LM data? Check out preprints from: Vojta Pražák + colleagues: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Giulia Zanetti’s group: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Both show how LM tomos can guide HM acquisition when events of interest are hard to spot from search maps

Huge thanks to Michael Grange (@michaelgrange.bsky.social), Fabian Eisenstein (@eisfabian.bsky.social) , and Victoria Garcia-Giner — really grateful for all their help and support on this work!

Would love everyone to give it a go! Cryo-ET is already a great tool to study structures in context — interleaved multi-magnification acquisition captures even more of that context, without compromising throughput or STA resolution Excited to see what people do with BIGSMALL! (6/6)

BIGSMALL is now implemented in SPACEtomo. Setup is easy: - define low mag parameters with SerialEM Search preset - add LM + HM targets in the same beam-shift group - acquire! (5/6)

BIGSMALL interleaving means there are minimal downsides: ✔️ Maintains throughput (no added stage movements) ✔️ Preserves high-resolution data We reach 3.7 Å for the 𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪 50S subunit in both interleaved and conventional acquisitions. (4/6)

Cryo-ET isn’t just about high-resolution structures. Low-mag data lets you analyse cell biology across much larger spatial scales. We show this by mapping fenestrations in the RER across extended regions in 𝘊. 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴. (3/6)

BIGSMALL captures both high-resolution structures and large-scale cellular context at the same time, by acquiring high- and low-magnification images at every tilt in a tilt-series. This gives: 🟩 large FOV, low mag tomos 🟥 high res, high mag tomos from the same sample region (2/6)

Preprint 🧵! I’m really excited to introduce BIGSMALL, an interleaved multi-magnification cryo-ET scheme bridging molecular and cellular scales in a single acquisition! BIGSMALL = 𝐁road 𝐈nformation 𝐆athering 𝐒trategy by 𝐌ultiscale 𝐀cquisition of lame𝐋𝐋a www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/6)

CUNY and SUNY colleagues: ICYMI Please sign and share this letter to the NY Congressional Delegation asking them to protect NIH and NSF funding! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

MIT News reports on focused research organizations (FROs), non-profit startups, developed by some of our group members and alumni. FROs can work on problems that are a poor fit for academia or the for-profit startup world. news.mit.edu/2025/former-...

The amazing Sofia Lövestam initiated the below project, when she became interested in the vault particles that we sometimes observe in #cryoEM images of brain-derived #amyloid filaments. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This isn’t just numbers on a table–it’s my lab and the labs of my colleagues. Terminated grants mean shuttered projects, lost talent, and stalled progress against deadly pathogens. The damage to science–and to public health–is real and immediate. Thanks @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social for speaking out.

Back to @mblscience.bsky.social Woods Hole - teaching on the Pair Up Microscopy Course. Great experience and awesome participants. Wild - last time here I was a student (Physical Biology of the Cell Course in 2018). Now introducing my lab. Thanks Abhishek Kumar for organising and the invitation.

If people of means are interested in establishing a 2025 “Institute for Advanced Study” for displaced/defunded biomedical scientists, I know many people who will help, including myself. @mcuban.bsky.social @arcadiascience.com @arcinstitute.org

Just found out my two related NSF grants (on discovery of phages that target antibiotic resistance vectors and building synthetic systems to understand the biology of those vectors) were also caught in Harvard’s mass grant termination

Here’s another spectacle of New York spring entomology: Eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum) are among the most social lepidopterans. In May, you can find their silken tents, in which they aggregate (and defecate).

They have three daily feeding bouts, during which they exit the nest and move together to distant feeding sites. They mark their route with silk and trail pheromone. Successful “scouts” can even recruit the colony to new food sources. They’re kind of the ants among the butterflies. Woodstock, NY.

My lab at NYU is hiring a postdoc interested in RNA biology and local translation in neurons following axonal injury/neurodegenerative diseases!! Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/165681

Tomorrow at the Systems Virology Journal Club, @tamanash.bsky.social will present his beautiful work with @harmitmalik.bsky.social on optimizing temperature-dependent trade-off between protein production and processing in alphaviruses through stop codon selectivity pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40249804/

Groundbreaking study in Cell from @leventallab.bsky.social: phospholipid asymmetry is a defining feature of the plasma membrane and cholesterol fills the holes — major implications for how this membrane works. A #lipidtime must-read! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Rachael, thank you for this. We can all benefit from the example of your courage and wisdom in speaking out.

