Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! I'm grateful to work with so many amazing people, and to be able to do my part to support a more inclusive scientific community.

I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to present my group's work next to the big "biophysics" sign on the main stage at #nwobiophysics (I'm also very happy that I didn't fall down the stairs)

Great to have @thedneva.bsky.social here in Groningen presenting at the GBB symposium! Can't wait to see all that you can do with DNA origami!

Another academic year, another NWO Physics of Life newsletter! Check it out 👇 nwobiophysics.nl/newsletters > Interview with former chair Kristina Ganzinger (AMOLF) and our new chair Kristin Grußmayer @tudelfttnw.bsky.social > Biosketch by Lisa Tran @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social > and more..

Registration for NWO Biophysics 2025 is open! Sign up for the annual Dutch conference on physics of life. 📢 Submit your abstract for an oral or poster prsentation before 28 May, 4 Sept respectively. 🆕 Sign up for a demo! 📍 NH Koningshof, Veldhoven 📆 6, 7 Oct ✉️ nwobiophysics.nl/registration...

It is here! #BiophysicsWeek of the @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social has started, with activities and events both online and IRL. More info: www.biophysics.org/biophysics-w... …. and thanks to @biophysk.bsky.social this includes an event in Groningen on Friday: www.ktsinglemolecule.com/biophysicsday

Out now! Our latest paper where we show a "one-pot" labelling technique which allows for simultaneous mechanical and fluorescent readouts from a protein (Hsp90): onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Congratulations to everyone who worked on this, especially Laura!

One‐pot dual protein labeling for simultaneous mechanical and fluorescent readouts in optical tweezers

Optical tweezers are widely used in the study of biological macromolecules but are limited by their one-directional probing capability, potentially missing critical conformational changes. Combining ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Huge congratulations to Laura for being the first PhD student to graduate from the KT lab! Laura did amazingly well both during her PhD (on Hsp90, of course) and in defending it. Big thanks to our examination and assessment committees and the chair of the session! 🧪

Proud to announce Yulia's paper in Nano Letters. We were planning to measure enzyme diffusion rates under different conditions using label-free single-molecule methods, and accidentally uncovered an interesting effect: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... 🧪

Impact of Ligand-Induced Oligomer Dissociation on Enzyme Diffusion, Directly Observed at the Single-Molecule Level

The existence of the phenomenon of enhanced enzyme diffusion (EED) has been a topic of debate in recent literature. One proposed mechanism to explain the origin of EED is oligomeric enzyme dissociation. We used mass photometry (MP), a label-free single-molecule technique, to investigate the dependence of the oligomeric states of several enzymes on their ligands. The studied enzymes of interest are catalase, aldolase, alkaline phosphatase, and vanillyl-alcohol oxidase (VAO). We compared the ratios of oligomeric states in the presence and absence of the substrate as well as different substrate and inhibitor concentrations. Catalase and aldolase were found to dissociate into smaller oligomers in the presence of their substrates, independently of inhibition, while for alkaline phosphatase and VAO, different behaviors were observed. Thus, we have identified a possible mechanism which explains the previously observed diffusion enhancement in vitro. This enhancement may occur due to the dissociation of oligomers through ligand binding.

pubs.acs.org

How many times have we had similar conversations but not gone through with systematically collecting the data and writing the manuscript? Full of admiration for this team for getting it done, instead of just collapsing in a food coma after (eating) the first 2 datapoints.

Giacomo Bartolucci (he)@gbart.bsky.social · 2y ago

1/n Some time ago my colleague, excellent cook, and friend Ivan told me: "Cacio e pepe is the recipe that I screw up more often. Let's make a project studying systematically the physics of that sauce". Prepare to get cheesy, I'm glad to share the Cacio e paper preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536

What a way to start 2025! Our review on the Known Unknowns of the Hsp90 Chaperone has been published! Huge thanks to Laura Silbermann and Benjamin Vermeer for all of their efforts, and to @scisonja.bsky.social for the great collaboration :) You can read it here: elifesciences.org/articles/102...

The known unknowns of the Hsp90 chaperone

An exploration of the unanswered questions in how the molecular chaperone Hsp90 supports protein homeostasis, and how single-molecule techniques could drive future breakthroughs in answering them.

elifesciences.org

What a great joy to meet up with the PROGENIE group to discuss the future of #proteostasis and all the topics of new and not-anymore-so-new PIs. Join us next time if you are a new PI in Europe working on proteostasis, 👉https://molsysmed.de/project/proteostasis-group-of-european-new-investigators

Calling all #SciComm people who specialise in scientific animations. I would like to talk to someone about making some animations to communicate our research in single-molecule biophysics. Please message me if you are interested and share with your networks! 🧪

📢Looking for an exciting #PhD? Interested in #AntibioticResistance? 🦠🧫🧪 Anatomy of a genome segregation machine at the biology-physics interface🧬 DiMeN project open to applicants worldwide with me, Steve Quinn & @seanmeaden.bsky.social at the University of York PR 🙏 findaphd.com/phds/project/m…

Really excited to announce my group's latest pre-print on enzyme diffusion studied using mass photometry: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Great work from Yulia from the KT lab with Saniye from the Fraaije lab!

As early-career scientists, it's hard not to attach our self-worth to the success of our experiments. @biophysk.bsky.social, now the PI of the Single Molecule Biophysics Laboratory at @unigroningen.bsky.social, talks about difficulties with her PhD project and what we can learn from our failures.🧪

Analyzing Phantom Spectra

Katarzyna Tych wants to normalize failure as part of the scientific process.

the-scientist.com

Finally, a possible scientific explanation for why I'm so bad at catching.

Kevin Mitchell@wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 3y ago

People’s ‘speed of sight’ varies and this may explain sporting prowess www.newscientist.com/article/2409... - nice write-up of our recent study (though the sporting prowess bit is just a hypothesis, for now)