A long-standing mystery in cholesterol biology: why is ER cholesterol sensing so switch-like rather than gradual? Our answer: cholesteryl ester phase separation in the ER membrane, which converts small lipid changes into a cooperative transcriptional response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ER cholesteryl ester phase separation underlies switch-like cholesterol sensing

Cellular lipid homeostasis requires mechanisms that detect subtle changes in lipid abundance and trigger rapid, coordinated responses. The INSIG/SCAP/SREBP2 pathway provides a central feedback system ...

biorxiv.org

My favourite conclusion to a #philosophy paper, by Bill Lycan:

Lipids build the membranes of all cells, but identifying their precise functions is extremely challenging. Here’s our attempt to change that: How to find and understand lipid-protein interactions, by Katelyn Cook & company. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

6 years of research: "The only trait that consistently predicted objections to remote work was narcissism—the tendency to be self-centered & entitled. The higher the opinions of themselves leaders expressed, the more they coveted power and status—& the more they favored return-to-office mandates."

What if learning structural biology felt more like playing a game? Meowtabolism aims to make the structural sciences more interactive, accessible & fun. If you have educational applications let Muyuan (or me) know. store.steampowered.com/app/4045010/... #CryoEM #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation

Edward T Eng@edwardteng.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Muyuan Chen has turned structural biology into an immersive experience with his new video game Meowtabolism, now available on Steam. Try the demo here: store.steampowered.com/app/4045010/... Give Muyuan feedback: steamcommunity.com/app/4045010 #ScienceGaming #StructuralBiology #CryoEM #STEMOutreach

I know it seems like a heretical idea, but one way to figure out if a preprint is really interesting (to you) is... to read the preprint. Then, in the spirit of sharing, send a note to authors: a simple kudos or a more detailed question. I do this a dozen times a year. It's awesome. Try it.

Its my turn to post the meme

This amazing work by @danialv.bsky.social and Bodan Hu is now out in peer-reviewed form at @cp-cell.bsky.social with a lot of new simulations! Check it out if interested in lipid transport!

Vanni Lab at UNIFR, Switzerland@labvanni.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Happy to finally share the amazing results of our long-term collaboration with Karin Reinisch’s lab on how bridge lipid-transfer proteins (BLTPs) cooperate with partner proteins to orchestrate lipid delivery. A quick thread (1/7) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

As part of @sfb1638.bsky.social in 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠, we are committed to developing computational tools that make complex membrane simulations more accessible, reproducible, and scalable for the scientific community. Today, we are happy to share the public release of 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 v1.2.1

Philosophy question: I need a memorable name for the following metric: how many propositions need to be known by individuals (crucially: including double counting propositions!) for a group to know something

The updated SNARE database from the Fasshauer lab is finally online! It contains about 19,000 SNARE sequences from nearly 1,200 species: tracey.unil.ch www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

TRACEY: an updated resource for SNARE protein domain annotation with improved HMMs and expanded sequence coverage

Motivation: SNARE proteins catalyse membrane fusion across the eukaryotic endomembrane system, from synaptic vesicle exocytosis to intracellular trafficking, endosomal and vacuolar transport, and auto...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share this paper from @yiechanglin.bsky.social showing how lipids can move between bacterial membranes along the bridge like protein TamB. Also happy to be able to post the cool movie. 🎥🌟 #MDsimulations #StructuralBiology doi.org/10.1016/j.bp...

🧪 Can we take caffeine out without killing the flavor? ☕ Decaf might be the perfect drink when we want to avoid a racing heart ❤️⚡, but decaffeination is far more sophisticated than it sounds. @chem.uzh.ch @michaljuricek.bsky.social @juriceklab.bsky.social #CoffeeScience #CaffeineFree

This 1952 memo from the Pentagon UFO files is superb There is no point preparing for aliens ‘because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.’ 🤣 www.war.gov/medialink/uf...

#membrane seminars are back this week with @javierespadas.bsky.social from the @rouxlab.bsky.social and Chris Burd from @yalecellbiology.bsky.social! Looking forward to seeing everyone online!

First 22 hours of zebrafish development. Credit to @zebrafish007.bsky.social at #WeinsteinLab. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

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)

One more Asgard archaeon! Meet Nerearchaeum marumarumayae from the microbial mats of Shark Bay, Australia. It interacts with #bacteria via intercellular nanotubes 🧬! #microbiology #archaea #eukaryotes #MicroSky #ArchaeaSky @currentbiology.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

😱 is this a new record ?? via @steveroyle.bsky.social

Excited to share our new paper! It was a really enjoyable collaboration with the Keating Lab. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... We asked a simple question: Do all crowded environments affect protein phase separation the same way? Short answer: no.

Residue‐level mapping of crowding effects on protein phase separation

Protein liquid–liquid phase separation has emerged as a key mechanism in cellular organization. While the crowded environment inside cells is expected to influence this process, how crowding shapes t...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Excited to share our new preprint on how membranes shape SNARE TMDs! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I've been leading a big project at Methods in Enzymology over the past year or so: editing three back-to-back-to-back volumes of articles describing the latest advances in methods for studying lipids and membranes — thank you to the 50 #lipidtime luminaries who contributed the 51 chapters! Details 👇

Now out! Methods for isotope labeling in mammalian cells for NMR studies of difficult-to-produce proteins onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Human cells for human proteins: Isotope labeling in mammalian cells in suspension for functional NMR studies

In biological and biomedical research, the focus progressively moves towards difficult human proteins, which often can only be expressed in higher eukaryotic cells. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) c...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Spirals are everywhere in nature!

Scientists have seen Asgard archaea crawling for the first time. When it comes to the origin of eukaryotes, this is like seeing a feathered dinosaur in the wild. (Video courtesy of Philipp Ralder)

As Fran was nice enough to highlight this, I thought I'd put up a brief thread. 3 in 10 proteins that our cells make are either embedded in membranes (ion channels, adhesion molecules, etc.) or secreted (insulin, antibodies). They move through the secretory pathway. 1/

Fran Bottanelli@franbottanelli.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Exciting preprint from the @merz.bsky.social lab proposing how fidelity of membrane fusion is achieved #membranes #trafficking

Still time to submit an abstract or save £50 on the full fees for this great Membrane Proteins Conference! Taking place 7–9 April 2026 in Birmingham, don’t miss the chance to listen to expert researchers discussing membrane proteins in diverse biological processes. #Proteins🧪 ow.ly/rhHJ50XNBLI

Let's try this #AcademicSky 1 fav, 1 funny, strange, or unexpected scientific anecdote about a paper, a scientist, a fact, hoping that some will be new to you.

Holy shit. Bin nur ich das oder ist das selbst für trumpsche Standards ein neuer Tiefpunkt absurden, zusammenhanglosen, faktenfreien Gebrabbels? #wef #trump

We've got ISSUES. Literally. We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do? arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 A 🧵 1/n