Structural insights into the coupling between VCP, an essential unfoldase, and a deubiquitinase. New study from Lauren Vostal, Tarun Kapoor and colleagues @rockefelleruniv.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/... #StructuralBiology #Biochemistry #ProteinHomeostasis #CryoEM

WE GOT THE COVER!!!

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 👩‍🎨

Congratulations to first authors @rufeili.bsky.social and @tshindmarsh.bsky.social !!!!

Here is the paper, worth a read for those interested in behavior, neuroscience, and mating competition: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Proud that one of my photographs has made the cover of Cell. (first 'official' photograph publication) Very happy to contribute the pic and highlight the latest publication of the Ruta lab.

In preparation for the lecture tomorrow, I opened "The Cell in Development and Heredity" by E.B. Wilson (Columbia Univ), and realized that this 3rd edition was published in 100 years ago. So many things happened since then, including the fact that I, a Japanese Prof in NY, own and read the book.

Fantastic #TeamTomo story on retrotransposon particles by @svenklumpe.bsky.social and friends. Take a look! 🧪🧶🧬

Retrotransposon-derived capsids in the Dros. ovary revealed by CryoET! Amazing PhD work by @svenklumpe.bsky.social (still MPI Biochemistry) in collab with @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social lab - congrats to all authors! Really looking forward to exciting times with Sven @viennabiocenter.bsky.social!

This has to be one of the coolest papers of the year: retrotransposon VLPs, visualized inside cells! #TeamTomo #CryoET

Congrats to our postdoc Jan-Hannes Schaefer @jhschaef.bsky.social on being awarded a fellowship from the Walter Benjamin Program! Jan is collaborating with the Kelly lab here at Scripps Research @scripps.edu to understand how transthyretin forms amyloids that lead to heart disease.

Good luck with your defense! We’re all worried about the near-term, but the long-term will favor those like yourself who want to do excellent science on important problems. You are the future of science, and we have to do everything we can to ensure that there are great opportunities for you.

Hey #chemsky and beyond, with all that is going on, I am curious what expensive, high margin molecules we could provide to the community for free. What things do you use all the time, cost way too much, and would make a difference? Alexa Fluor 488 NHS? Other dyes? Other molecule?

Beautiful story on HIV-1 Matrix maturation and seeing it out in complete story by my postdoc colleagues James and Dominik from the Briggs group @briggsgroup.bsky.social Congratulations to all!

we recently found some really neat RNA-guided DNA-cutting systems in phages. Despite remarkable similarities to CRISPR systems, including encoding guide RNAs in arrays, they appear entirely evolutionarily distinct (but definitely related to snoRNAs 🤓) We decided to call them TIGR-Tas systems 🐯

I created a brief spreadsheet of reductions I've heard of so far. Any additions you know of (especially if you have the links/receipts) would be great: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Bluetorial: The path to a new pain medication with little potential for addiction Perhaps a good story to share with folks who want to learn about how biomedical research works and where advances come from.

Thanks to everyone for coming out in solidarity today in New Haven despite the chilly temperatures. Props to the speakers for sharing their stories and experiences. Onward! @valeriejhorsley.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social #labor4highered

The Democratic staff of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is surveying the impact of the mass firings of federal employees from science agencies. democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings

We had a great @aaup.bsky.social HANDS OFF rally today in New Haven CT! Thx to coorganizer @luskinglab.bsky.social and all of our speakers! When we fight, we win!

Thanks. You folks are the primary things that keeps me motivated to fight as hard as I effing can. This system greatly enriched my life and my ability to contribute, and others deserve the same opportunities.

Good news! The website for the Yale Chapter of @aaup.bsky.social just dropped: aaupyale.org Just in time to help make a difference. ❤️‍🩹

Cultural revolution in the US. Elevation of ignorance and empowerment of the ignoramus. Large scale, capricious upheaval of core government functions. This is likely to lead to illness, hunger and poverty for many.

My heart goes out to all my NIH people. Unbelievable.

Excited see the final portion of my PhD work with Vanessa Ruta out today in @cellpress.bsky.social, in the midst of everything. In time for valentines day, @rufeili.bsky.social and I describe how competition between males sculpt mating decisions in 🪰🫶. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

So exciting! It makes me so happy to see a round of private funding toward preserving the magical place that MBL is!