What better way to start the year then with a deep dive into multiplexed force spectroscopy? It was a lot of fun putting this together with @halvorsenlab.bsky.social. Hope you check it out!

For ~century, we’ve asked: why do proliferating cells ferment glucose even when O2 is around? I’m thrilled to share our latest work @natmetabolism.nature.com, led by @thebiokimist.bsky.social. By leveraging conditional essentiality in HPLM, we propose a provocative new answer to this classic Q. 🧵

Bacteria are amazing! The abundant Dps protein binds and protects DNA in stationary-phase cells with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics, and organization. Now in NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...; I'm really proud of our multidisciplinary team led by Lauren, Lindsay, and Xiaofeng, et al.

"RNAPII clusters reflect local accumulations of transcriptionally engaged polymerases and do not form through higher-order mechanisms such as phase separation" 😬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... by the @mirlab.bsky.social

Neat RNA papers www.nature.com/articles/s41... (polyamine regulation of splicing by direct binding to U2 snRNP proteins) and www.nature.com/articles/s41... (impact of N1-methyl pseudo U on translation)

Time's almost up! Submit your late-breaking abstract to the @asbmb.bsky.social #asbmb2026 annual meeting by January 15th for consideration! The program and science are going to be stellar! www.asbmb.org/annual-meeting

How does one protein do two jobs? Our new study shows how phosphorylation changes SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid from irreversibly compacting RNA (for packaging) to fast on/off binding (for replication). Part of a collaboration with the Musier-Forsyth lab at Ohio State. Link: doi.org/10.3390/v18010105

This is neat. I feel like there must be some way to exploit this for single molecule biophysics... Mechanism of Giant Magnetic Field Effect in a Red Fluorescent Protein | Journal of the American Chemical Society pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1...

👀 “Zipper” Grammar of CTD Governs the Spatial Programing of the Transcription Cycle of RNA Polymerase II www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Sierra's paper is out! Thanks to our collaborators @danglab.bsky.social & Melissa Jurica's lab! Also to the Evans Foundation for funding1 A Yeast-Based High-Throughput Screening Platform for the Discovery of Novel pre-mRNA Splicing Modulators | ACS Chemical Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

New preprint 👉Doudna x Bryant x Jacobsen x Savage collaboration! Work led by @zehanzhou.bsky.social, I. Saffarian-Deemyad, @honglue.bsky.social, T. Weiss We dissect how stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome editing, revealing how unwound DNA states enhance cleavage www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Physicist/chemist Katharine Burr Blodgett invented non-reflective glass in 1938. It revolutionized optics & led to the coatings used today in everything from eyeglasses to phone screens. First woman to earn a PhD in #physics from Cambridge, 1926. She was born #OTD in 1898. #WomenInSTEM #inventor

new paper from the Rahman lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Once again, RuPaul hit the nail on the head... www.intomore.com/impact/polit...

How can we move toward a quantitative, predictive framework for how RBPs bind and regulate their RNA partners? In a new preprint, we show that structural profiling via DMS-MaPseq can be used to measure fractional occupancies of RBPs at single-base resolution. #rnasky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This is neat paper. The abstract focuses on the Myb-like transcription factor (sigh...) but a putative RNA binding protein (Cip2) knockout is strictly unicellular. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am honored to be selected to give a talk at #ASBMB26 on the work I have done in the @benturklab.bsky.social! We have developed a strategy to selectively activate specific LKB1 substrates. Looking forward to presenting, connecting, and seeing great science at this conference! @asbmb.bsky.social

RFK Jr's phone begins to quack during the press briefing

Wow!!!!

New Biochem Soc Trans review: eIF3 as a modular, central regulator of translation. Authored by @nickide.bsky.social and Colin Echeverría Aitken, this review integrates genetic, biochemical, and structural perspectives and highlights open mechanistic questions. doi.org/10.1042/BST2...

Can't wait for this meeting! Lots of exciting, macromolecular science lined up!

Slightly overdue article highlight! In PNAS, we use smFRET to reveal how polypeptide release factor 2 (RF2) undergoes a cascade of structural changes to catalyze polypeptide release during translation termination and ArfA-mediated ribosome rescue. 🧵⬇️ doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Missed this from @daspliceisright.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Opportunity for scientists considering moving to Spain as tenured scientists! Happy to see openings in microbiology across the country (including at CNB which has incorporated fantastic micro eco/evo researchers lately) and functional & systems biology at IBFG www.ciencia.gob.es/en/Convocato...

Here’s a preview of some exciting events coming up at the 2026 ASBMB Annual Meeting! www.asbmb.org/annual... • Rapid Review: 5-minute manuscript feedback • Speaking Up, Making Change: science advocacy in action • Career & Education Fair: connect with academia, industry & more

There's still time to share your insights at #ASBMB26! Late-breaking abstract submission is open. Submit your abstract by Jan. 15 for the opportunity to present your research alongside other outstanding scientists who are driving research forward. www.asbmb.org/annual...

Following up on @lucksmith.bsky.social 's post from Casa Bonita. Guess what we saw over the holidays! IFYKYK...

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

A good end to 2025: rhodamine-binders for bioimaging in JACS: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

A New Year's Eve countdown, rendered in 3D! ➡️ Learn more about cutting-edge protein research at #ASBMB26: www.asbmb.org/annual-meeti.... 🎨 Structures from @rcsbpdb.bsky.social

Exollent! Congrats! #RNAExosome #RNA www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I had do this recently for a T32 RPPR for a grad student's paper in Cell Reports it is complete bullshit

Thanks @igorulitsky.bsky.social for doing a huge amount of reviewing!

"Results from experiments with N = 4 or less are shown to be highly misleading (...). For a cut-off of 2-fold expression differences, we find an N of 6-7 mice is required to consistently decrease the false positive rate to below 50%, and the detection sensitivity to above 50%"

New preprint! We found that the flavin-dependent halogenase RebH catalyzes sequence-tolerant Trp bromination in peptides 🧪https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.694899v1

Chromatin buffers torsional stress during transcription | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is a very interesting reaction catalyzed by a radical SAM enzyme on the ribosome (plus uses methyl cobalamin). Hypoxia-induced ribosomal RNA modifications in the peptidyl-transferase center contribute to anaerobic growth of bacteria: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Awesome to see Ye's work from my lab featured on the cover of @rnajournal.bsky.social 's January issue! It's an awesome story about 3' splice selection and how Prp8 and Prp22 may communicate with one another! The structure shown is @maxewilkinson.bsky.social 's P complex (9DTR)

As an Indiana native the choice of pie in @netflix.com Stranger Things Season 5 episode 3 had me over the moon (it is by far my favorite), but Erika's secret ingredient (one of them at least) made me ecstatic... Literally had that conversation over Thanksgiving.

This is my #1 favorite under-explored topic in cancer RNA research--how much do cancer cells rely on NMD? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This looks quite interesting. The vesicle angle is that U6 atac is unregulated in some cells, can be secreted, and then take up by other cells where it promotes minor intron splicing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper on my favorite deadenylase, TOE1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Be part of the conversation shaping the future at the 2026 ASBMB Annual Meeting! The late-breaking abstract deadline is Jan. 15. ✅Submit now to join an exciting program featuring the latest advances and trends in the molecular life sciences: www.asbmb.org/annual-meeti.... #ASBMB26 #MakeItPossible

Excited to share that this work is now published in its final form! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Reevaluation of whether histones are asymmetrically segregated during asymmetric divisions of stem cells in Drosophila | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New work describes our efforts to achieve CRISPR editing of the mitochondrial genome. www.biorxiv.org/lookup/conte...